Bulgaria

A quick travel guide to the best of Bulgaria

Bulgaria
Photo courtesy of BG Tourism

Hankering for that Olde World Europe of donkey-drawn carts, cobblestone village streets, and cities with more baroque spires than soulless skyscrapers?

Forget high-priced Western Europe. Head to Bulgaria, where beer costs 75¢, three-course dinners $10, and rooms as little as $15.

Another plus: aside from some moldering Soviet-era hotels, the Cold War allowed most places to skip 50 years of tourism overdevelopment—Black Sea beach resorts excepted.

That's right, Bulgaria has fab beaches—not to mention glorious monasteries, trails through ancient forests, and colorful cities where Orthodox churches share space with Ottoman mosques and remains of 7,000-year-old Thracian settlements.

What to see in Bulgaria

The Rila monastery
The Rila monastery in Bulgaria. Rila Monastery

Have time for only one thing in Bulgaria? Make it medieval Rila Monastery, a rich repository of art, icons, and the ornate Holy Virgin church in a grandiose courtyard of stacked arcades.

Sofia & Southern Bulgaria

Sofia is famous for being Europe's highest capital (1,799 feet)... and that’s about it. Still, you'll spend some time in this hub for flights, buses, and trains.

Luckily, there are plenty of modest churches and museums in the capital to keep you occupied before heading out to explore Southern Bulgaria, where ancient Thracian and Bulgar traditions mingle with Greek and Roman ruins and echoes of the Ottoman Empire.

Impossibly picturesque Veliko Târnovo snuggles into a gorge of the twisting Yantra River under ancient Tsarevets fortress.

Plovdiv

Plovdiv, Bulgaria (Photo by Klearchos Kapoutsis)
Plovdiv. (Photo by Klearchos Kapoutsis) Though Bulgaria's second largest city (after Sofia) and surrounded by sprawl, the historic center of Plovdiv remains a maze of steep cobblestoned streets, gorgeous 18th and 19th century town homes, and a bevy of museums, churches, and mosques.

Plovdiv was founded by the Thracians (though there are traces of Neolithic village life on the site dating human settlement in the area back about 6,000 years), and was later occupied by the Romans, as evidenced by the lovely remains of a Roman theater. It only actually became part of Bulgaria relatively recently, in 1885, following stints in the Byzantine, medieval Bulgarian, and Ottoman Empires.

Best Bulgarian experience: The Black Sea

Sozopol (Photo by Ansgar Prause)
Sozopol. (Photo by Ansgar Prause) Sip slivova rakiya (plum brandy) in a Black Sea resort.

The main resort town of Varna sports extensive ruins of Roman baths. Nesebâr is the cutest Black Sea village, a cobbled medieval hamlet on a rocky spur, but peninsular Sozopol has better beaches and lower prices.

» Bulgaria planning FAQ

Tours Under $995 G Adventures


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This article was by Reid Bramblett and last updated in December 2011.
All information was accurate at the time.

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Copyright © 1998–2013 by Reid Bramblett. Author: Reid Bramblett.