There are three major airports in Bulgaria – the capital Sofia and Plovdiv, which are the most convenient arrival destinations for the ski resorts and most of the mountain regions of Bulgaria, and Bourgas and Varna on the Black Sea coast, which are the arrival locations for the beach resorts. You can find contact numbers, arrival and departure information and other useful information about the airports at the following websites:
SOFIA AIRPORT BOURGAS AIRPORT
PLOVDIV AIRPORT VARNA AIRPORT
Almost all European carriers fly to Sofia and many have opened routes to Bourgas, Varna and Plovdiv. You can try some of the larger airlines with more regular flights to Bulgaria such as:
BRITISH AIRWAYS MALEV BULGARIAN AIR
There are also a number of budget airlines that operate regular and charter flights to Bulgaria:
CONDOR FLY THOMAS COOK
HEMUS AIR NORWEGIAN AIR
SKY EUROPE SMART WINGS
THOMSON FLY WIZZ AIR
EASYJET
Bulgaria has a very well developed public transportation system. Furthermore, where the public transport has left niches, the private sector has stepped in. For travel between towns, you are best served to use the railways or one of the numerous private bus lines.
The Bulgarian State Railways maintain a user friendly and informative site where you can find information on departure and arrival times, fares, and even the routes between destinations. Taking the train is inexpensive. For example, you can travel 1st class from the capital Sofia to Varna on the Black Sea coast (a 514 km journey) for about 15 euro.
Alternatively, you can use the network of private bus lines which take you around the country in comfortable air-conditioned buses and at a low cost. The website of the central bus station of Sofia gives you information on travel times and fares. For example, there are about 7-8 buses leaving to Bourgas daily with a roundtrip price of about 20 euro. One can arrive at the Sofia airport (if airplane tickets to Sofia are cheaper compared to tickets to Bourgas) and take the bus to the seaside cutting significantly the travel costs.
Notice also that you can take buses not only to destinations within Bulgaria but to cities outside Bulgaria. For example, a roundtrip bus ticket to Istanbul is about 40 euro and a roundtrip bus ticket to Athens is about 90 euro.
Most international car rental companies operate in Bulgaria and as of he last couple of years rental prices have decreased substantially getting closer to Western European levels and sometimes even lower. You can use their websites to inquire about prices and availability and even to rent over the net. Here are a few of the larger operators:
AVIS HERTZ
SIXT BUDGET
MOTO PHOE
One you are in a town or a resort, you can also use local cabs to get around. These are extremely cheap (but watch the meters and beware of inflated prices sometimes). You can pretty much get from one end of Sofia to the other for about 4-5 euro. However, during high season, prices at the major resorts are higher. Here are a few numbers of reputable taxi companies. Have in mind, however, that most cab dispatchers speak only Bulgarian, so you need a native speaker to help you:
TAXI-S-EXPRESS 9 1280
YES TAXI 91 919, 91 818
OKEY SUPERTRANS 973 21 21
You can find plenty of sites with photos of Bulgaria by doing a Google search. Two sites that we like particularly are:
Bulgaria has four well-defined seasons each about 3 months long. During the summer the temperatures sit in the low 30’s and during the winter months temperatures average between -4 and 6 degrees. You can count on snow in the ski resorts for about 4 months starting around mid-December and ending about mid-March. The high season in the beach resorts with warmest temperatures is in July and August but you can enjoy excellent weather in the 20’s and some days in the 30’s also in June and September.
You can check current weather conditions and weather forecasts for all regions in Bulgaria at:
Bulgarian cuisine is a mixture of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines with it its own distinct characteristics. In addition to the internationally recognized staples such as Bulgarian yogurt and feta cheese, here one can enjoy probably the freshest and tastiest fruits and vegetables in all of Europe. The Bulgarian kitchen has a large variety of salads, stews, soups, and barbeque meats, most of which can be found on the menus of restaurants.
A nice aspect of travel to Bulgaria is that food is extremely inexpensive. A couple can dine at a nice restaurant for less than 30 euro including drinks and a nice meal. Groceries are also inexpensive. For example, one can buy a nice bottle of Bulgarian red wine for about 3-4 euro.
You can look up a discussion of the Bulgarian cuisine at Wikipedia:
Hand, after you visit Bulgaria, you feel the urge to reproduce what you ate, you can look up many recipes at
Most banks in Bulgaria are owned by large Western banks and provide all services that one can expect in Western Europe. ATM machines are conveniently located in all towns and cities and in the resorts. Foreign citizens can open bank accounts in Bulgaria with their ID’s. Deciding on a bank is a personal question but here are some of larger banks with offices throughout Bulgaria:
SEARCH.BG – general search and directories
DIR.BG - general search and directories
BULGARIA ONLINE - general search and directories
ECON.BG – information on the Bulgarian economy
STAT.BG - data on Bulgaria and its economy
Major cities:
BOURGAS
ALTA
Resorts on the Black Sea coastline:
SUNNY BEACH GOLDEN SANDS
NESSEBAR SOZOPOL
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