A Trip to Greece through Rudozem-Xanthi
The Rhodopi Mountains are an amazing place where you can have your craved peace and quiet from the everyday noise. The nature here is wonderful, the weather usually mild, and even the summer heat is not as harsh. Another quite unique thing, however, is the fact that the mountain has its Greek part as well!
For quite some time the Bulgarian and Greek governments have been working together to create more places where you can cross easily between the two countries. Right now there are 6 official border crossing points, but by the end of 2019 it is expected that Rudozem-Xanthi becomes the seventh one on the list.
This is great for several reasons. Firstly, this is another way for people to go to Greece, which will reduce the traffic along the other crossing points. Secondly, the location of Rudozem is excellent and this crossing point can give us an easy access to a great part of the Greek Rhodopi Mountains. And thirdly, this creates the possibility to have an awesome route, which can be a part of a trip or a vacation in and of itself.
Even though the road and the border crossing itself are expected to be done by the end of 2019, we decided to give you an idea for a possible trip to Greece, as well as several interesting places, which you can visit along the way. This trip can easily be started from Borovo village and our Kalina guest house.
Along The Way to Rudozem
It is best to start right from the early morning, after a night spent in Borovo, for example. From the village we recommend that you take the road towards the town of Laki. The road (Route 861) is nice and the climb is smooth. The nice thing about it is that you can get to the National Observatory of Rozhen, which is an interesting place and even in the early morning offers quite a few nice views.
Once you get to Rozhen itself, you should take the main route 86, which meanders for a while, but is extremely beautiful and has many evergreen trees around. It is best if you stick to the main road, but there are several detours, which offer interesting sights, such as the St. St. Constantine and Helena temple.
The road continues along the White river, but when you reach the Ustovo neighborhood of the city of Smolyan, you would have to decide whether to keep going on route 86 or to take a turn towards route 868, which leads straight to Rudozem. By taking the latter route you can have another short detour to visit mount Srednogoretz, also known as the Little Shipka. Shortly afterwards you will be in Rudozem itself.
Now To Greece!
In Rudozem you can retake route 86 (if you have left it), which should have the border crossing on its end by 2019. It will connect Bulgaria to the area of Xanthi, which offers plenty of places for rest and walks. Depending on the time you have, we recommend that you shoot straight for the town of Xanthi and go for a short sightseeing trip there. The town is not very big, but there are a couple of interesting places to see.
The nice thing about Xanthi is its location. The town is essentially a crossroad, from which you can go wherever you like. Here we have two recommendations. The first one is to go for Kavala and take a look at the sights there. The city indeed has many things to offer and has plenty of great places for tourists to visit.
Our second suggestion is to go in the opposite direction towards the delta of the Nestos rivar, where the area is also a national park. There you can see the Burugyol lake as well. Aftewards you can continue towards the village of Fanari, where you can hit the beach for a short while. It is a nice quiet place where you can easily rest.
With this trip you will go through quite the chunk of Greece and you can get back home late at night, so that you take a proper rest!