Terms and Conditions

This website is run by Tourist Society "Krepostta - Mogilitsa", a tourist society based at Mogilitsa, ul. Ilinden 21, Bulgaria. You can reach us on +359 87 858 84 92. These terms cover this website and the guided walks, day tours and other activities we arrange.

There is no online booking and no payment on this site. When you send the enquiry form, call us or write to us, you are asking whether a date is possible. Nothing is reserved yet.

A booking exists only once we confirm it back to you, by phone, email or message, naming the date, the program, the number of people and the price. Until that confirmation reaches you, treat the date as open.

We cannot always say yes. Our guided days need a minimum group size, our guides are villagers with other work, and some routes are only safely walkable in the right conditions.

Each day tour page shows the price per person in euro and lev, and lists exactly what that price includes and what it does not. Those are the figures we will confirm to you unless we have agreed something different with you directly.

Every guided day states a minimum group size. If your group is smaller, ask anyway. We will tell you honestly whether we can run it, or whether another party is going out on a nearby date that you could join.

Payment is made to the society locally, in cash, on the day, unless we agree otherwise. We take no deposits and no card payments through this website.

If you need to move or cancel a confirmed date, tell us as early as you can, and by phone if the day is close. We charge no cancellation fee. Late notice mostly costs a guide a wasted day, which is reason enough to call.

We may change or cancel a program for safety: storms and lightning, high water in the canyon, ice or snow on an exposed section, fire risk, a closed road, or the illness of the only guide free that day. Where we can, we will offer another date, another route, or a shorter version of the same day. Safety comes before the itinerary, and the guide's judgement on the day is final.

These are mountain activities in real terrain, not attractions with handrails. Depending on the program, that can mean an undeveloped cave with no lighting and no built path, entered with a headlamp; a boat crossing of the Arda through Gorlo Canyon; steep, rocky or slippery ground; days of 15 km or more with serious ascent; forest where the path fades; and long stretches with no mobile signal, where help would take time to reach you.

Weather in the Rhodopes turns quickly, and rock, water, roots, animals and other people in the mountains are outside anyone's control. Some risk is inherent to being there and no amount of care removes it. By joining a program you accept that inherent risk. This does not touch our own duty to run the day competently and carefully, which we do not try to sign away.

By joining a guided program you confirm that you are medically fit for the activity you have chosen, and that you have told us beforehand about anything that could matter out there: a heart or lung condition, epilepsy, diabetes, a recent injury or operation, limited mobility, a severe allergy, pregnancy, or medication that affects balance, alertness or bleeding.

Tell us when you book, not at the trailhead. Almost nothing rules a visit out by itself. Knowing lets us choose the right route, carry the right kit and shape the day around you. Not knowing is what turns a small problem into a serious one, hours from the nearest road.

Bring whatever medication you might need, in your own pack, in enough quantity for a long day, and tell your guide where it is.

Children are welcome on the gentler routes, and we will tell you frankly which programs suit which ages. Anyone under 18 must be accompanied on the day by a parent or legal guardian, who makes the booking for them, accepts these terms on their behalf and stays responsible for them throughout.

If someone under 18 is to come with an adult who is not their parent or guardian, we need the parent's or guardian's consent before the day. A signed note or a written message naming the child, the date and the program is enough.

Valid mountain insurance is mandatory for every guided program in the mountains. This is not a recommendation we shrug about afterwards. Please do not come without it.

A suitable policy covers first aid and medical treatment after a mountain accident, search and rescue by the Mountain Rescue Service, transport off the mountain and on to hospital, and death, injury or lasting disability. Ordinary travel insurance often excludes exactly this, and caving or a boat crossing may have to be named specifically, so read the wording.

Insurance is not included in the price and it is yours to hold, valid on the day. Tell us when you book and the guides are happy to help you arrange it. It is inexpensive here and can be bought for a single day.

Come with the footwear and clothing the program calls for, and with water and food for the day. Every route and tour page lists what to bring. A guide may ask you to sit out a section, or the whole day, if you arrive without the gear that section needs or are plainly not up to walking it safely.

On the day, follow your guide's instructions, stay with the group, and say something at once if you feel unwell or out of your depth. Do not enter the cave, the canyon or the water without your guide. Alcohol, drugs and mountains do not mix, and a guide may end your participation if you are under the influence.

Much of this is protected landscape, and some of it is somebody's pasture. Leave the flowers, the cave formations and the old walls as you found them, carry your litter out, light no fires outside the places set aside for them, and close gates behind you.

We do not exclude or limit our liability for death or injury caused by our own negligence, for fraud, or for anything else Bulgarian law does not permit us to disclaim. Nothing in these terms takes away the rights you hold as a consumer.

Beyond that, we are not responsible for loss or damage that could not reasonably have been foreseen, for the inherent risks described above, for injury or loss that follows from ignoring a guide's instructions or from a health condition you did not tell us about, for your own belongings, or for services you arrange yourself with somebody else, such as accommodation, meals or transport we merely pointed you towards.

The guides sometimes photograph a walk, and those pictures may appear on this site or on our social pages. If you would rather not be in them, say so on the day and that is the end of it. If you change your mind later, tell us and we will take the picture down.

The text and photographs here belong to the society or are used with its permission, and are not free to reuse. We keep the route facts as accurate as we can, transcribed from the society's own records, but a mountain changes with the season: treat distances, times and conditions as a sound guide rather than a guarantee, and ask us how a route is running before you set out.

These terms are governed by Bulgarian law, and Bulgarian consumer protection law applies to them in full. If something goes wrong, call us first. Nearly everything is settled in one phone call. If it cannot be, the competent Bulgarian court decides, and as a consumer you may also approach the Commission for Consumer Protection or an alternative dispute resolution body.

We may update these terms as the programs change. The date below shows when they were last reviewed, and the version on this page when we confirm your booking is the one that applies to it.