Polako Travel  •  About us
polako
/ pɔˈlaː.kɔ /
Serbo-Croatian  •  Bosnian  •  Macedonian
adverb & exclamation
  1. 1. slowly, calmly, without hurry – “Idi polako.” (Go slowly.)
  2. 2. (as an exclamation) easy does it, take it slow – an invitation to slow down and enjoy the moment

We travel the Balkans at the pace of the word that gave us our name: slowly enough to see what everyone else misses.

Our mission

The Balkans as they really are, not as they look on Instagram

The Balkans are one of the most varied and most overlooked regions in Europe. Twelve countries, dozens of languages, centuries of history, and still most guidebooks sum the whole thing up in two pages.

Polako Travel exists to change that. We don’t make things for the algorithm. We make them for the traveller who doesn’t just want to go somewhere, but wants to understand where they are going. The feel of a bar on a weekday evening in Belgrade. The road that is on no map but has the best view of all. The derby that says more about a city than any museum ever could.

Polako, but with an eye for the right detail.

“ The Balkans are not a destination. They are an addiction.
What we do

Three ways to experience the Balkans

Cities
Cities that get under your skin

From the buzzing bulevar of Belgrade to the Ottoman bazaars of Sarajevo. No top-10 lists, but the real thing: the neighbourhood you have to see, the bar you will not find on Google and the quarter nobody had heard of five years ago.

Roads
Routes you will not find anywhere else

The Balkans are at their best between the cities. Mountain passes in Montenegro, the Albanian coastline before mass tourism found it, the roads through the Rhodopes where you drive for hours without seeing another car. We drive them first, then work them out.

Matchdays
Football as a destination

A derby in the Balkans is not a match. It is a cultural experience. We go to the stadiums, follow the ultras, talk to supporters and pay attention to what happens on and off the pitch. Here, football tells you more about a city than any guidebook.

How it started

How one first trip to Belgrade turned into an obsession

Polako Travel started in the Netherlands and found its second home in the Balkans. What began as a single weekend in Belgrade grew into a trip we keep making, along bars, stadiums, mountain passes and coastlines.

We are on the road as often as we can be: on a plane, on a bus or in a rented car somewhere on a road we can barely explain. The region pulls us in not despite its contradictions, but precisely because of them: the noise and the quiet, the old and the new, the hospitality you find nowhere else.

Polako Travel is our way of sharing that, at our own pace. Polako.

12
countries in
the region
1
word that
says it all
The countries we explore
Serbia Bosnia and Herzegovina Montenegro Croatia Albania North Macedonia Kosovo Slovenia Bulgaria Romania Greece Turkey
Don’t miss a thing, travel with Polako

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