5 days / 4 nights Depart date: Price 366 €

"FESTIVAL OF ROSES" program invites you to take part in this traditional Bulgarian celebration of the famous oleaginous rose bloom in the Valley of Roses. Every year in early June the valley of Roses comes alive with the atmosphere of an old custom-Festival of Roses. At dawn rose-pickers dressed in colorful national costumes, adorn themselves with the first rose blossoms.
Folklore song dances, a Rose parade and a carnival involve the folks and the visitors.
Festival of Roses is a unique part of real Bulgaria.We believe our program can help you to enrich the image of Bulgarians and their traditions. The program also is an opportunity to have two days time of leisure and enjoyment.
In the 2006 year, Festival is going to be held on 3-5 June.

Sofia - Koprivshtitsa - Valey of Roses – Sofia

Day 1:
Arrival in Sofia. Meeting at the Airport. Transfer to a 4-star hotel in Sofia. Dinner. Overnight.

Day 2:
Breakfast. Sightseeing tour of Sofia, featuring the "Alexander Nevski" golden-domed Cathedral, The precious icon collection in its Crypt, the 4th century St.George Rotunda, the St.Sofia Church, the Boyana church, the Royal Palace, the Museum of the National History. Dinner. Option – Typical Bulgarian Night in a typical restaurant. Overnight.

Day 3:
Breakfast. Departure for Koprivshtitsa. Sightseeing tour. Departure for Kazanlak.Accommodation in 3 star hotel. Visit to the Thracian Cupola Tomb in Kazanluk from the 4th century. The Tomb is included in the UNESCO List of World Cultural Heritage. The Tomb itself is not large - a square antechamber, narrow passage and tomb vault, but it inspires the flight of imagination with the beautiful frieze of plant ornaments, and the figures of people and horses on the walls. Dinner with folklore program. Overnight.


Day 4:
Breakfast. Participation in the program of the Festival as follows: Rose-picking ritual in the rose fields, Rose-boiling ritual, participation in carnival procession. Lunch with folklore. Return in Sofia. Accommodation in 4-star hotel. Dinner.

Day 5:
Breakfast.Transfer to Sofia Airport.

Famous Bulgarian Rose Oil

From the huge variety of over 2,000 types and 7,000 varieties of roses only a few are known as oil-producing and the best of them all is the Bulgarian KAZANLUK ROSE, most famous as ROSA DAMASCENA and which has been cultivated for over 300 years in the VALLEY OF ROSES in Bulgaria, Thanks to the exclusively favourable climatic and soil conditions and the creative genius of the Bulgarian people, the rose carried over as a semi-wild bush from Persia, found its true place in the valleys, hugged between the Balkan mountain and Sredna Gora mountain in this valley, called later The Rose Valley.
The Kazanluk rose was cultivated as an independent botanical type and became the best oil-bearing rose renowned worldwide. From this flower comes the famous Bulgarian Rose Oil. It is extracted from the rose flowers picked early in the morning when fresh blossoming and before the dew drops have evaporated under the sunlight.
The original distillation technology, allowing preservation of all oil components, has been developed and improved as the centuries went on.
The Bulgarian Rose Oil comprises of more than 275 macro- and micro-components, much of them more than in other Rose oils, including even the Kazanluk Rose cultivated in other countries - Turkey, Ukraine and Georgia. Its unique and optimal combination, the unique soil and climatic conditions are stimulating for the rich, saturated and unique aroma, which has become synonymous with the ‘ROSE’ concept.
The Bulgarian Rose Oil aroma is warm, blossoming, saturated with a slightly burning and honey taste, fragrant and gentle. It possesses obvious fixing and exciting properties. This is the reason all of the experts in perfumery and cosmetics unanimously confirm that there could be produced no modern and quality perfume in the world without Bulgarian Rose Oil.
Without this oil no perfume could achieve enough of a fragrance, strength, durability and gentleness. The famous French perfume manufacturer Mr. Billot marked that the perfume making properties of Bulgarian Rose Oil are not a myth, but an unquestionable practice and the aroma and usage of this oil in the perfumery is not an enthusiasm of fashion at all, but classic.
Bulgarian Rose Oil is famous not only for its wide application in perfumery and cosmetics, along with its aroma properties it is a valuable natural drug agent possessing bacteriastathic, antihystological, gall curative, antispasmodic, relaxing etc… effects. Its implementation in medicine has a millennial history.