North Macedonia. I've only ever read it in the bible actually and I didn't know that it still existed before booking the tour.
We crossed borders from Greece and North Macedonia and found our way to Ohrid which is the largest city in Lake Ohrid. Our guide said it once had 365 churches--one for each day of the year. We saw some including the iconic Church of St. John Kaneo which stands by the beautiful lake.
Flights
Manila-Amsterdam and back is via KLM.
Booked round-trip on Transavia (a budget airline, subsidiary of KLM) from Amsterdam to Athens vv. Kinda expensive cos it was summer but I used a part of my miles so it was okay. :)
The Tour
Booked with Expat Explore. Search for the 16-day Balkan Explorer.
I've always traveled on DIY itineraries before and this is the first time I joined a group tour. I've solo traveled in Western and Central Europe but I wasn't quite comfortable on doing a Balkan tour on my own so I booked this trip.
What I liked about this tour
It's hassle-free. I booked online and paid online--on installments--which was really convenient for my budgeting.
Expat Explore has a very responsive customer service who helped me on guidelines with my Schengen visa. No, they don't process visas but when I wanted to double-check if I can enter certain countries using mine (specifically Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia), they were very helpful to confirm from their end. I also did check of course with our local embassies (who are also very responsive) via email.
So in the end, if you're a Filipino doing the Balkan Explorer and you have a valid Schengen Visa, Type C, Multiple Entry--you're good!
It has some meals included. One of the hardest questions every day is "What do you want to eat?" This helped haha.
The accommodations are decent. Yes, the Balkans is still in Europe but notch it down. Like a lot down from your very modern city hotels (even the 3-star). The Balkans is very laid back and so are their accommodations. :)
*****
*****
