After the pandemic, the world opened up again—but now a growing number of political conflicts and tensions make many of our once-beloved destinations inaccessible. Karabakh, Ukraine, Russia, the Holy Land, Ethiopia, Iran… year by year we lose places we cherished or planned to visit, and others are under threat as well. That’s why it’s worth traveling everywhere while it’s still possible.
From the journeys planned for 2026, I’m now announcing those that are already organized, but I keep adding new ones to the calendar—so it’s worth checking back regularly, or subscribing to the newsletter at wang@studiolum.com, where I report on them immediately.
Most trips, for safety and smooth organization, are exclusive small-group journeys with a maximum of 9 people in a minibus. Only a few (city walks, Iran, China) are larger, up to about 20 participants.
Frequently asked questions, answered in advance:
• What if the destination country closes due to a pandemic or political turn? Then there’s nothing to be done: we cancel the trip and I refund all participation fees already paid. As for flight tickets—which you always purchase yourselves—you are responsible for ensuring they are flexible or refundable when buying them.
• Until when can I sign up? As long as there are places available (I always keep this updated at the end of each trip description). Places usually fill up very fast—often within a day or two of announcement—especially with the current limited group sizes, so it’s worth signing up quickly.
• When do I have to pay the participation fee? And what if I change my mind, get sick, or something else comes up? Registration and reservation only become valid once the fee is paid, so after signing up it’s best to pay as soon as possible before someone else takes the spot. • Cancellation: I run a small, bespoke operation and work strictly on a made-to-order basis. I only launch a trip once the required number of participants is reached. At that point, however, I fully commit myself — and I expect the same level of commitment from those who sign up. That’s why you can cancel for any reason—even one you feel counts as force majeure—up to three months before departure; in that case I refund half of the fee. After that, unfortunately, no refund is possible. However, you may always nominate another participant to take your place. If a trip is canceled due to any problem on my side, I refund the full participation fee.
• The participation fee is for one bed in a double room. Can I still come alone? Yes, for a single-room supplement, which I specify separately for each trip. That said, I ask everyone—if possible—to find a travel companion. We mostly stay in small hotels with limited rooms. We once had to cancel a trip because almost everyone requested single rooms and there simply weren’t enough available. Those arriving as pairs—whether in twin or double rooms—have priority in registration.
• What are the hotels like? In short: good. More fully: rarely five-star, but never spartan. Mostly three-star or better hotels with comfortable en-suite rooms and breakfast. I provide the hotel list together with the program before departure; upgrades are sometimes possible for a supplement, if better options exist locally.
• How much luggage should I bring? We arrive in this world naked and leave it the same way. Compared to that, how much luggage do we really need for a 7–10 day trip? Bring only what you can carry up to the third floor of a hotel without an elevator—and what won’t exceed one-ninth of a nine-seater minibus’s modest luggage space.
• And one very important request from me: before signing up for your first trip, please spend some time reading the blog and our Facebook page linked in the right margin, and listen to the interviews linked below my photo. It has happened once or twice that people joined based on friends’ praise—only to discover that they had a very fixed, commercial idea of what a good tour should be, and expected that from the journey. In the end, we parted ways in mutual disappointment. These are not conventional group tours, and I am not a conventional guide either. So what are they like? As Dürer wrote under Erasmus’s portrait: his writings give a better picture. Please read them—and only sign up if you like the image that emerges.
For the same reason, I now only accept groups of friends if everyone registers individually (or at most in pairs), after having read the blog and decided personally that this is what they want.
Alongside the journeys, I continue the Studiolum Open University lecture series launched in 2020. Their themes connect to the trips in one way or another. From January, I’ll start a new course on the beginnings of Christian art—architecture, mosaics, and icons, many of which we’ll encounter on our Roman, Caucasian, and Middle Eastern journeys. I’m also planning lecture series on medieval symbolism, bestiaries, and herbals, as well as a very detailed series on specific monuments and collections of Florence to prepare our biennial autumn Florence trip. The Open University now has its own page, where I publish programs of upcoming and past lectures. Those who can’t travel with us in person can at least join us virtually through these talks. Subscribe to the newsletter about lectures and journeys at wang@studiolum.com.
To register for individual trips or ask questions, write to wang@studiolum.com. I’ll reply with a detailed program and all practical information.
As usual, if we fly, everyone purchases their own flight ticket; I take care of everything else. The participation fees generally include one bed in a double room (usually with breakfast), the chartered bus / local transport, and guiding. If anything more is included, I specify it separately. If you’d like a single room, write to me and I’ll check the supplement.
2026:
For now, I am only publishing those journeys that are already fully planned and can be announced with detailed parameters.
Trips become final once there are enough participants (8 people for exclusive minibus trips, 12–16 for larger coach tours). At that point I collect participation fees, book accommodation and transport, and ask you to purchase your flights. If a trip does not fill up within a short time, I postpone it to next year and announce a different one instead (sometimes noting this in the calendar as well).
I am also working on additional journeys, and as soon as one is ready, I slot it into the gaps between already announced trips here — and send out a circular email about it.
• Carnival in Sardinia, January 15–22. In Barbagia, the most secluded mountainous region of Sardinia, the end of winter and the arrival of spring have been celebrated for thousands of years with ancient rituals — including an all-day masked procession on St Anthony’s Day, January 16, reminiscent of Hungary’s Busójárás. I have written about this festival twice already: here and here. Alongside the festivities, we explore the island’s mountain landscapes and small towns, prehistoric stone structures, and Romanesque churches. • Travel by nine-seat minibus, participation fee €1200, now including entrance fees. Budapest–Cagliari–Budapest flight currently around €100. • Fully booked
• Rome long weekend, February 11–16. Building on the success of previous years’ Rome tours, we will spend six days exploring Rome’s historic center in depth, covering key ancient, Renaissance, and Baroque monuments, while also focusing on some more “exotic” areas such as the Jewish Quarter, the distinctive world of Trastevere, and the beautiful sequence of early Christian and medieval churches on the Caelian Hill. Square by square, street by street — almost house by house — we get to know the city, offering even Rome veterans plenty of discoveries and secrets. Accommodation is in the heart of the old town, in Trastevere. While earlier walks were structured around Rome’s fountains, this year we focus primarily on the beginnings of Christian art: early Christian basilicas, mosaics, monuments, and the Jewish-Syrian and early Christian urban fabric — the micro-context of a process in which an empire changed its culture and iconography. • Budapest–Rome–Budapest flight currently around €60, participation fee €900, now including entrance fees. • See my Rome-related posts here, and I have also launched a lecture series on early Christian Rome that you can join. • Fully booked • This weekend can be combined with the following trip:
• Easter in Sardinia, April 1–8. In Sardinia’s secluded mountain towns, time seems to have stood still: Easter is celebrated in an extraordinarily traditional way. I have written about this several times — about Easter in general, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and especially Easter Sunday. Alongside the festivities, we explore the island’s mountain landscapes and small towns, prehistoric stone structures, and Romanesque churches, roughly as we did on our previous trip. • Travel by nine-seat minibus, participation fee €1500, this time including all entrance fees. Budapest–Cagliari–Budapest flight currently around €100. • Fully booked
• April 12, after the elections. I originally suggested Uzbekistan for this date — whether to celebrate or to forget one’s sorrows. What I hadn’t considered was that not only on that day, but afterwards as well, one would apparently have to stay home because of protests over a rigged election :) Joking aside: only when putting the calendar together, I realized that the cheapest return flights for April are around €900. After that, the summer heat sets in. So I had no choice but to move the trip to early October (see below), when the weather is a pleasant ~20°C across the country and flights are currently around €500.
• Trieste, the Port of the Monarchy, April 27 – May 1. Trieste was the fourth-largest city of the Habsburg Monarchy and its most important port, which made it open and prosperous in every sense. Many nationalities lived, traded, and influenced one another here — notably Jews from across the Monarchy, who were promised equal rights by the city’s constitution even before emancipation in 1867. Numerous writers, artists, and scholars lived and worked here, making Trieste one of the key intellectual centers of the Monarchy. Over these few days, we explore the architectural framework in which this life unfolded and the traces it left in the city’s fabric and surroundings. • My lecture on Trieste can be viewed here. • Participation fee €900, including all entrance fees. Budapest–Venice–Budapest flight plus Venice–Trieste–Venice train currently around €150. • Places still available
• Grand tour of Georgia, May 2–10. Every year we explore Georgia in May, when the mountains have turned a lush green but have not yet faded in the summer heat. In one week, we cover almost all the most beautiful regions of this remarkably diverse country — from Svaneti, the northernmost valleys of the Greater Caucasus and the 1,500-year-old defensive towers of Ushguli, through the medieval districts of Tbilisi, to the monasteries along the Georgian Military Highway. Our posts on the Caucasus are collected here. • Participation fee €1200, Budapest–Kutaisi–Budapest flight currently around €150. • Places still available • This trip can be combined with the following one:
• Armenia, May 9–17. Starting from Kutaisi and turning south from Tbilisi, we enter the Armenian highlands. Following the route of our tour from four years ago, we focus above all on Armenia’s magnificent UNESCO-listed monasteries — from Haghpat and Sanahin near the Georgian border, via the churches of Lake Sevan, to Tatev in the south and Khor Virap beneath Mount Ararat. We also visit extraordinary medieval cemeteries, from Armenian Noratus to Jewish Yeghegis and the Molokan village of Bazarjay. After sightseeing in Yerevan, we fly straight back to Budapest. • Our Armenia-related posts are collected here; see also the travel diary of our first Armenian journey. • Participation fee €1200, Budapest–Kutaisi and Yerevan–Budapest flights together currently around €200. • Places still available
• Along the Tea and Horse Road, Yunnan Province, China, May 21 – June 2. In southwestern China, at the foothills of the Tibetan mountains, a special branch of the Silk Road has been operating for thousands of years, carrying Yunnan tea up to Tibet and bringing magnificent Tibetan horses down to the Chinese aristocracy. Along this route, beautiful traditional market towns emerged at a day’s walking distance from one another — many of them still astonishingly intact today. Our journey leads to one of China’s most beautiful and archaic regions, extraordinarily rich in historical monuments and natural scenery: the homeland of Chinese tea and the villages of numerous ethnic minorities, among picturesque tea plantations and rice terraces, mountain gorges, and still largely untouched historic towns. A description of our first journey can be read here, our collected posts on China here. • Participation fee €1800, return flights currently around €700. • Places still available • This trip can be combined with the following one:
• Guilin and the magical karst mountains of the Pearl River, June 2–14. The surroundings of Guilin in southwestern China are made one of the country’s most beautiful regions by their dense clusters of eroded karst mountains. We wander among them by bus and boat, moving between historic small towns, monasteries, stunning viewpoints, the wooden villages of the Dong people, and the rice terraces of the Miao — all the way to Sichuan, the cradle of Chinese Buddhism, with its earliest cave monasteries and sacred mountains. Our collected posts on China can be read here. • Participation fee €1800, Budapest–Chengdu–Budapest flight currently around €700 return. • Places still available
If there are not enough participants (approx. 10–12) for one or the other China trip, I will instead announce a journey to Lake Van and the former Armenian and Georgian monasteries of eastern Turkey:
• Around Lake Van: former Armenian and Georgian monasteries of Eastern Anatolia, late May. Starting from Van by minibus, we circle Lake Van, cross by boat to Akhtamar Island, visit the remains of the ancient Urartian high culture and its world-class museum, and the lavish palace of Ishak Pasha in the mountains near the Iranian border. Beneath Mount Ararat, we continue to Erzurum, from where we explore the former Georgian province of Tao-Klarjeti with its many monasteries and fortresses, and visit Ani, the vast ruin field of the former Armenian capital on the Armenian border. From the Seljuk cemetery of Ahlat, we return to Van. A detailed travel account of the Georgian section can be read here; about Akhtamar here, Van here, and the Ahlat cemetery here. • Participation fee €1600, Budapest–Van–Budapest flight currently around €300. • Places still available
• South Bohemia, June 18–25. Departing from Budapest by minibus, we explore a region boasting a “disproportionately high number of World Heritage sites,” passing through Brno, Telč, Třebíč, Jindřichův Hradec, Slavonice, Český Krumlov, Prachatice, and many other tongue-twisting place names. We see Renaissance towns, medieval Jewish quarters, sgraffito-decorated houses, Gothic monasteries, churches of vanished German settlements, a World Heritage Art Deco villa in Brno, and the countless meanders of the Vltava River. As a taste, see a joint post from an earlier (and shorter) trip, as well as our begun but not yet completed South Bohemian travel diary. • Our Czech-related posts are collected here. • Travel from Budapest by nine-seat minibus, participation fee €1500, now including all entrance fees. • Places still available
• Albania, June 27 – July 4. Most visitors to Albania focus on the coast, the capital, or perhaps monuments in the south. Yet the country’s most beautiful region is the northern highlands, which until just a few years ago — lacking paved roads — were completely inaccessible, an archaic landscape cut off from the outside world. Over the course of a week, we explore this region largely by coach. We climb by off-road vehicle to the pass above the Theth Valley, take a half-day boat trip along the Drin River — reminiscent of Norwegian fjords — to the romantic valley of Valbona, and return to Tirana via Kosovo, visiting two UNESCO World Heritage sites: the Dečani Monastery and the Ottoman-era town of Prizren. We also visit the Ottoman World Heritage town of Berat, the ancient Greek cities of Byllis and Apollonia, and finally swim in one of the most beautiful hidden coves of the Vlora coast, next to a 10th-century Byzantine monastery. An outline of our first Albanian journey (this year’s will be even richer) can be read here. • Participation fee €1200, flights from Budapest to Tirana and back around €100. • Places still available
• Adventure Tour in Georgia: Horseback Riding & Rafting, July 7–15. Unlike our usual Georgian tours, where we explore the country’s most beautiful landscapes comfortably by bus, this trip is for the adventurous. From Tbilisi, we head off in 4x4s to one of Georgia’s most archaic and hard-to-reach regions, the Tusheti valleys, beneath the Greater Caucasus’ Chechen-Dagestani border mountains. Here we explore ancient fortified villages on horseback over two days, though those who prefer can stay with us in the 4x4. No prior riding experience is required; all necessary instruction and gear is provided on site. Our Tusheti itinerary here, and our collected posts on Georgia and the Caucasus here. • Participation fee, including all equipment and full board, 1300 euros. Roundtrip Budapest–Kutaisi flight approx. 150 euros. • Still space available
• Tibetan Tour in Western Sichuan, July 18–30. Part of historical Tibet—Kham province—was annexed by the Chinese empire in the 18th century and attached to Sichuan. Local Tibetan inhabitants had long adapted to the situation and do not resist, so authorities have not disturbed them, nor destroyed monasteries, nor settled Han Chinese en masse—unlike in Central Tibet. As a result, Tibetan culture and traditions have remained far more intact here. We explore the region’s ancient Buddhist monasteries, watchtower villages, and fortress settlements, traveling by bus from Chengdu. We traced this route twice in 2023, and again in 2024; our Facebook page has extensive illustrated reports, now being compiled into a dedicated travel post series. Our collected posts on China can be read here. • Participation fee 1800 euros, Budapest–Chengdu roundtrip flight approx. 800 euros. • Still space available
• Baltic States, early August. One-week tour through Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius: medieval old towns and Finno-Ugric villages, German crusader castles and fishing settlements, excellent modern galleries and open-air museums, pilgrimage sites and pagan sanctuaries. • Travel in a 9-person minibus, participation fee 1800 euros, including entrance fees. Budapest–Tallinn roundtrip flight approx. 150 euros. • Still space available
• The Jewish Wine Route from Tokaj to Galicia, late August. On this eight-day tour, we follow the route where Jewish wine merchants transported Tokaj wine to Poland from the 18th century, returning with Hasidic rabbi sons to their shtetls: from Tokaj and Tállya through Kassa, Homonna, and Bartfa to Nowy Sącz, and then via Tarnów and Sandomierz to Lublin, visiting small yet significant shtetls and Jewish heritage sites along the way. Led by István Tóth, a wine historian from Tállya, who introduces different Tokaj wines each day. • Travel in a 9- or 18-person minibus from Budapest depending on numbers, participation fee 1800 or 1500 euros, including entrance fees and wine. • Still space available
• Scotland Tour, September 1–8, 8–15, 15–22. This year, this tour is the most popular, so we are running it three consecutive times, keeping groups small with 9-person minibuses. Departing from Edinburgh, we traverse the country by hired minibus, starting with the southern Border Abbeys, then heading north along one of the world’s most beautiful scenic routes, the North Coast 500. We visit castles, cathedrals, Renaissance palaces, prehistoric stone circles, islands, a whisky distillery, and sail on Loch Ness. • Participation fee 2000 euros, Budapest–Edinburgh roundtrip approx. 200 euros. • Still space available
• Uzbekistan Tour, October 1–9. A nine-day journey exploring the most beautiful Central Asian cities along the ancient Silk Road, from west to east: Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand, plus Nukus with its amazing avant-garde museum, ancient clay fortresses, Zoroastrian cemeteries, impressive mosques, and mausoleums. • Travel via domestic flights, train, and small hired minibus; participation fee 1800 euros, including entrance fees and domestic transport. Budapest–Tashkent roundtrip flight approx. 450 euros. • Still space available
Exact dates for further trips are not yet set. Which ones I organize and when depends on registrations.
• Journey of the Traveler and Moonlight from Venice through Umbria to Tuscany. On this ten-day tour—voted unanimously by participants as the best Wang tour of the year when first announced—we follow the route of Szerb Antal’s novel. From Venice, we explore Ravenna, Urbino—the Renaissance city lending its name to Studiolum—Umbria, and Tuscany, Gubbio, Assisi, Arezzo, Siena, and beyond into Western Tuscany, revisiting what Mihály would have seen if his father had not taken him home. Along the way, we encounter pre-Christian traditions still alive today, millennia-old hilltop Oscan settlements, the stunning Apennine scenery, and the famous “Sienese Primitives,” experiencing repeatedly the epiphany central to both the novel and Szerb Antal’s worldview. First itinerary description (this year’s richer version) here, lecture on Szerb Antal’s concept here. • Travel in a 9-person minibus, participation fee 1800 euros, including several dinners. • Still space available
• Long Weekend in Istanbul, November 26–30. Istanbul is a city of secrets, many already documented. On our five-day tour, we explore hidden caravanserais where time seems to have stopped, mosques, folk shrines, narrow streets, and the traces of vanished inhabitants—Jews, Greeks, Armenians. We traverse two millennia of the city’s layers, from Roman and Byzantine eras, through the Ottoman Empire to modern Turkey. We study major monuments from Hagia Sophia to the Süleymaniye Mosque, and explore autonomous neighborhoods from Galata to Kadiköy. • Budapest–Istanbul roundtrip approx. 150 euros, participation fee 600 euros. • See our Istanbul posts here. • Still space available
• Ancient Greek Cities of Asia Minor, Part One. While Athens and Sparta are traditionally seen as the centers of the ancient Greek world, the true economic and artistic hubs were in Asia Minor along the Anatolian coast and inland in Greek or Hellenized cities. Over a hundred of these sites survive in visitable size, most with excellent museums attesting to their past wealth. The complete heritage requires multiple one-week trips; this tour covers the first section from Nicaea to Smyrna. • See our posts on the region—more will follow—under the “Aegean Coast” section. • Travel from Istanbul by 9-person minibus, participation fee 1500 euros. • Still space available
• Cathar Country Tour in Provence. The pays cathar, home of the 12th–13th-century Cathar heretics, stretched across western historic Provence from Toulouse to the sea and the Pyrenees, centered on the stunning Carcassonne fortress. According to the Inquisition, Cathars followed Manichean, “Satan-worshipping” teachings, initially proselytized by missionaries (leading to the creation of the Dominican order), then targeted by Crusades to bring their autonomous lands under French crown rule. Extensive literature covers the Cathars and their surviving legacy; the region preserves many medieval castles and towns. We explore them in a week. • Travel from Toulouse by 9-person minibus, participation fee 1800 euros. • Still space available
• Historical Cities around Rome, Spring Route Repeat. In Lazio, in the hinterlands of ancient and papal Rome, lie numerous remarkable small towns that played important roles in ancient and medieval history, rich in Etruscan and Roman heritage such as Tarquinia, Cerveteri, and Ostia; castles and large abbeys like Anagni (“the Sistine Chapel of the Middle Ages”), Subiaco, or Fossanova. Despite their significance and beauty, they are little known, overshadowed by Rome and Tuscany. We tour this chain of towns, visiting monuments and contextualizing them historically. • Travel by 9-person minibus, participation fee 1500 euros, including entrance fees. Budapest–Rome roundtrip approx. 60 euros. • Still space available
• Historic Cities of Iran. Contingent on developments in the coming months; if Iran is accessible in autumn, we will explore the axis of historical Iranian cities as in previous years, from Kashan through the former Zoroastrian city of Abyaneh, Yazd, Isfahan, Pasargadae, Persepolis to Shiraz, then back to Tehran by domestic flight. • Travel within Iran by hired bus. Budapest–Tehran via Istanbul roundtrip approx. 500 euros, participation fee 1600 euros. • See our Persian posts here, and the 2022 autumn trip live account here. • Participation fee 1800 euros including domestic flights. • Conditional registrations accepted; history will decide the final word
• Route of Marrakes and the Kasbahs. From Marrakes, Morocco’s former southern capital, ancient caravan routes run through the High Atlas valleys to gold-rich areas near the Equator, flanked by magnificent Berber clay fortresses, kasbahs, and fortified clay towns (ksars). Over four days, we traverse the Ounila, Draa, and Ouarzazate river valleys, visiting kasbahs and fortified villages, highlighting the districts of “Berber Jews” who lived here until the 1970s. A one- or two-day Marrakech city tour complements the kasbah journey, revealing the region’s rich history via palaces, museums, and urban heritage. See our posts on the region: Five Palaces. Royal Drama in Morocco, Three More Palaces, The Berber Jews. • Travel in a 9-person minibus, participation fee 1300 euros, Budapest–Marrakesh roundtrip approx. 150 euros. • Still space available
• Sicily Tour, December 9–16. Over this week-long tour, we visit the island’s key sites, almost all UNESCO heritage: Catania fish market, Syracuse Greek old town and Jewish quarter, Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples, Cefalù Norman port town and basilica, Palermo and Monreale Norman basilicas decorated by Arab and Greek artists, Taormina Greek-Roman theater, and much more. • Travel in a 9-person minibus, participation fee 1500 euros, Budapest–Catania roundtrip approx. 100 euros. • A post on the ancient Polyphemus mosaic and two talks on the Monreale Norman cathedral and Palermo Norman palace chapels. • See our Sicily posts here. • Still space available
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