12 Best Places to Visit in Bulgaria: My Favourites for 2026

Bulgaria is known for painted monasteries, Roman towns, high mountain lakes and a Black Sea coast lined with ancient Greek towns. I live in Sofia, and these are the 12 places I send friends to first, ranked, with how long each takes from Sofia, how I get there by bus, train or hire car, and what the tickets cost in euros.

My 12 favourite places in Bulgaria at a glance

Sofia is home and my base for every trip on this list, and my favourite things to do in Sofia fill the weekend before you head anywhere else. The order below is how hard I'd push you to go, and every time and distance is from Sofia.

The 12 best places to visit in Bulgaria, ranked

1. Plovdiv

Plovdiv is my favourite city in Bulgaria after my own. If you only leave Sofia once, go here. It's 144 km south-east of Sofia: the bus takes about 2 hours and costs €8.50 to €11, the train takes about 3 hours for about €5.60, and Plovdiv as a day trip works fine if you catch an early one.

The Roman theatre on the Old Town hillside is almost 2,000 years old and held about 6,000 people. The Roman Stadium, built for up to 30,000 under Emperor Hadrian, shows its northern curve below the main pedestrian street, and the painted merchants' houses climb the hill above it. A ticket for one Old Plovdiv site costs €3.58, a combined ticket for five is €10.74 and the Bishop's Basilica is €7.57, all listed on the Old Plovdiv ticket page.

In the evening I climb Nebet Tepe for the sunset, then head down to Kapana, a grid of pedestrian lanes full of cafes, craft beer and street art about 10 minutes' walk below the Old Town. Plovdiv has a word for its pace, aylak, which means taking it slow, and I'd always give it a night in Plovdiv so the Old Town lanes are empty when you wake up.

2. Rila Monastery

Rila Monastery is the one I'd see if I only had one day and a car. St Ivan of Rila founded it in the 10th century in a forested valley about 120 km south of Sofia, and he's the face on Bulgaria's €1 coin, so you'll have him in your pocket already. Hrelyu Tower in the courtyard dates from the mid-1300s, most of the rest was rebuilt after a fire in 1833, and the monastery is UNESCO-listed.

The courtyard and church are free and open 07:00 to 19:30, and one €12 ticket covers the museums. Cover your shoulders and knees for the church. If you want the courtyard quiet after the day visitors leave, the monastery has guest rooms and you can stay the night. I'd allow about 1.5 hours inside the walls. A day at Rila Monastery can take in the Seven Rila Lakes too if you leave Sofia early, with about 5 hours of driving in total.

3. Veliko Tarnovo

Veliko Tarnovo was Bulgaria's capital from 1185, when the Second Bulgarian Empire began, until the Ottomans took it in 1393 after a three-month siege. The old town stacks its houses up the cliffs of the Yantra gorge, and Tsarevets, the fortress hill, fills a bend in the river with its walls and the Patriarchal Cathedral on top.

Tsarevets costs €7.67, or €10.23 for a family, and opens every day: 08:00 to 20:00 from April to September, 09:00 to 18:00 in October and 09:00 to 17:00 from November to March, with last entry an hour before closing. You can buy Tsarevets tickets online, and on Tuesdays it shuts for maintenance from 09:10 to 11:00. The cathedral's murals are modern and so bold that the church was never reconsecrated. I go in the late afternoon, then walk Samovodska Charshiya, the old craft street, and stay out for the Sound and Light show over the fortress if it's running that night.

The coach from Sofia takes about 3 hours. The train is slower, with a change at Gorna Oryahovitsa and a station at the foot of the hills, so take a taxi up. Six hours on the road for one afternoon is too much for me. I stay a night, and Veliko Tarnovo's other sights fill the next morning: Trapezitsa hill, the Church of the Forty Martyrs from 1230 and the panorama over the Yantra bend.

4. The Seven Rila Lakes

The Seven Rila Lakes are my favourite hike in Bulgaria: seven glacial lakes stepped up a valley in Rila National Park, above 2,000 metres. A chairlift from Pionerska Hut lifts you more than 500 metres in 20 to 30 minutes, for €16 return or €11 one way, and from the Rila Lakes Hut a loop of about 8.5 km climbs past all seven in 4.5 to 5 hours.

Going up, the lakes run Lower Lake, Fish, Trefoil, Twin, Kidney, Eye and Tear, and Kidney and Eye are the two I wait for. From Sofia it's about 95 km and 1.5 to 1.75 hours by car. By public transport it's a train to Dupnitsa, a local bus to Sapareva Banya and a taxi to the lift. That eats your morning, so I drive. The loop past the lakes suits anyone who can walk uphill for a few hours. Ice can still sit on the lakes in June, and July and August bring the crowds.

5. Koprivshtitsa

Koprivshtitsa is the prettiest small town I know in Bulgaria: painted 19th-century houses, cobbled lanes and stone bridges at 1,030 metres in the Sredna Gora hills, 110 km from Sofia. The April Uprising against Ottoman rule started here, with the first shot fired at a little bridge on 20 April 1876, and the town keeps its revolutionaries' homes as house museums.

A €10 ticket covers 6 museums, or a single house costs €5. My order is Kableshkov House, home of the man who declared the uprising, then Lyutov House, Benkovski House and Debelyanov House, the poet's home. The direct train takes about 2 hours and costs about €4. The station sits about 8 km out of town, where a minibus meets the trains for about €2 in cash. Koprivshtitsa by train is one of my easiest days out without a car. Roughly every five years the town fills up for the National Folklore Festival.

6. Nessebar and Sozopol

The southern coast around Burgas has two old towns on rocky peninsulas, and they're my reason to go to the Black Sea at all. Nessebar began as Mesembria, a Greek colony settled by Dorians from Megara at the start of the 6th century BC. Its old town sits on a former island, joined to the new town by a narrow, man-made isthmus with a wooden windmill on it.

In Nessebar, 40 churches survive at least in part, from St Sophia, the Old Bishopric of the 5th to 6th century, to the 14th-century St John Aliturgetos, and the old town is UNESCO-listed. Sozopol, 35 km south of Burgas, is older still: colonists from Miletus founded it in the 7th century BC as Antheia, later renamed Apollonia. Traditional wooden houses fill its old town.

I'd sleep in Sozopol. Nessebar is the day out, because Sunny Beach, the largest resort on this stretch, starts immediately north of it. Burgas is the hub for both: about 7 hours from Sofia by coach, with FlixBus departures from 11:30 to 21:00, or by intercity train or a short domestic flight. Beach season runs June to August, and the beaches either side of Burgas are what I'd fill 3 nights with.

7. Cape Kaliakra and the northern coast

The north coast is the wilder half of Bulgaria's seaside, and Cape Kaliakra is its best spot: a long, narrow headland 12 km east of Kavarna and 60 km north-east of Varna, with vertical cliffs up to 70 metres high.

The first settlement on the cape dates from the 4th century BC, and its heyday came in the second half of the 14th century, as the capital of the Despotate of Dobruja. You walk through the fortress gate past old walls, baths and the ruler's residence to a lighthouse from 1901 and a little chapel built in 1993. An obelisk at the entrance, the Gate of the 40 Maidens, remembers the legend of 40 girls who jumped into the sea rather than be captured. Dolphins and cormorants live off these cliffs, and in spring and autumn migrating birds pass over the cape.

Nearby, the cliffs at Tyulenovo are about 20 metres high: park by Hotel Tyulenovo and walk 5 to 10 minutes, ideally at sunrise.

Balchik's botanical garden and palace sit back along the coast towards Varna. Coaches from Sofia to Varna take up to about 9 hours, so I take the train or a short flight to Varna and hire a car there, since you can only reach Tyulenovo by car.

8. Kazanlak, the Valley of the Thracian Rulers and Buzludzha

Kazanlak sits in the valley between the Balkan Mountains and the Sredna Gora, where the Thracians buried their kings and nobles in more than a thousand tombs. The famous one, the Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak, dates from the 4th century BC: a beehive tomb painted with a Thracian couple at their funeral feast, with horses and a chariot race around the dome.

The tomb is UNESCO-listed and stays closed to protect its paintings, so you walk into a full-size, exact replica built nearby. The Tomb of Seuthes III is another one in the valley, and each tomb takes about 10 minutes. Kazanlak is also the heart of the Rose Valley, where Bulgaria grows the roses for its rose oil, and the town has a Museum of Roses.

Up the Shipka Pass road, a concrete flying saucer sits on Buzludzha Peak at 1,432 metres. The Buzludzha Monument, 70 metres tall, was opened by Bulgaria's communist party on 23 August 1981, and all maintenance stopped with the fall of communism in 1989. From Kazanlak you take the Shipka Pass road, then a 16 km side road to the top, and on the way up Shipka Memorial Church, built in memory of the Russo-Turkish War, is free to visit and to park at.

Kazanlak is about 3 hours from Sofia by train. Buzludzha is a car trip in practice, so without a car I'd sleep in Kazanlak and take a taxi up.

9. Bachkovo Monastery and Asen's Fortress

Bachkovo is my favourite monastery after Rila. It sits on the Chepelare River 10 km south of Asenovgrad and 189 km from Sofia, and Gregory Pakourianos, a Georgian commander in Byzantine service, founded it in 1083. The ossuary is the only part of the first monastery still standing, with a 14th-century portrait of Tsar Ivan Alexander among its frescoes.

Zahari Zograf painted the porch of the Church of the Archangels in 1841, and the monastery keeps an icon of the Virgin from 1310. On the road from Asenovgrad, Asen's Fortress keeps its church on a rocky ridge above the town, with the Thracian Plain stretching out behind it, and I stop there for the view on the way to the monastery.

From Sofia, ride to Plovdiv, take the train on to Asenovgrad and a taxi for the last 10 km. That's a long day from Sofia, so I do both the morning after a night in Plovdiv.

10. Melnik and Rozhen Monastery

Melnik is Bulgaria's smallest town, a few hundred people in whitewashed stone houses under the Melnik Earth Pyramids, sandstone cliffs up to 100 metres high in the south-western Pirin Mountains. It has made strong wine since at least 1346, and it's the one wine town I'd cross the country for.

The local grape is Broad-leaved Melnik, its wine was reportedly Churchill's favourite, and Kordopulov House above the town has one of Melnik's biggest wine cellars. Melnik sits in the Struma Valley, the warm south-west corner of Bulgaria's wine regions. Rozhen Monastery is a little under 2 hours' walk north-east, and the path there winds through the pyramids, which look their best from the ridge near the monastery.

Melnik lies further south than Rila, towards the Greek border, so I drive down, see Rila Monastery on the way, spend a night in Melnik and walk to Rozhen the next morning before the drive back. You need a car for this one.

11. Belogradchik Rocks

In the far north-west, near the Serbian border, the Belogradchik Rocks rise in a crowd of reddish towers, with a fortress built in among them. The fortress began as a Roman fort about 2,000 years ago and was enlarged in the 14th century.

The fortress at Belogradchik costs about €4 and opens 09:00 to 17:00 from November to March, stretching to 20:00 from June to August. A lookout up a narrow staircase, about 10 minutes from the entrance, gives the best view of the rocks, and an hour inside is plenty. Magura Cave nearby has prehistoric paintings, though their hall is closed and you see a projection instead. By car it's about 3 hours. The daily bus leaves Sofia at 16:30 and takes about 4 hours, with the return at about 6am, so without a car it's two nights.

12. Bansko and the Pirin Mountains

Bansko sits 160 km south of Sofia at 925 metres, at the foot of the Pirin Mountains, and it's my pick for a ski weekend. A gondola from town, built in 2003, takes you up to the runs. Outside ski season I go for the old town's stone houses and mehanas, the folk taverns, and Holy Trinity Church, which the people of Bansko built in 1835.

Buses from Ovcha Kupel and Central Bus Station take about 3 hours. I skip the train, which needs a change at Septemvri onto the slow narrow-gauge line. Bansko is too far for a day, so a weekend in Bansko is how I do it: two nights, with one full day up in the Pirin.

Six more places in Bulgaria that just missed my 12

These six go on my list the moment you have a few more days.

Getting around Bulgaria between these places

Most of my travel between Bulgarian towns happens on coaches, which beat the trains for speed on most routes, while trains win on price. Plovdiv shows the trade: the train saves you €3 to €5 and costs you up to an hour.

Sofia's Central Railway Station and Central Bus Station stand side by side on Knyagina Maria Luisa Boulevard, north of the centre, with Serdika bus station next door. Departure boards show places in Cyrillic, so learn to spot Пловдив (Plovdiv) and Велико Търново (Veliko Tarnovo). Bulgaria's trains are run by BDZ, and I check the BDZ timetable the night before every trip, because early departures make or break a day out.

When I hire a car, I buy the motorway e-vignette on the official toll site before setting off. The coast is the far side of the country, so I take the intercity train or a short flight for that leg. Bulgaria switched to the euro on 1 January 2026, and shops stopped taking leva after 31 January.

When to go where in Bulgaria

I match each place to its season. The cities and monasteries work all year, while the coast wants summer and the high mountains want snow for skiing or dry trails for hiking.

The kukeri of Surva, in their masks and bells, are the one winter event I'd plan a trip around. For Plovdiv, Veliko Tarnovo and Rila Monastery I like spring and autumn best, when the cobbles are cool enough to walk all day.

How I'd fit these places into one Bulgaria trip

Rila Monastery, the Seven Rila Lakes, Koprivshtitsa and Plovdiv all work as day trips from Sofia, so you can sleep in one bed for the first half of a trip. A first week in Bulgaria then fits one line east: a night in Plovdiv with Bachkovo the next morning, Kazanlak and Buzludzha by car, then two nights in Veliko Tarnovo.

With 10 days or more, carry on to the coast. Trains on the Sofia to Varna line stop at Gorna Oryahovitsa, the junction for Veliko Tarnovo, so Varna and Kaliakra come next, then Nessebar and Sozopol from Burgas. Melnik, Bansko and Belogradchik sit the other way, south-west and north-west of Sofia, and I keep them for a separate trip with a hire car.