We travel every itinerary ourselves first, at our own expense and without clients. That is how we know where an extra day pays off and which castle is just a photo stop. We run around 40 departures a year.
Martina and Ján Bučko founded it and still run it, with two colleagues in the office and four guides. When you call, one of us picks up — not a call centre — and the two of us still lead trips ourselves.
years in business
clients since 2009
departures per season
people in a group at most
Photos from recent seasons: the Dolomites, Albania, Georgia, the Makarska Riviera. Most came from clients, the rest were taken by our guides while scouting routes.
One of us drives every new route before it goes on sale. We test the roads, the hotels and the restaurants. If something does not hold up, the tour does not launch.
Sixteen clients and a guide fit in the minibus. No queuing, everyone sits down to lunch at once, and nobody gets lost in a narrow alley.
We hold the statutory insolvency insurance with Union poisťovňa. Deposits go to the company account, never in cash to a guide.
On tour you get the guide’s number and the office number. A missed flight, a lost suitcase, a grandmother taken ill — we deal with it right away.
Three questions. Half a minute.
Book before the end of March and you get 60 EUR off per person on summer departures, plus a free reservation of the front seats in the minibus. The discount applies to stays in Croatia and to our tours in Italy.
We would rather return to the same places and know them better than add five new countries every year. Italy, Albania, Georgia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Austria and Greece.
„I was afraid it would be the usual coach trip where you photograph everything through the window. It was not. In Florence we had timed tickets and while other groups queued, we were already inside. The winery in Chianti was the best part — the owner talked to us about wine for two hours and nobody pushed us along. I would go again."
„We saw the aurora on the third night, for about an hour, and it was worth every euro. I have to say Iceland really is expensive, and having dinners included saved us. Jozef the guide had the schedule down to the minute, and when the weather turned he reshuffled the programme without us missing anything."
„The apartment was clean and three minutes from the beach, exactly as promised. The coach on the way home was almost two hours late because the air conditioning broke, and in that heat it was hard to bear. Otherwise it was fine, Dubrovnik and the walls were worth it, and it worked well with the children. But watch out for that air conditioning."
„Going to Petra twice is, for me, the main reason to pick LionsTravel. On day one we saw the Treasury, on day two we climbed the 850 steps to the Monastery and had it to ourselves. The night in Wadi Rum was cold, but we had been warned properly — it was in the pre-departure notes. Very well prepared."
„They moved the date by a week because the lavender was not out yet, and told us two months in advance. Plenty of agencies would not do that — they would have driven us to green fields anyway. We arrived at full bloom. I remember the market in Aix, where we bought lunch and ate it on the grass, better than half of Paris."
„Rysy with Marek took ten hours and I thought I would not make it. He kept the pace so the whole group could hold it, and on the chains he went last so he could see everyone. On the way down a storm broke and he had us off the ridge before the first thunder. He knew what he was doing. As a local I expected less and got more."
What a coffee costs in Tirana, when the water in Ohrid is warm enough and what to pack for a trek in Svaneti. Written by our guides once they are back.
Eight days around southern and western Iceland cost me 1,480 euros in budget mode. Here is the entire spreadsheet, plus the comfortable version at double the price.
In Morocco taking photos is a social act, not just a technical one. Here is what ten tours taught me, including the day I got thrown out of a shop.
Dimensions, weights and liquids without guesswork. The routine I use on every tour, including the mistakes that cost me money.
My first thirteen-hour flight ended with swollen ankles and no water. This is the list I wish someone had handed me at the gate.
