The striped monastery, the seven lakes, and Sofia after dark.
Whether the monastery beats the lakes on your one clear day, what Bansko costs in February, where the wine list goes Bulgarian. Reviews of every tour you can book in Bulgaria.
Rila in stripes, Plovdiv in marble, the lakes on foot, wine by dark.
The bookings a first Bulgarian week is built around — what each costs, and what travellers made of it.
01Day one, done rightFrom Sofia: Rila Monastery & Boyana Church Day TourRila Monastery and Boyana Church in one run from Sofia. The stripes look painted on until you are standing under them.
02The Roman layerPlovdiv – Group Day Trip from SofiaPlovdiv with a guide who knows which Roman layer you are standing on. The theatre still stages plays after two thousand years.
03The seven lakesFull-day Rila Mountains, Seven Lakes Hike, and Hot Springs Tour from SofiaSeven glacial lakes strung up a Rila ridge, walked in a day and soaked off in a thermal pool on the way back.
04The last pourWine Tasting in Heart of SofiaBulgarian wine, poured and explained in the middle of Sofia. Mavrud and Melnik broad-shouldered enough to convert you.
Sofia first. Then the country opens in every direction.
The capital under its mountain, a Roman city on three hills, two ski towns that share a massif, the old capital of the tsars and a coastline that works June to September. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
Sofia works best at walking pace.
Roman Serdica sits under a shopping street, the Largo wears its red-star years openly, and the wine bars pour Melnik by the glass. Three ways into the city more travellers book than anything else in it.
Monastery, lakes, or the little church first. Pick your Rila.
The holy mountain south of Sofia carries the country’s best day trips, and they are not the same day. What each run costs, and which one fits the weather you were dealt.
The days that go first: Rila, Plovdiv, the Black Sea.
Every Bulgarian tour we cover →The days more travellers take than anything else between the Danube and the Black Sea, and what earns each one the slot.
1
From Bucharest: Full-Day Trip to Bulgaria
Visit Bulgaria from Bucharest on a 12-hour small-group trip to Veliko Tarnovo, Tsarevets Fortress, Arbanasi, and Ruse.
From · $93
Read our review →
2
Rila Monastery and Boyana Church Full-Day Tour
from $24
3
Sofia Escape Room – Teorema Rooms
from $37
4
Communist Walking Tour of Sofia
from $21
5
Wine Tasting in Heart of Sofia
from $36
6
Sofia Highlights 2 Hour Sightseeing Walking Tour
from $19
7
Day tour to Skopje, North Macedonia – Small Group
from $95
8
From Bucharest: Small Group Day Trip to Medieval Bulgaria
from $87
Plovdiv was old when Rome arrived.
Eight thousand years of city on three hills: an amphitheatre that still sells tickets, National Revival mansions leaning over cobbles, and Kapana’s bars filling the old craftsmen’s quarter. An easy two hours from Sofia, and better overnight.
- 1Private city walking tour of Plovdivfrom $184
- 2Food Walk: Bulgarian Food and Culture Tour in Plovdivfrom $59
- 3Wonderful Bridges-Bachkovo Monastery-Assen’s Fortress – day tour from Plovdivfrom $134
Shopska before the grill, Mavrud after dark.
Half the country’s history is edible: banitsa from a window at dawn, a market that still sells by the kilo, wine styles nobody outside the Balkans can pronounce. Book the walk hungry and the tasting last.
What a day costs in leva, Sofia to the Black Sea.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Bulgaria still does a proper day out for less than dinner at home.
Sofia on foot, wine flights in town, the escape rooms and the short transfers between them.
The classic full days: Rila and Boyana, Plovdiv, the seven lakes with a guide who knows the ridge.
Private cars into the Rhodopes, the Valley of the Roses with the tombs, and days built around one household.
Buzludzha, Belogradchik and the Valley of Roses.
Monasteries and beaches exist all over the Balkans. A concrete saucer abandoned on a mountaintop, a fortress grown out of red rock towers, and a painted Thracian dome two millennia old do not.
Buzludzha
The Communist Party built its congress hall on a 1,432-metre peak in 1981 and abandoned it within a decade. The saucer still crowns the Shipka ridge, mosaics peeling in the frost, and the tours photograph it from the hill — the doors have been sealed for years. Winter visits are a different, whiter planet.
- 1Buzludzha Monument and the Museum of Socialist Art★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 25 reviews
- 2A Day trip to the Thracian Kings, The Valley of Roses & Buzludzha★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6 reviews
- 3Communist Heritage Tour- Buzludzha and The Might of the East Block Aviation★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6 reviews
The Belogradchik Rocks
Two hundred million years of sandstone weathered into red towers up to 200 metres tall, with a fortress threaded between them — Ottoman walls on Roman foundations on rock nobody needed to improve. The northwest corner of the country keeps it quiet; go up at golden hour and the whole ridge catches fire.
- 1Full-Day Belogradchik Rocks and Belogradchik Fortress from Sofia★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 75 reviews
- 2Belogradchik Full-day Tour from Sofia★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 30 reviews
- 3Balloon Flight over Belogradchik Rocks + extras★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 22 reviews
The Thracian Tombs
The Valley of the Roses is really a valley of kings: burial mounds seeded across the plain around Kazanlak, one of them holding a domed chamber painted with a funeral feast in the fourth century BC. You view a replica next door to protect the pigment — the horses have not faded in 2,300 years.
- 1Valley of the Thracian Kings, Hidden Treasures★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 28 reviews
- 2Kazanlak-Rose Valley-Valley of the Thracian Kings – private tour from Plovdiv★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 15 reviews
- 3A Day trip to the Thracian Kings, The Valley of Roses & Buzludzha★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6 reviews
Rose harvest, lake thaw and ski season keep their own dates.
Most of Bulgaria can be arranged the evening before from a mehana table. These four run on lift timetables, sailing seasons and a few weeks of flowers, and none of them will move for your itinerary.
- 01The Seven Rila Lakes & Rila MonasteryThe cirque sits above 2,100 metres and the walking day runs to the Rila chairlift’s timetable, not yours.
- 02Kazanlak-Rose Valley-Valley of the Thracian Kings – private tour from PlovdivThe roses that name the valley flower for a few weeks around late May and June. The rest of the year it is green rows and quiet tombs.
- 03Private Ski Lesson in BulgariaThe Bansko and Borovets season runs roughly December to April, and peak-week morning lessons are claimed long before the lifts open.
- 044-hour Boat Trip with Fishing, Lunch and Unlimited Drinks in NessebarThe Black Sea works June to September. When the season closes, the boats out of Nessebar and Sunny Beach simply stop.
Bulgaria runs on snow time and sea time.
The same massif that hides the seven lakes in July is a ski field by Christmas, and the lakes hike becomes a snowshoe day. Decide by the calendar first: gondolas and mulled wine from December, ridges and rose fields from May, and Sofia’s cellars, museums and mineral baths holding the fort in between.
By place — Sofia, the mountains and the Black Sea
By kind of day — Pirin ridges, Melnik cellars, Bansko pistes
Sofia, Rila, Plovdiv, Tarnovo: the loop most first visits settle on.
Rila Monastery
KazanlakFresh on the Bulgaria shelf.
Further down the shelf →
Private Buggy Experience All Seasons in Pamporovo
Read our review →
Tour to Koprivshtitsa and the Buzludzha monument incl the Seuthes Thracian Tomb
Read our review →
Private 2 Hours Sofia Street Art and Graffiti Tour
Read our review →
Private Sofia Tour with Unique Local Food & Drinks Experience
Read our review →
