Miyak Tribe Trail - North Macedonia

Lorna who has been on 2 In The Saddle rides. Miyak Tribe Trail - Holiday of a lifetime!! | The riding on this trip was absolutely wonderful - it is fair to say it exceeded our expectations!! A huge thankyou to Vasco, Zazi and the team for making it a perfect trip. It had everything from walking through sheep farms and beautiful forests, climbing up and down steep mountains (mostly on horseback but sometimes leading them), riding to the summit of a mountain for sunrise, gorgeous camping set ups to extremely fast open canters and gallops. The horses were incredible at navigating difficult terrain and at no point did anyone in the group feel unsafe or out of our depth. A bonus was that air jacket protectors were provided for those who wanted them which were comfortable and saved us having to pack our own from home. Similarly, the saddle bags were great for storing extra clothes, suncream, water etc. There were always clear instructions when we were preparing for a canter or a gallop and this included whether we stayed in a single file line, in pairs or were allowed to race and overtake. There were lots of adrenaline fuelled fast gallops which were incredibly fun, all with the beautiful mountain backdrop. The stamina and strength of each and every horse within our group was amazing and we all felt very well matched to our horses. We did 120 miles over the 6 days and the horses seemed to be enjoying it as much as we were. The guides regularly stopped to check and adjust girths depending on the terrain and they were on hand with tips on riding technique too. The sherpa team and George were excellent at taking care of the horses throughout. Special shout out to 'Dorian' who was the perfect horse throughout the week and everyone loved his cheeky personality too, especially when he joined us for a talk about honey and came with the girls to the toilet! Finally, starting and ending the trip at the Ranch was brilliant and we had a real sense of having been off on an adventure. The final day was really special!!

Do you have any comments about the accommodation and food?

We cannot praise the food enough on this trip. Again, it exceeded our expectations and was another highlight of the trip. Being greeted at lunchtime by music and a full table set up, including wine, was a proper treat and Alex, the chef, managed to produce the most delicious locally sourced meals everyday. We lost count of the number of different types of bread he made, and the amount of cheese consumed was out of this world! His salads and dips were delicious as were the wines that were paired with every meal. Even snacks were taken care of during the day, with some beautiful snack stops whilst riding. Dinner at the campsites were awesome and the goulash was totally lush! It was really special to stop and eat at some of the sheep farms we rode through and sample cheese that we watched being made.

The accommodation on the trip was great. The way the trip is organised to include two nights of camping was perfect. The camping nights were a proper highlight and the wine tasting evening and gin tasting were both perfect additions. In one guesthouse we were served local trout by the owner and this was another highlight, along with the beautiful location. We thoroughly enjoyed staying in different places each night, which again, added to the sense of having been on a proper adventure! The fact our bags just magically appeared at each place was even more brilliant!

How could we improve the quality of pre-holiday information that we send?

No improvement - everything was brilliant and when we emailed with additional questions we got prompt and helpful responses so we were totally prepared for the trip. Thank you!

How could we improve the way we handled your booking and payment?

No improvement - thank you for accommodating us with dates that worked for teacher school holidays! We booked well in advance and you secured the dates and the previous year's price for us.

Do you have any other feedback for us?

The only additional thing we would add is that sunglasses are a vital piece of kit as the cantering/ galloping was FAST and there was lots of dust/ small stones flying around so these were a must! We were incredibly lucky with the weather and had hot sunshine the whole time but layers were needed for the campsite and sunrise ride.