It was with sadness we had to depart from Bulgaria in late July. Although the rose-colored glasses lifted a bit, on our third and longest jaunt to Bulgaria so far, it enamored us with its serenity and allure. It affirmed itself as a place we undoubtedly could settle down in, one day, and also as a place in our top five countries!
This time around, we chose to pump our brakes significantly and park ourselves in three bases… Sandanski in the Southwest, Plovdiv in the center, and Sliven in the east for ~4 weeks each. What we found was a place to explore, contemplate and heal, which we didn’t realize how much we desperately needed. Because of Mandy’s physical situation, we also got to embrace some autonomous endeavors, which was good for both of us to explore.
Below is our personal list of stats, money saving tips, and personal upsides and downsides for the country. If you’ve been to Bulgaria, what would you add?
In Summary…
Time Spent: 89 nights
Money Spent: $4309 or $48.41 average in USD/two people, which breaks down to:
$1739 (Accommodation)*, $1579 (Groceries), $441 (Transport), $381 (Restaurants), $169 (General)
*We also had a 10-night housesit in Plovdiv during which accommodation was free.
*Also, we had overnights getaways in Melnik, Ognyanovo, Smolyan, Sadovo, and Gabrovo during which we paid double accommodation.
Our itinerary: Sofia (5 nights), Sandanski (28 nights), Plovdiv (27 nights), Sliven (29 nights)
Favorite Place: Shiroka Laka
Least Favorite: Petrich
Would we return? Yes, undoubtedly. Sooner rather than later.
Our Top Five Highlights
- Hiking the sandstone pyramids around the ridiculously charming village of Melnik
- Natural and mystical hot springs at Rupite
- Visiting the architectural reserves towns of, Kovachevitsa & Shiroka Laka
- Reiki training at Tranquil Times Wellness Center (Mandy)
- Hiking the trail from Subotkovtsi to Tryavna, passing through Bojentsi (Greg)
Best Takeaways for Saving Money
- Work directly with locals when possible to save money on apartments
- Do not accept the first price offered on Airbnb, negotiate but expect to pay more in tourist places like Plovdiv, Sofia, and probably Varna
- Get a Billa card to save on groceries. Lidl is overall the cheapest supermarket chain.
- Make self catering the norm… restaurants will blow your budget
- Take trains instead of buses. They’re slow and often late, but significantly cheaper.
- Also, when possible, buy tickets at station. It’s a bit more expensive from the conductor.
- Shop at local produce markets (search пазар) as much as possible
Our Upsides
- Drinking water fountains are sprinkled (ha!) everywhere throughout the country.
- The tap water throughout is drinkable and mostly delicious. (Plovdiv was an exception to the delicious part.)
- The trail network throughout the country is organized and color coded, which offers terrific hiking opportunities
- Almost every city we visited had beautiful parks, and great urban planning
- But of course, the cities are not the highlight…it’s the charming villages we saw along the way
- Most notably, the discovery of the list of about 20 “architectural and historical reserve villages” spread throughout Bulgaria which captivated us similarly to Pueblo Mágicos in Mexico
- The local market produce is to die for. Nearly everything you buy that is in season tastes like the best of its kind you’ve ever sampled. Especially the tomatoes. Hands down world’s best in our opinion.
- Everyone has gardens and makes wine
- This goes hand in hand with the wide availability of amazing artisanal products like honey, jam, wine, cheese…
- and the biggest food win in our book…the yogurt. It’s so incredible to go to the supermarkets and be inundated with a colossal selection of plain, non-sugarfied yogurts in varying fat levels and loaded with probiotics, “Lactobacillus Bulgaricus” to be more specific
- The beer and wine prices are very affordable, whether buying in a restaurant or from a market. A bottle of local homemade wine costs around $2.75 and a glass of craft beer around the same. Local beers are even cheaper; probably still the cheapest place in Europe to drink beer.
- The internet is fast and reliable
- The people are like creme brûlée. A bit hard to crack on the outside, but once you interact with them, they are warm and sweet.
- The whole country feels quiet & contemplative. Even the cities are some of the quieter ones we’ve been to. As two introverts, this is highly attractive to us.
- Pharmacies are widely available and most prescription drugs can be bought over the counter for a quite reasonable price. The best one we found is SoPharmacy.
- When you can find them, rental cars are affordable (between $17-28/day) and the country is made for road tripping. Unfortunately, we were never able to find available car rentals in Sliven, but had no problems in Sandanski or Plovdiv.
- If you’re a cat person, this country is made for you, much like the rest of this region of the world.
- Public transportation is mostly adequate and easy to use.
- There are endless exploration opportunities and a variety of mountains, and terrains
- Mediterranean weather…what’s more to say?!
- The real estate is still inexpensive
- Credit cards and contactless transactions are widely accepted, but you’ll still need cash for things like small hotels, local markets, and local buses
- Inexpensive city buses, around $.60-80/ride.
Our Downsides
- Although cheap, the trains are slow, often late and you roll the dice with air conditioning,
- In comparison, longer distance buses or mini-buses can be at least double the price, often ~$5/hour
- Grocery prices have risen exponentially since our last trip in 2019. We averaged $557/month, which is about the same as we were paying in New Zealand/Australia in February. Compounding the problem there were few (if any) discount grocery outlets available to use as a resource, even for locally produced products, and Bulgaria is set to adopt the Euro in 2026 so prices have risen to account for the conversion.
- Alongside this, restaurants have priced themselves out of our comfort zone, although the portions are still generous, we mostly reserved as a splurge/treat after averaging $30 for the two of us to eat out.
- It’s summertime, so there are a lot of bugs! We’ve had run-ins with fleas, spiders, ticks, bird mites and mosquitoes. Also, on a hike in the Central Balkans, Greg had an unfortunate encounter with swarms of Deer Ked, also called “flying ticks” which was enough to put some major fear in him as they tend to land on your neck and head, and move very quickly into your hair. Fortunately, Chat GPT confirmed they were in fact not ticks, but simply creatures that when they land on you, lose their wings because they’ve found a “permanent” host.
- As mentioned, it was VERY challenging to find affordable and decent housing through traditional methods like Airbnb or Booking. The short term housing here is vastly out of whack with the local market for apartments.
- So many smokers! But if you are one, you’ll be in good company.
- Some drivers are a bit crazy. Not sure if some of them even have a license?
- The language can be difficult, and the alphabet is in Cyrillic. It really helps to at least have knowledge of the alphabet if you’re traveling off-the-beaten-track. Fortunately, we’d been learning Bulgarian a bit before arriving, which really helped.
- The bureaucracy is challenging.
