Fruska Gora and Danube Interactive Workshops
Inquire/Book
Panacomp Wonderland Travel designed unique interactive ½/1/2/3/7/10-days “Poetry in Nature Fruska Gora and the Danube tours” packages which provide the modern way to engage visitors who actively participate in authentic learning and creative teamwork. The network of reputed tourism partners have designed various workshops/courses which separately /half or 1 day/ or combined /2-10 days/ enable discerning visitors to learn and build relationships directly with friendly locals in a fun and truly inspiring environment of the peaceful highlighted places of the Fruska Gora National Park and the Danube River. Those activities deepen cross-cultural understanding of regional lifestyles and offers a unique insight into a community’s view of the world. Culinary type of travel is highly valued by tourists as it allows visitors time to relax and appreciate the local gastronomy, while sharing enlightening conversation with others and drinking in the surrounding natural beauty. A diverse selection of venues and the hosts of the selected idyllic Medieval Monasteries, intact nature of the Fruska Gora National Park, historic locations, sleepy bucolic countryside with organic farms and rural households, colorful markets and festivals, rolling Danube landscapes dotted with orchards and vineyards, distinctive food producers, small wine cellars, smokehouses, rakia distilleries, bakeries, artisan and craft shops and the festive ball rooms….. are awaiting you during the Poetry in Nature of the Fruska Gora and the Danube packages. They all feature specific charm and well preserved customs, and the rural or the extraordinary fancy way of life which provide the most authentic experiences you get addicted to by the satisfaction of physically and psychologically participatory activities : nature exploration, the icon-painting and calligraphy courses, music, folklore and culinary workshops, old crafts and handwork courses, festive “Ball of the Stratimorovic Family” with related exciting activities ….
Location, specific geological history and different micro-climatic conditions make Fruska Gora National Park and the Danube River very interesting and important to science and visitors who encounter numerous protected, rare and endangered species of flora and fauna and wealth and secrets of small communities, tiny villages, streams, waterfalls and small lakes. Fruska Gora’s valleys are covered with pastures and fertile corn and sunflower fields embraced by the Danube River, and numerous vineyards and orchards which decorate its lower slopes, while higher spots above 300 meters are covered with dense deciduous, mostly linden forests. Diverse sites of Fruska Gora and the Danube River make ideal destination for culture- and nature-based experiences including touring, hiking trails, horse-back riding combined with soft nature exploration on mount-bikes or in kayaks, or particular and more demanding action-packed adventures.
Panacomp Wonderland Travel interactive workshops bring together visitors and enlightened icon painters, art historians and monks who perform the traditional Byzantine way of making icons and calligraphy which include not only artistic but also a spiritual side of iconography and writing, and help visitors experience something they never would have known otherwise.. Another way of fun and excitements is provided during the Folklore and Music classes to visitors who want to learn main steps of the traditional kolo and other Serbian dances and share their new skills on the special wedding ceremonies, or to play on the original instruments– accordion, bag pipe, flute, double-flute and other in the specially arranged performances, under supervision of experienced music and folklore instructors.
“Poetry in Nature Fruska Gora and the Danube tours” Activities – Workshops to be chosen/combined:
1. Historical Armistice route – Sremski Karlovci
Walking tour along the beautiful baroque center of Sremski Karlovci and touring the most significant sites with professional tourist guide – the Patriarchal Residence, Saint Nicholas Church, Four Lions Fountain, Gymnasium.. and the Chapel of Peace, with memorable presentation of what happened around the round table between the dominant powers of the central and southeast Europe at the end of the 17th century….
2. Icon Painting and Calligraphy course is 5 days tour operated throughout the year in Fruska Gora Monasteries of Grgeteg, Staro Hopovo and Sisatovac and others suitable shrines
The art of Icons in the Eastern Orthodox Church is a holy, liturgical art, like all the church arts, which have a spiritual purpose. The aim of these arts is not merely to decorate the church with paintings, in order to make it more pleasing to the faithful, or to delight their ears with music: it is to elevate them to the mystical world of faith by the spiritual ladder, the steps, or rungs, of which are the holy arts, the composition of hymns, church -building, religious painting and the other arts. Thoughts of the icon-painter artist who conduct the icon painting workshops : “Before painting an icon of a saint, the Savior, or the Mother of God, I pray for spiritual help in this work, then try to read the life of the saint I am about to depict. Sometimes approaching the work is almost frightful: because you know that people will be looking at this icon and, beholding it, they will ascend to God in their minds”. All preparation works for the future icon and painting equipment is provided, waiting only for the visitor keen to discover the icon painting skills and experience the Serbian culture and spirituality from the inside.
Calligraphy course is full day package operated throughout the year and makes you write with renewed vigor and joy. The daily calligraphy workshops will expand your imagination using ancient writing techniques and exercises that rely on your spirit, memory and a sense of adventure. After this course you will leave feeling happier about your writing and generally cosseted and cared for, fulfilled for discovering special, hidden places whilst indulging in the spiritual way of life.
3. Soft Adventures /hiking, mount-biking, horseback riding, kayaking/ – Fruska Gora trails and the Danube shores in Nestin, Banostor Ledinci and Cerevic villages
Fruska Gora Cycling route is 1 day package of total 35 km includes cycling by the most fascinating spots and the best preserved areas of the Fruska Gora National Park, along its highest point of 539 meters at the Crveni cot, starting from Rakovac Monastery and ending at the Koruska spot at 96 meters altitude, and requires 5/10 level of condition and 5/10 technical requirement level.
Fruska Gora horse-back riding + hiking package is half-day tour which starts at 09,00 in Ledinci village and includes the horseback riding session under supervision of the professional riding instructors, on healthy horses which have been especially selected through the years to handle mountainous terrains but also to be accustomed to different riders. Riding course of ca 6 km which lasts around 1,5 hour makes visitors feel comfortable in the saddle even if this is their fist ride. This is combined horse riding and simple walks route, very exciting regarding the multitude of experiences offered ! A special itinerary of 10 km hike includes the sanctuary of the Rakovac Monastery, the cave and the Monastery itself, and allows visitors to rest between the harder parts and to be in a perfect mood all the time. When the combined hike and horse riding in completed, tour ends with the “nature-lovers-style” refreshment. Make sure you wear long pants and snickers with ribbed foot, and bring enough water and something to support your energy – a snack or fruit. In order to ensure a pleasurable ride for all of our riders the weight limit is 85 – 90 kg and maximum number of riders is 20.
4. Folklore Courses – rural households/farms of Fruska Gora
Learn the main steps of the famous Serbian Kolo dance and enjoy performing it together with your friends or other visitors who also want to become popular in this amazing knowledge. This joyful course is conducted by professional folklore dancers and folklore teachers and choreographers who help you endeavor and become a skilled folklore dancer, supported by tones of the Serbian traditional instruments played by local musicians – flute, accordion, kaval and accompanied with great fun and satisfaction of all …
5. Music Courses – rural households/farms of Fruska Gora
Learning to sing or to play traditional music depends not just on innate aptitude but also on being well motivated and on getting to hear the music frequently and listening to it with attention. Find out what secret sounds await you and learn melodies you can play on the traditional Serbian instruments – accordion, flute, def, trumpet…., under supervision of professional musicians and music teachers who make this experience memorable and support your performance before your friends and other visitors….
6. Culinary – cooking workshops /preparation of kugloff cake, ayvar, gibanitsa – cheese pie, strudel, salcici, tasci cakes and noodles, sarma, slatko – fruit jellies, jams and marmalade, natural juices, goulash and fish paprikash, meat processing…. /. Our culinary tours take you way beyond the usual tourist experience to get to know the real Serbia and experience tasty surprises – tasting, smelling, seeing, touching and learning how to create delicious, authentic Serbian dishes yourself.
Behind every great Serb cook is a neighborhood community – an eco-garden with fresh seasonal produce, a baker, a third-generation milkman, a market with fresh seasonal produce, a butcher who’s owned the same shop for decades. Your cooking vacation in Serbia with us means authenticity, fabulous food, and fun. Learn to perform local recipes and make the traditional dishes of unbeatable Serbian cuisine such as ayvar, gibanitza cheese pie, kugloff cake, cabbage casserole, sarma, fish paprikash, noodles…. during your amazing cooking classes. Explore the remarkable produce from gardens of your hosts and fresh locally grown ingredients, and taste some of the best local drinks and wines while relaxing at country vineyards or the rustic farm house. Your Serbian culinary tour includes hands-on cookery courses, all ingredients and cooking instruction of skilled and experienced hosts and even clothes, as well as gastronomic visits. Once lunch is ready, we open a bottle of rak?a, the traditional liquor of the Balkans, and celebrate the food that we have prepared. For a sweet finale, we’ll enjoy a pumpkin or apple dessert laced with walnuts and some revitalizing coffee. To learn more about our wonderful selection of Serbian cooking school vacations, please select one/few of the dishes listed above, which will make you decide easier. If you are having trouble deciding from among our many culinary vacations in Serbia, please call us or email: we would love to make some recommendations. Please let us know if you or anyone in your party has a dietary restriction when you book your culinary tour, we will work to accommodate your special food needs whenever possible.
7. Rakia making – small distilleries of Fruska Gora – full day package which provides great fun and joy, taking the privileges of plenty of fruits and grape found everywhere in Serbia, along with friendly hosts keen to show visitors various secrets of preparing the rakia – operated in Autumn, but the recommended period is from August to December
8. Grape harvesting – small wineries of Fruska Gora – full day package – operated in the period of the second half of August and September till October
3-day Grape Harvest tour offers hands-on experience of grape picking, crashing, pressing and wine-making instruction in the blending of wine during the fall grape harvest season in Fruska Gora wine region, where participants stay at the private homesteads within the National Park or in Koruska hotel. Visitors help with the picking, crushing and fermentation, to winemaker dinners, vineyard barbecues and get close with their cordial hosts while dress special costumes as they crush the grapes. Wine tasting – small wineries in Fruska Gora vineyards – half-full day package, operated throughout the year
9. Srem Wedding Ceremony – rural households/farms of Fruska Gora – full day package, operated throughout the year, accompanied with lots of well-preserved customs, colorful traditional costumes, plenty of original wedding specialties and fun
10. Serbian Slava Feast Celebration – farmsteads/rural households of Fruska Gora – full day package operated throughout the year, which best describes the Serbs and their innate feasts and deities….
11. Ball of the Stratimirovic Family – Prezident Hotel Sremski Karlovci – Galla evening Party dinner with string orchestra music of remarkable repertoire of lively dance rhythms that make visitors thrilled to be a part of so many festive experiences, operated throughout the year.
………and many unbeatable activities you would never believe exist, awaiting you…..
Panacomp Wonderland Travel invites visitors to personally meet imaginative and warm-hearten locals and creative workshop instructors of unexpected concepts and forgotten skills and recipes that include the genuine habits and excellent locally grown ingredients which influence subtle flavors and fun and elevate the simple act of preparing meals or the handwork to an art and obtain pleasant new twist to each dish or deed…. Be overwhelmed by the simplicity and authenticity of your enthusiastic hosts and the exquisite homemade food whose preparation will definitely bring a smile on your face whenever you recall it. Food is organically and locally grown from the local gardens and meat is slowly cooked in the authentic ceramic stoves, providing you to explore the multicultural history of the area. The superb food is a mix of special blend of flavors and ingredients and consists of an ethnic variety of gastronomic styles and numerous fresh herbs and old-fashioned secrets. Depending on season, it is possible to cook and taste the delicious lamb cooked in authentic way, freshly caught Danube fish, the homemade goat or sheep cheese, delicacies, relish and preserves….. All ingredients, tools, costumes and equipment for the workshops are provided and included in the price, so you should only bring your curiosity, positive mood, imagination, and willingness to learn new things and people. Visitors testify that the Bermet wine and homemade rakia are really among the best secrets they have ever tasted and usually take some bottles back home and find many of their friends and family completely agreed….so the secret is out …. and should be repeated sometimes !
Accommodation during the “Poetry in Nature Fruska Gora and the Danube tours” depends on the workshop location, room size, seasonality, availability and service quality you want us to provide. Visitors make their accommodation choice from the comfortable family-run, rustic and clean farm houses typical for the Fruska Gora region and the brand new Eco hostel in Sremski Karlovci with facilities, or the Eco camp at the nearby famous excursion point of Strazilovo to deluxe SPA hotels and nicely arranged villas, which all offer a chance to stay in the heart of the workshops area or its beautiful proximity. We organize transportation with high tourist class cars/vans/buses upon the size of booked participants and chosen activities – workshops or provide travel instructions for individual visitors.
Banstolka Rural Tourist Household Indjija-Banstol
Atos Boarding House Koruska village
Radulovacki Eco Center-Hostel Sremski Karlovci
Villa President Sremski Karlovci
Hotel Premier President Sremski Karlovci
Selected “Poetry in Nature Fruska Gora and the Danube tours” are limited in size /maximum 16 participants/ and delivers an intimate, personalized experience. For larger groups /up to 300 participants/ of corporate travel, event delegates and visitors keen to take part in one or combine interactive activities, we provide special quotation and design unique tailored itineraries. All children are welcome and please bring the whole family, you will not regret. Each guest has an ample opportunity to interact with locals – expert tour and hiking guides, farmers, mountain-bike, kayak and horseback instructors, artisans, music and folklore experts, and other interesting people. Panacomp Wonderland Travel team has both the expertise and resources to recommend the best workshop or the specific combination of activities, and plan and arrange packages of just the right balance of cultural enrichment, gourmet experiences and relaxation — or whatever balance visitors want us to provide. Gain new knowledge and skills during the “Poetry in Nature Fruska Gora and the Danube tours” and network in relaxed setting which provides you with insight, energy, better health, relief from stress, a way to quickly retreat and recover, enabling means of calming those around you, the ability to function well while enjoying in amazingly sweet moments in and out of workshops, and a sense that every moment you are improving because of this practice.
Day-by-day 7 days Gastronomic itinerary in Fruska Gora/Danube region
Day 1: Arrival – pick-up from Belgrade Airport and transfer to chosen accommodation within the Fruska Gora National Park/Mountain and picturesque Sremski Karlovci. Welcome drink to introduce our programme. 19,00 Welcome dinner is served main course + dessert – drinks included (water, wine, soft drinks)
Day 2: 9,00 breakfast – 11,00 – 13,00 cooking class at the rustic organic farm of the famous Balkan sarma in wine or cabbage leaves and chicken paprikash /of poultry from the neighboring producer, own organic ingredients and herbs and homemade noodles/ conducted by experienced cook. 13,15 lunch based on efforts, drinks included – 15,30 visit to the nearby Grgeteg Monastery. 19,00 p.m. Dinner is served two courses + dessert – drinks included
Day 3: 9,00 breakfast – 11,00 – 14,00 cooking class at another organic farm which grows tasty vegetables and fruits. Cooking course – stuffed paprika, noodles filled with plums, strudel and slatko – fruit jelly preparation, followed with lunch. Embroidery course, or glass painting course or tambouritsa playing class dressed in traditional costumes. Return to Sremski Karlovci, dinner, overnight.
Day 4: 9,00 breakfast – historical walking tour of Sremski Karlovci with the Karlovci Peace Treaty presentation. Wine tasting along with traditional brunch – authentic wine cellar. Afternoon kugloff cake course under supervision of skilled cooking instructor, including supply of ingredients from local producers and market – spices, honey, figs, dried apricots, cherries, nuts, raisins…Baking of kugloff cake and tasting. 19,30 hrs. Two courses dinner, fruits, drinks included.
Day 5: 9,00 breakfast – Transfer to the nearby fishing beach spot on the Danube and fishing under supervision of local fishermen. 11,30 – 14,00 cooking classes of fish paprikash or grilled fish from freshly caught Danube fish with homemade noodles preparation at the authentic fish restaurant, under supervision of local fish master. 14,30 lunch – drinks included. 17,00 visit to a nearby old crafts workshop famous for artisans and jewelry making conducted by locals. 20,00 p.m. 3 course dinner, drinks included.
Day 6: 9,00 breakfast – 10,00 – 13,30 final cooking course which makes you prepare a big Serbian traditional lunch – proja /corn bread/, gibanitza /cheese pie/, veal soup, slowly cooked – roasted lamb or beef in ceramic pot, poppy strudel. This is your chance to present skills that adorned the previous days, and show your instructors how it looks when you cook for them. Before you do it, you need to go to the local market and buy all the staff you will need and collect some ingredients from another local supplier. Big lunch. Afternoon visit to a nearby rural household where you take part in a music course, conducted by professional musicians and music teachers. The music party ends with joint performance, homemade food and wine.
Last day Late breakfast until 11,00 – Check-out – transfer to Belgrade airport, end of program and services.
Day-by-day 3 days Gastronomic itinerary in Fruska Gora/Danube region
Day 1: Arrival – pick-up from Belgrade Airport and transfer to chosen accommodation in the Fruska Gora National Park/Mountain and picturesque Sremski Karlovci. Welcome aperitif to introduce our programme. Kuglof cake course, conducted by skilled instructor, including supply of ingredients from local producers and market – spices, honey, figs, dried apricots, cherries, nuts, raisins…Baking of kugloff cake and tasting. 7,30 p.m.7,00 p.m. Welcome dinner is served main course + dessert – drinks included (water, wine, soft drinks)
Day 2: 9,00 breakfast – 11,00 – 1,00 cooking class at the rustic organic farm of the famous Balkan sarma in wine or cabbage leaves and chicken paprikash /of poultry from the neighboring producer, own organic ingredients and herbs and homemade noodles/ conducted by experienced cook. 1,15 lunch based on efforts, drinks included – 3,30 visit to the nearby Grgeteg Monastery with refreshment of natural elder or mint juice prepared in the monastery. 7,00 p.m. Dinner is served two courses + dessert – drinks included.
Day 3: Breakfast and authentic gastronomic souvenir handing by culinary hosts. Transfer to Belgrade Airport and end of program and services.
Panacomp Wonderland Travel organizes the Interactive Workshops in Fruska Gora and the Danube region together with its selected associated and partners, upon request and for the package price based on number of booked customers and services included. Please ask Panacomp for detail quotation.
