Melnik is a very small town in SouthEastern Bulgaria. It is famous with its sandy pyramids, the locally produced young wine and the typical authentic atmosphere with the local houses architecture. We'll start from Sofia and it will take us 2 1/2 hours driving along an interesting and changing landscape finally reaching Melnik. After our sightseeing time we will take a short 20-minute drive to Rozhen monastery and on the way we can take some beautiful photos of the scenery with the conically shaped sandstone rocks.

Kordopulova house is a private museum and it dates from the mid-seventeenth century, being the biggest one from this historical period. The house is impressive for its summer and miniature winter gardens. with the seven staircases, the very welcoming cellar and particularly with its more than 300 meters of underground cellar tunnels, where they still keep the barrels with their newly produced wine!

Rozhen monastery dates from the 13th century and certainly its location has contributed a lot for the monastery having gone through a lot of historical events. We will be coming from Melnik after driving for about 20 minutes and eventually a great open view will show us the beauty of mountain Pirin with its peaks and the close by tall sandy pyramids! The monastery is active and the church keeps a rich collection of murals dated 17th century from which we can admire both for their quality and richness in expression! At the foot of the monastery there is a very suitable stop if you'd like to have some local meals for your lunch break before we hit the road to Rila monastery!

Rila monastery has been for centuries the driving power for people to visit this area and even to make them decide to visit Bulgaria! Not only is the monastery impressive for its location, size and history, but it was also recognized by UNESCO for World heritage with the amazingly colorful mural that tells us the stories from the Old and the New testaments! After having driven for 2 hours from Rozhen monastery we will have a tour to introduce to you the history of the monastery with some interesting and curious facts. You will have some nice time to yourself to just relax or to further explore the monasterial museums, take some photos, etc. After our visit we are going to drive back for about 1 hour and 45 minutes to Sofia.