Tour Details

Dates:24th of Jun - 1st of Jul 2025
Availability:2Guaranteed departure
Group Size:Minimum 4, maximum 12 guests
Grading:Easy day walks
PricesFull price: £1,475.00 / person Single room supplement: £175.00 / person Deposit: £150.00 / person
Price includes: Accommodation, all meals, ground transportation, services of your guides, and a holiday report.
Not included: International travel, drinks and other personal items, holiday insurance.

Tour Highlights

  • Our main target is False Comma – one of the most beautiful and rare butterflies in Europe
  • Numerous other desirable and localised summer butterflies are possible, including Balkan Copper, Freyer's and Bog Fritillaries, Eastern Large and Russian Heath, Bulgarian Ringlet, Yellow-banded and Spinose Skippers, Poplar Admiral, Violet Copper, Blue Argus, Hungarian Glider, and Clouded Apollo
  • Explore one of the most unspoilt and underwatched corners of Europe. Largely a stranger to intensive agriculture, Serbia is like stepping back in butterfly time to an era of biodiversity we're fast losing touch with elsewhere
  • A multi centre tour, to maximise our exposure to the habitats and wonderful butterflies of this diverse region
  • Donations will be made to Butterfly Conservation Europe, and the European Butterflies Group, supporting proactive research and conservation

Tour Description

Serbia still has some amazing butterfly habitats! The country has not yet joined the European Union, and hence still has much traditional land use and less intensive agriculture than elsewhere in Europe. Moreover, the country has a very impressive list of butterflies, and this tour is a relaxing and enjoyable visit concentrating on the south-eastern corner of Serbia. Our primary target will be the False Comma, a distinctly rare butterfly in Europe. The Serbian parts of the Balkan Mountains represent the very best chance for anybody who wishes to connect with this beautiful species, and our exclusive tour is designed to give the best possible chance of finding this enigmatic butterfly.

After the breakup of Yugoslavia during the turbulent conflict of the early 1990s, Serbia eventually declared independence on the 5th of June 2006, marking the final dissolution of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, and the re-emergence of Serbia as an independent state for the first time since 1918. The Balkans has a long and complex history, and no doubt we will learn more about this during our visit.

The last week of June is also a great time for many other butterflies besides False Comma, and we have a good chance to find Balkan Copper, Amanda’s and Turquoise Blues, Freyer's and Bog Fritillaries, Eastern Large and Russian Heath, Bulgarian and Almond-eyed Ringlets, Yellow-banded Skipper and if we are lucky, we could even come across Poplar Admiral, Violet Copper, Blue Argus or Spinose Skipper.

The biodiversity of this area of Serbia is amazing and, if the weather conditions are favourable, we could see up to 50-60 species on a single day.

As usual there will be plenty of further interesting wildlife all around us, with beautiful orchids and lilies amongst myriad other wildflowers, as well as birds like Short-toed Eagle, Corncrake, Syrian Woodpecker and lots of lovely Red-backed Shrikes!

Our popular tour leader Paul Selby will be joined by an experienced local guide for the duration of this exclusive tour

Tour Leaders

Paul’s been passionate about nature and the environment all his life. In his early teenage years, this began with birdlife, learning most UK bird songs, helping him to identify the last ever breeding Turtle Doves in his home county, Cheshire.

ButterflyFind Out More

Tour Location

Map

Tour Itinerary

  • DAY 1

    Meet at Belgrade Airport*, and transfer to Babin Zub in the Balkan Mountains

    If the flights and the traffic allow, we will break the journey with some butterfly watching on the way, at a site where we could see Glanville and Twin-spot Fritillaries, Large and Purple-shot Copper, and Amanda's Blue. Night in Babin Zub.
  • DAY 2
    Babin Zub area
    We will have a full day to explore the higher parts of the Babin Zub area. Our primary target today will be Violet Copper and Bog Fritillary but there is long list of goodies possible like Eastern Large and Russian Heath as well as Bulgarian Ringlet. We will also check known sites for False Comma, bearing in mind that, as usual in the mountains if weather conditions are not suitable in the higher parts, we have the flexibility to descend to lower elevations to look in other areas and for other species. Night in Babin Zub.
  • DAY 3
    Transfer to Dimitrovgrad
    Today we will make our way towards Dimitrovgrad and check some drier gorges in the afternoon. Visiting this area will give us a list of different butterflies and we will be on the lookout for the rare Spinose Skipper which has been found at a number of sites around here. Night near Dimitrovgrad.
  • DAY 4
    Stara Planina
    We will have a full day to explore various sites in Stara Planina near the Bulgarian border. Our targets apart from the rare Spinose Skipper will include Freyer's Fritillary, Large Blue, Yellow-banded Skipper, Delattin's Grayling and if we are very lucky even Blue Argus. The latter is a generally scarce species, but we have a few sites where we can look for them! Night near Dimitrovgrad.
  • DAY 5
    Transfer to Babin Zub
    After breakfast we drive back towards Babin Zub and will have a few more stops along the way at some butterfly hotspots. We shall arrive back by the afternoon and concentrate on searching for our main target False Comma. Night in Babin Zub.
  • DAY 6
    Babin Zub area
    Another full day at this remarkable location where we will explore various elevations and where we can expect to see up to 60 species in a day if weather conditions are favourable. Our targets will include Poplar Admiral, Geranium Argus, Yellow-banded Skipper, False Heath Fritillary, Almond-eyed Ringlet, Clouded Apollo, Cardinal and of course False Comma! Night in Babin Zub.
  • DAY 7
    Babin Zub area
    Most of the day will be spent in the Babin Zub area and gradually making our way down from the mountains and back towards Belgrade. This is our last chance to pick up some new butterflies and further opportunities for time with False Comma. Night near Jagodina.
  • DAY 8
    Depart Jagodina and transfer to Belgrade Airport

    As with all of our tours, we want our guests to enjoy the very best views of the very best wildlife and, as such, we think it’s important to retain a little flexibility in the holiday itinerary. This means that we may choose to swap days around to take into account local weather conditions, or the timing of the flight or flowering season we find upon arrival at our holiday destination. Rest assured, we will ensure you visit all the best sites, and we have your best interests and comfort at heart!

    *We’ll meet at the airport as this is a convenient travel hub for many. However, we appreciate that some guests may have chosen to come overland via rail to Belgrade. The main railway station in town is Belgrade Centre, colloquially known as Prokop, and there is a frequent bus service linking it with the airport.

    https://beg.aero/eng/parking_access/transport/public_transportation
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