Its catchment spans a territory of 7,862 km2 and has a small mean slope value 4.6‰ with a mean altitude of 470 m.[3] The city of Veliko Tarnovo, situated on several hills overlooking the river along its middle course, served as the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire in the 12–14th centuries, and remains and important cultural, economic and tourist center in Bulgaria.

Until the city of Gabrovo it flows northwest in a deep valley covered with forests of European beech (Fagus sylvatica).

Between Gabrovo and the village of Yantra the river forms the Strazha Gorge through the homonymous plateau, its valley then widens and arable lands appear along its terraces.

[1] Due to the small gradient of the current in the Danubian Plain — 4.6‰, the Yantra forms large meanders, with a sinuosity index of 3.1 — the largest in the territory of Bulgaria, especially in the area of Dolna Oryahovitsa, Varbitsa and Draganovo.

To the north in the fore-Balkan section, the catchment area of the Yantra is well forested and grassed and high-stemmed woods gradually give way to low-stemmed ones.

A few kilometers south the Yantra's source stands the Buzludzha monument, a memorial inaugurated in 1981 by the Bulgarian Communist Party, whose futurist architecture, impressive surrounding and melancholic atmosphere of decay has gained increased international popularity in recent years.

Along the river banks south of Gabrovo is located the Etar Architectural-Ethnographic Complex, an open-air museums featuring the architecture, way of life and economy of region during the Bulgarian National Revival.

[18] In Gabrovo, a city renown for the humour, the statue of its legendary founders Racho the Blacksmith was placed on a rock in the Yantra, so that the residents would not waste money on flowers on the monument.

[19] Further upstream the river passes through the city of Veliko Tarnovo, the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, forming a meandering gorge.

[20] The Transfiguration Monastery is situated over the left bank of the river in the Dervent Gorge some 7 km north of Veliko Tarnovo.