Best Places to Visit in Bulgaria: 20 Cities and 6 Day Trips

The best places to visit in Bulgaria are Plovdiv for the Roman city buried under its streets, Veliko Tarnovo for the fortress of the Second Bulgarian Empire, and Sofia for Roman ruins, Orthodox domes and a 2,290 m mountain reachable on public transport. Varna adds the Black Sea and the oldest worked gold in the world, and the six sights that finish a first trip are not cities at all: Rila Monastery, Nessebar, Bansko, the Belogradchik Rocks, Koprivshtitsa and the Seven Rila Lakes.

Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026, so every price on this page is in euro and there is no longer any money to change on arrival. Ten days covers the four main cities and two of the six side trips at a sensible pace.

The 20 biggest cities in Bulgaria at a glance

The 20 largest cities in Bulgaria are listed below in population order, using the 2024 official estimates. These are city populations, not province populations, which is where most published lists of Bulgarian cities go wrong by a factor of three or four.

Bulgaria’s 20 cities, one by one

Each of the 20 cities below gets the one reason to stop, the practical detail that decides whether you can, and how long it holds you. Four of them justify a night or more on a first trip, and the rest are worth an afternoon on the way somewhere else.

1. Sofia

Sofia is the capital, and few European capitals put a 2,290 m mountain on the city bus map the way this one does. The city sits in a valley at the foot of Vitosha, and its centre stacks four eras on top of each other: the 4th-century St George Rotunda in a hotel courtyard, the Roman streets of Serdica exposed in the Serdika metro underpass, the Ottoman Banya Bashi Mosque, and the gold-domed Alexander Nevsky Cathedral above it all. Boyana Church, a UNESCO site with frescoes painted in 1259, sits on the edge of town below Vitosha. Sofia Airport is 10 km (6.2 mi) east of the centre and metro line M4 runs from Terminal 2 into town, so a taxi is optional. Give Sofia three days.

2. Plovdiv

Plovdiv claims about 8,000 years of continuous settlement, which makes it one of the oldest inhabited cities in Europe and the most rewarding place in Bulgaria to walk. The 2nd-century Roman theatre still holds performances, the Ancient Stadium of Philippopolis runs under the main pedestrian street with one curved end excavated and open, and the Old Town climbs three of the city’s seven syenite hills in cobbles and painted Revival houses. Kapana, the former craftsmen’s quarter, is where the bars and galleries are. Plovdiv Airport at Krumovo has only a thin schedule, so most visitors take the train from Sofia, which covers the 150 km (93 mi) in a little over 2 hours. Plovdiv needs two to three days.

3. Varna

Varna is Bulgaria’s coastal city and it holds the oldest worked gold in the world. The Varna Necropolis hoard in the Archaeological Museum was made between roughly 4600 and 4200 BC, about 1,500 years before the Egyptians were doing the same thing, and grave 43 alone held more gold than every other known site of the period combined. The rest of the city is a 7,000 m² Roman bath complex, the clifftop Sea Garden with a zoo and an aquarium inside it, and the resort strip at Golden Sands 17 km (10.6 mi) north. Varna is 440 km (273 mi) from Sofia, an hour by air and 7 to 8 hours by train. Two to three days suits Varna.

4. Burgas

Burgas is the coast’s working port and the practical base for the southern beaches. The city itself gives you a long Sea Garden above the sand and a pedestrian centre around Aleko Bogoridi street, but the reason to stay is what surrounds it: four wetlands on the Via Pontica migration route, including Atanasovsko Lake, where the salt pans turn pink and flamingos, pelicans and storks pass through in spring and autumn. Nessebar is 35 km (21.7 mi) north and Sozopol 35 km (21.7 mi) south. Burgas Airport at Sarafovo is 10 km (6.2 mi) north-east of the centre and takes budget flights from across Europe. Two days is enough in the city.

5. Ruse

Ruse is Bulgaria’s Danube city, and the 19th-century streets that earned it the nickname Little Vienna are the reason to stop. Neo-baroque and rococo facades line Aleksandrovska street and Svoboda Square, the Dohodno Zdanie theatre building anchors one end, and the Pantheon of National Revival Heroes holds the tombs of the writers and revolutionaries who made the town matter. Ruse is also the closest base to the Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo, a UNESCO site of chapels cut into a river cliff about 20 km (12.4 mi) south. Bucharest is 75 km (46.6 mi) north across the Danube Bridge, which makes Romania’s capital the nearest airport with a full schedule.

6. Stara Zagora

Stara Zagora is the Roman city of Augusta Traiana, and its Neolithic Dwellings Museum holds two of the most completely preserved Neolithic houses found in Europe. The dwellings are roughly 8,000 years old and were found with their contents in place, which is what makes them unusual rather than merely old. Above them sit the excavated Roman forum, a stretch of city wall and the mosaic floors of the antique city, all in the centre. Ayazmoto park climbs the hill behind town. Stara Zagora sits on the A1 Trakia motorway halfway between Sofia and Burgas, which is the honest case for stopping: it breaks a long drive well. One day covers it.

7. Pleven

Pleven exists on the tourist map because of one building, the Pleven Panorama, and it is worth the detour. The panorama is a circular painting 115 m long telling the Siege of Plevna of 1877, the five-month battle that decided the Russo-Turkish War and with it Bulgarian independence, and it stands in Skobelev Park among the redoubts where the fighting happened. The St George the Conqueror mausoleum in the centre holds the bones of Russian and Romanian soldiers from the same siege. Kaylaka park, in a limestone gorge south of town, is where locals go. Sofia is 170 km (105.6 mi) away and is also the usable airport, since Gorna Oryahovitsa has no scheduled passenger flights.

8. Sliven

Sliven has a nature park growing straight out of the top of the town, and that is the whole point of coming. Sinite Kamani, the Blue Rocks, is a wall of weathered sandstone formations above the city that turns blue in certain light and holds marked hiking trails, climbing routes and the Karandila plateau. Down in town, the Hadzhi Dimitar house museum commemorates the revolutionary born there, and the old plane tree on the main square is a local landmark with its own preservation order. Sliven is 300 km (186.4 mi) from Sofia and about 110 km (68.4 mi) from Burgas Airport. One day, two if you hike.

9. Dobrich

Dobrich is the market town of Bulgaria’s grain belt, which is why it is called the granary of the country, and its craft quarter is the reason a visitor stops. Old Dobrich is a reconstructed ethnographic complex of workshops where potters, coppersmiths, weavers and bakers actually work rather than pose. Beyond that the town is a regional centre rather than a destination. It sits inland, about 30 km (18.6 mi) from the coast and 50 km (31.1 mi) north of Varna, so it works as a stop on the way to Cape Kaliakra and Balchik rather than as a base. Half a day.

10. Shumen

Shumen is the base for the first two capitals of the Bulgarian state, and that, not the town, is what brings people. Pliska, capital from 681 to 893, lies about 25 km (15.5 mi) north-east; Veliki Preslav, capital from 893, about 20 km (12.4 mi) south-west; and the Madara Rider, a UNESCO-listed relief carved into a 100 m cliff in the 8th century, about 20 km (12.4 mi) east. Shumen itself adds the restored medieval fortress on the plateau and the Monument to 1300 Years of Bulgaria, a mass of angular concrete sculpture from 1981 that you climb 1,300 steps to reach. Sofia is about 4 hours away by road, not the one hour some guides state, because the Hemus motorway is still unfinished in the middle.

11. Pernik

Pernik is worth a trip on one weekend a year, for Surva, the largest masquerade festival in the Balkans. The Pernik municipality has run Surva since 1966, it takes place on the last weekend of January, and the Surova custom behind it went onto the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2015. Hundreds of kukeri in bell-hung masks and hide costumes dance through the streets to drive out winter. The rest of the year Pernik is a mining town at 710 m (2,330 ft) with the medieval Krakra fortress on a ridge above it and a mining museum in a real gallery. Sofia is 30 km (18.6 mi) north-east, about 35 minutes on the Struma motorway.

12. Haskovo

Haskovo sits in the far south near both the Greek and the Turkish border, and its landmark is the Monument to the Holy Mother of God on the hill above the town. The statue of the Virgin and Child was completed in 2003, stands on a bell tower on Yamacha hill and is lit at night, so it reads from most of the city. In the centre, the Eski Mosque dates from the Ottoman period and the old clock tower and mineral baths sit within a short walk. The Thracian tomb at Aleksandrovo, with hunting frescoes and a full-size replica visitors can enter, is about 25 km (15.5 mi) away. Half a day in town.

13. Blagoevgrad

Blagoevgrad is the last real town on the road south to Greece, and its Varosha quarter is the reason to break the drive. Varosha is a preserved 19th-century Revival neighbourhood of white houses with dark timber and iron balconies climbing a hillside above the river, with the Church of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary at its top. The American University in Bulgaria keeps the pedestrian centre full of cafes in term time, and Bachinovo park runs along the Bistritsa river north of town. Blagoevgrad is about 100 km (62.1 mi) from Sofia on the Struma motorway and roughly an hour from Rila Monastery, which is the better reason to be here.

14. Yambol

Yambol has the Bezisten, one of the few surviving Ottoman covered markets in Bulgaria, and a Thracian city on its doorstep. The Bezisten dates from the 16th century, has been restored and still functions as a covered shopping arcade, which is rarer than a museum piece. Kabile, 8 km (5 mi) north, was a Thracian and later Roman city with a rock sanctuary and an excavated basilica, and it has its own site museum. In late February the town fills up for Kukerlandia, a masquerade festival on the Surva model. Yambol is about 300 km (186.4 mi) east of Sofia on the A1, roughly 3.5 hours. One day.

15. Veliko Tarnovo

Veliko Tarnovo was the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire from 1185 to 1396, and it is the most dramatically sited town in the country. Houses stack up the sides of a gorge cut by the Yantra, and the Tsarevets fortress fills its own hill opposite, with the patriarchal church rebuilt on the summit and a sound-and-light show projected onto the walls on some evenings. Samovodska Charshiya, the old craft market street, still has working potters and coppersmiths. Arbanasi, a village of stone-walled merchant houses and painted 17th-century churches, is 4 km (2.5 mi) up the hill. Sofia is 235 km (146 mi) away, about 3 hours. Veliko Tarnovo deserves two days.

16. Pazardzhik

Pazardzhik holds one of the great pieces of Bulgarian wood carving, and it takes twenty minutes to see. The Church of the Dormition of the Virgin was built in 1837, sunk below street level as Ottoman rules required, and its walnut iconostasis was carved by masters of the Debar school over several years. The Ottoman-era Kurshum Mosque stands a few streets away, and the regional history museum holds Thracian and Roman material from the surrounding plain. Pazardzhik is 40 km (24.9 mi) west of Plovdiv and about 120 km (74.6 mi) from Sofia on the A1, which makes it an easy stop rather than a stay.

17. Vratsa

Vratsa keeps the largest Thracian silver treasure ever found, and the mountains start at the end of its main street. The Rogozen treasure, 165 silver vessels ploughed up in a village nearby in 1985 and 1986, is displayed in the Vratsa Regional History Museum alongside a gold laurel wreath from the Mogilanska Mogila tomb. Behind the town the Vratsata gorge opens between rock walls that climbers rate among the highest in the Balkans, and the Ledenika cave in the Vrachanski Balkan Nature Park runs through ten halls of stalactites at a constant temperature just above freezing. Vratsa is 112 km (69.6 mi) north of Sofia, about 1.5 hours.

18. Asenovgrad

Asenovgrad guards the mouth of the Chepelarska gorge, and its fortress is the picture everyone comes for. Asen’s Fortress sits on a rock spur above the road with the 12th to 13th-century Church of the Holy Mother of God Petrichka still standing intact on the edge of the drop, which is unusual for a Bulgarian fortress church. Ten kilometres further up the gorge is Bachkovo Monastery, founded in 1083 and the second largest monastery in the country, with a 12th-century ossuary and a much-visited icon of the Virgin. Asenovgrad is 20 km (12.4 mi) from Plovdiv and works as a half-day trip from there.

19. Gabrovo

Gabrovo turned a joke about its own stinginess into a museum, and then built a better museum next door. The House of Humour and Satire, opened on 1 April 1972, collects cartoons, satirical art and Gabrovo jokes from around the world. Etar, 8 km (5 mi) south, is Bulgaria’s first open-air ethnographic museum and runs a street of water-powered craft workshops off a real millrace, so the fulling mill and the lathes actually turn. Bozhentsi, a preserved Revival village, is 15 km (9.3 mi) east. Shipka Pass and the Freedom Monument on its summit are 20 km (12.4 mi) south over the Balkan range. Two days with the surroundings.

20. Kazanlak

Kazanlak is the centre of the Rose Valley and the site of a UNESCO-listed Thracian tomb, and the tomb is not the one you enter. The original 4th-century BC tomb, with its domed burial chamber painted with a funeral feast and a chariot race, has been sealed for conservation since it was discovered in 1944, and visitors go into an exact full-size replica a few steps away. The Museum of the Rose explains an industry that supplies much of the world’s rose oil, and the Rose Festival fills the town in the first days of June, when the picking starts at dawn. Seuthopolis, the Thracian capital nearby, lies under the Koprinka reservoir and cannot be visited. Kazanlak is 200 km (124.3 mi) east of Sofia.

6 places to visit in Bulgaria that are not cities

The 6 sights below are what most visitors actually come to Bulgaria for, and none of them is in a city, which is why they are missing from lists built out of population tables. Each is paired with the city on the list above that makes the easiest base.

Rila Monastery

Rila Monastery is the largest Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria and the country’s single most visited sight. It stands at 1,147 m (3,763 ft) in the Rila mountains 120 km (74.6 mi) south of Sofia, was founded in the 10th century by the hermit Ivan Rilski, and its striped arcades and painted porches date from a rebuilding after an 1833 fire. The Tower of Hrelyo, from 1334 to 1335, is the one medieval building that survived. Entry to the courtyard is free; the museum and the tower charge separately. Base: Sofia or Blagoevgrad.

Nessebar

Nessebar is a UNESCO-listed old town on an 850 m peninsula, and it holds the densest concentration of medieval churches in Bulgaria. Around 40 churches or their ruins stand on a strip of rock joined to the mainland by a causeway, in a Byzantine style of alternating brick and stone bands, mixed in among wooden Revival houses and a windmill. UNESCO inscribed it in 1983. It gets very crowded from July to August because Sunny Beach is next door, so go early or in the shoulder season. Base: Burgas.

Bansko and Pirin National Park

Bansko is Bulgaria’s main ski resort and the gateway to a UNESCO natural site. The town sits at 927 m (3,041 ft) at the foot of the Pirin mountains, a gondola lifts skiers to a ski area topping out near 2,600 m (8,530 ft), and the season normally runs from December into April. Above and around it, Pirin National Park covers 403 km² (156 sq mi) and rises to Vihren at 2,914 m (9,560 ft), the second highest summit in Bulgaria. In summer the same lift serves hikers. Base: Bansko itself, or Blagoevgrad.

Belogradchik Rocks

The Belogradchik Rocks are a 30 km (18.6 mi) run of red sandstone towers in the north-west, with a fortress built into them. The Kaleto fortress began as a Roman post between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD and was extended by the Byzantines, the Bulgarians and finally the Ottomans, who used the rock formations themselves as two of its walls. Belogradchik is about 170 km (105.6 mi) from Sofia and roughly 3 hours by road, which makes it a long day trip or an overnight. The Magura cave, with prehistoric bat-guano paintings, is 25 km (15.5 mi) further on. Base: Sofia, with a night in Belogradchik.

Koprivshtitsa

Koprivshtitsa is the most completely preserved National Revival town in Bulgaria, and it is 111 km (69 mi) east of Sofia. Colour-washed stone houses with overhanging bay windows line cobbled streets in a valley of the Sredna Gora mountains, six of them open as house museums, and the town was where the April Uprising against Ottoman rule was declared in 1876. It is small enough to walk in an afternoon and quiet enough to be worth a night. Every fifth year it hosts the National Folklore Festival on the meadows above the town. Base: Sofia.

The Seven Rila Lakes

The Seven Rila Lakes are a chain of glacial lakes stepping down a cirque in the Rila mountains, and the circuit is Bulgaria’s most walked mountain day. The route starts above Sapareva Banya, about 90 minutes from Sofia, where a chairlift carries walkers most of the way up to the Rilski Ezera hut; the loop past all seven lakes takes roughly 3 to 5 hours from there. Snow can lie into June and the weather turns fast, so check the forecast and the lift’s operating days before committing. Base: Sofia.

Where to base yourself in Bulgaria

Base a first trip in Sofia and Plovdiv, because between them they put 14 of the sights on this page within a day’s reach, and add Veliko Tarnovo if you have more than a week. Sofia covers Rila Monastery, the Seven Rila Lakes, Koprivshtitsa, Belogradchik, Vratsa and Pernik. Plovdiv covers Asenovgrad, Bachkovo, Pazardzhik, Kazanlak and the Rhodopes. Veliko Tarnovo covers Arbanasi, Gabrovo, Etar and Shipka. A beach trip is a separate exercise and belongs on the coast at Varna, Burgas or Sozopol. Rates roughly double on the coast between mid-July and the end of August while inland cities barely move, so if the dates are fixed, compare hotels and apartments across Bulgaria on Booking.com before you decide which half of the country to spend the money in.

How to get around Bulgaria

Take the train between Sofia, Plovdiv and Burgas, and hire a car for everything else, because the intercity network reaches the big cities well and the monasteries, gorges and Thracian sites hardly at all. The Sofia to Plovdiv line has been modernised and runs the 150 km (93 mi) in a little over 2 hours. Long-distance buses cover more towns than the trains and cost less, with Union Ivkoni, Biomet and Etap among the main operators, and they are the only public option for places like Koprivshtitsa at some hours. Book intercity rail and coach seats through Omio, which sells Bulgarian trains and buses in English, since the national operators’ own sites are awkward from abroad.

Driving is the honest answer for a touring trip. Motorways are good and getting better, but secondary roads deteriorate quickly, signage thins out in the mountains and there is no reliable lane marking on many rural stretches, so build in more time than the distance suggests. A vignette is required on all national roads and is sold electronically. Non-EU licences should be carried with an International Driving Permit. Rental minimum ages start at 21 with most companies. Prices in Bulgaria are among the lowest in the EU, and it is worth running the dates through DiscoverCars to compare the local and international fleets before booking at the airport desk.

Tours and guided day trips in Bulgaria

Book a guided trip where the transport is the problem rather than the sight: Rila Monastery, the Seven Rila Lakes, Belogradchik and Koprivshtitsa all mean either a hire car or a chain of connections that eats the day. Sofia is where most of these depart from, and Plovdiv and Varna run their own smaller sets. Current options and prices are below.

When to visit Bulgaria

Visit Bulgaria in May, June, September or early October, when the days are warm, the mountain trails are open and the coast is not yet full. July and August are the hottest and busiest months and are the right choice only if the beach is the point; inland cities like Plovdiv and Stara Zagora sit in the Thracian plain and get uncomfortable. Late May and early June bring the rose harvest at Kazanlak and the fire dancing in the Strandzha. December to March is ski season at Bansko, Borovets and Pamporovo, with city prices at their lowest and many rural sights shut or on reduced hours. Snow can block mountain passes into April.

What to eat in Bulgaria

Eat the salads and the grilled meat, and order the salad first, because that is the order Bulgarians eat in. The 8 dishes to look for are listed below, and every one of them turns up on ordinary menus rather than in tourist restaurants.

1. Banitsa. Filo pastry layered with sirene, the white brined cheese, and egg, sold in bakeries before 10am and eaten standing up.
2. Shopska salata. Tomato, cucumber, onion and roasted pepper under a heap of grated sirene, ordered before anything else arrives.
3. Tarator. Cold yoghurt soup with cucumber, garlic, dill and walnuts, served in summer and genuinely cooling.
4. Kebapche. A grilled minced-meat roll seasoned with cumin, ordered by the piece with chips and lyutenitsa.
5. Kavarma. Slow-cooked pork or chicken with onions, peppers and mushrooms, served in the clay pot it cooked in.
6. Sarmi. Rice and minced meat rolled in cabbage or vine leaves and stewed, eaten with yoghurt.
7. Kapama. A layered meat and rice stew sealed in a pot and baked for hours, a winter dish and a Bansko speciality.
8. Kiselo mlyako. Bulgarian yoghurt, thick and sharp, eaten at breakfast with honey and walnuts.

The full list, including what to drink with it, sits in our guide to Bulgarian food.

Bulgaria travel basics

Bulgaria changed currency and border regime within twelve months of each other, and both changes work in a visitor’s favour. The details you actually need are listed below.

• Currency. The euro, since 1 January 2026. Bulgaria was the 21st country to join the euro area, the lev circulated alongside it through January at the fixed rate of 1.95583 lev to the euro and stopped being legal tender on 1 February 2026, and mandatory dual pricing in shops ended on 30 June 2026. Old lev notes and coins can still be exchanged at the Bulgarian National Bank with no deadline. Any guide telling you to change money on arrival, or that euros are not accepted, was written before the changeover.
• Borders. Bulgaria has been an EU member since 2007 and a full Schengen member since 1 January 2025, when land border checks were lifted; air and sea checks had already gone on 31 March 2024. There are no routine passport checks arriving from another Schengen country.
• Language. Bulgarian, written in Cyrillic. Signs in city centres and menus in tourist areas carry Latin transliterations, hospitality staff and younger Bulgarians generally speak some English, and older people often understand Russian. Learning to read the alphabet takes about an hour and pays for itself the first time you read a bus destination.
• Time. Eastern European Time, UTC+2 in winter and UTC+3 from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. Bulgaria does observe daylight saving, despite sources that state a flat UTC+2 all year.
• Plugs. Type C and Type F, 230V at 50Hz. Continental European devices work as they are; American and British ones need an adapter.
• Tipping. Round up or leave about 10% in restaurants and taxis. Insist on the meter in a taxi and check the posted rate on the window before getting in.
• Safety. Bulgaria is as safe as most of the EU. Petty theft in crowded places and inflated bar bills in nightlife strips are the common complaints, and drug offences carry heavy penalties.

More background sits in our collection of facts about Bulgaria and the country overview.

Festivals worth planning a trip around

The 4 events below are fixed enough in the calendar to build a trip around, and each one is the reason to visit a town that would otherwise be a stop. Confirm exact dates with the organiser, because several move by a weekend.

1. Surva, Pernik, last weekend of January. Hundreds of kukeri in bell-hung masks and animal hides dance through the town to drive out winter. Run by the municipality since 1966, and the Surova custom behind it is on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
2. Rose Festival, Kazanlak, first days of June. A rose-picking ritual at dawn in the fields, then a parade through town led by the elected Rose Queen. The harvest itself runs from late May into June and the fields are open to visitors during it.
3. Nestinarstvo, Bulgari, 3 and 4 June. Barefoot dancing on embers at the feast of Saints Constantine and Helena, in a Strandzha village of under 50 people. It is on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list and survives in authentic form in this one village. Photography rules are strict and applause is not done.
4. Christmas markets, Sofia and Plovdiv, December. Sofia’s main market sets up in the City Garden in front of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre and Plovdiv’s fills the main pedestrian street. Both publish their dates late, usually in November, so check the city’s own announcement rather than a list from a previous year.

Bulgaria FAQ

How many days do you need in Bulgaria?

Ten days is the right length for a first trip to Bulgaria. Spend three in Sofia with a day out to Rila Monastery, three in Plovdiv with a day in the Rhodopes, two in Veliko Tarnovo, and two on the coast or in the mountains depending on the season. A week works if you drop either the coast or Veliko Tarnovo. Five days is a city break in Sofia and Plovdiv and nothing else.

Is Bulgaria expensive to visit?

No, Bulgaria is among the cheapest countries in the European Union. Budget hotel rooms commonly run about €30 ($35, £26) a night outside the summer coast, a meal in an ordinary restaurant about €5 to €10 ($6 to $12, £4 to £9), and intercity buses about €5 to €15 ($6 to $18, £4 to £13). Museum admission rarely tops €2.50 ($3, £2). Sofia and the Black Sea resorts in August are the two exceptions.

What is the number one place to visit in Bulgaria?

Rila Monastery is the sight most visitors put first, and it is the country’s most visited. The monastery combines a UNESCO listing, a mountain setting at 1,147 m (3,763 ft) and a 14th-century tower with painted arcades from the 1830s, and it is close enough to Sofia to do in a day. Plovdiv is the strongest single city and Nessebar the strongest coastal town.

Do you need a car in Bulgaria?

You need a car for the monasteries, gorges and Thracian sites, and not for the cities. Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas and Varna are linked by trains and buses that work well, and all four are walkable once you arrive. Everything on the six-sights list above except Rila Monastery is either awkward or slow by public transport, which is where a hire car or a guided trip earns its cost.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 5 tips below come from rechecking every city, distance and price on this page after Bulgaria’s changeover to the euro, and each one contradicts something still printed in other guides to the country.

1. Bring euros and skip the exchange office. Bulgaria joined the euro area on 1 January 2026, the lev stopped being legal tender on 1 February 2026, and mandatory dual pricing ended on 30 June 2026. Any lev price you read is now a conversion at 1.95583, not a price you will be quoted.
2. Read population figures on Bulgarian city lists with suspicion. Most published lists give province populations against city names, which turns Veliko Tarnovo into a city of 227,000 rather than 59,166 and Blagoevgrad into 293,000 rather than 62,670. The gap changes what you should expect to find when you arrive.
3. Do not plan around Gorna Oryahovitsa or Plovdiv airports. Gorna Oryahovitsa, the airport nearest Veliko Tarnovo, has no scheduled passenger flights and handles cargo. Plovdiv Airport at Krumovo runs only a thin low-cost schedule. Sofia, Varna and Burgas are the three airports a trip can actually be built on.
4. The Kazanlak tomb you walk into is the replica. The original 4th-century BC chamber has been sealed for conservation since its discovery in 1944 and the full-size copy stands a few steps away, which is not a disappointment once you know it in advance rather than at the door.
5. Allow 4 hours from Sofia to Shumen, not 1. The Hemus motorway is still unfinished between Yablanitsa and Shumen, so the north-eastern crossing runs on ordinary roads over the Balkan range. Guides that put Shumen 67 km from Sofia have confused it with something else entirely.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the team covers Bulgaria for independent travellers, including the cities worth a night, the monasteries and mountain sites worth a guided day, the hotels in Sofia, Plovdiv and on the Black Sea coast, and the trains, buses and hire cars that connect them. Population figures, distances and prices are rechecked when they move, and this page was updated after Bulgaria’s changeover to the euro.