A new travel service called Olive Tree Escapes is providing travel packages focused on the growing economies and historic Eastern European cultures of today's Balkan region, directing travelers to places like Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro.

At Olive Tree Escapes, experienced and passionate travel experts help customers plan their trips; concierge service offers on-site language support.

"Olive Tree Escapes offers uniquely designed itineraries that are based on client interests by a team of travel experts who are either from or have spent many years in the travel destinations,” Olive Tree Escapes founder Beth Rubin told Balkan Business Wire in a statement. “We focus our attention on the client's wish list so that each itinerary is specifically designed for them. At Olive Tree Escapes we do not offer cookie-cutter solutions, we tailor our itineraries for each client."

Rubin has been working in the travel business since 2000 and came to Balkan destinations through Italy, part of which borders the former Yugoslavia. This year, Rubin opened Olive Tree Escapes in Chicago.

"We get so many return clients from our Italy itineraries who want to travel with us again, so we decided to offer them the Balkan destinations,” Rubin said. “This seems to us like the perfect addition to an existing Italy itinerary because of the geographical proximity of these countries, which makes it convenient logistically. We feel we are responding to a market need for travel to the Balkans, seeing that there is a lack of qualified upscale companies offering custom travel to this beautiful part of the world."

In an additional exclusive statement to Balkan Business Wire, Olive Tree Escapes's Croatia expert Maja Gudelj provided some more description of some of these Balkan trips.

“In addition to the rich culture, history and great food and wine of each specific country, the Balkan region is a crossroads of Eastern, Western and Southern Europe,” Gudelj said. “The languages and people's characteristics are mostly Slavic, but they seem to have a passion for life that is usually associated with Southern Europe. Our clients will also find in these countries a certain familiarity with Western popular culture and the English language, which makes getting around and exploring these destinations fun and easy and that appeals to visitors coming from the U.S.”