The Best Rooftop Bars in Sofia: 6 Bars With a View

Sofia's rooftop bars are mostly hotel bars, and the good ones look straight at the gold domes of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral or across the city to Vitosha. There are only a handful worth the lift, from the 7th floor to the 29th. These are the six I go to, with what each one looks at, the hour to turn up, which ones open in winter and what the door expects you to wear.

Sofia's rooftop bars at a glance

Two of my six sit in the centre within walking distance of Alexander Nevsky, one is up on Vitosha Boulevard by NDK, and three are a taxi, tram or metro ride out of the centre. Five of them sit on top of hotels: Sense, the Hyatt Regency, the Grand Hotel Millennium, Kitchen 59 and the Crowne Plaza.

The best rooftop bars in Sofia

This is the order I'd send you in. The first three fit into any weekend in the centre; the last three are worth the trip out for a pool, a band or a midweek deal.

Sense Rooftop Bar

I take everyone here first. Sense is a hotel at 16 Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard, opposite the Italian embassy, and its bar sits on the 9th floor with the domes of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral close enough to fill the windows. Glass panels slide back when the weather is good, and the Gastro Bar in the same building does dinner if you'd rather not move.

It opens at 10am every day and closes at 2am from Wednesday to Saturday and at 1am from Sunday to Tuesday. I go for sunset, when the room is calm and the domes catch the last of the light. Book at weekends on +359 884 544 108, because the window tables go first.

The Scene Rooftop Bar & Terrace

My pick for the drinks themselves. The Scene opened in 2020 on the 7th floor of the Hyatt Regency on Vasil Levski Square, and its cocktail list borrows from Europe and the Middle East. The food is Mediterranean, and the view runs across the centre to Vitosha with Alexander Nevsky in the frame.

Hours change with the season, and it keeps indoor seating through the winter. Book for Friday and Saturday nights. If you're choosing between here and Sense, Sense has the closer cathedral and The Scene has, to my taste, the better cocktails.

Ozone Skybar & Lounge

Ozone is the high one. It sits on the 29th floor of the Grand Hotel Millennium at 89B Vitosha Boulevard, by NDK, with two panoramic terraces under roofs that open in good weather. From up there you see Sofia spread across its basin with mountains on every side.

It opens at 6pm from Monday to Thursday and at 11am from Friday to Sunday, when there's a weekend brunch, and closes at 2am every night. Thursday is retro remixes, and Friday and Saturday bring house DJs and themed nights. The house rule is cocktail attire, and people follow it. This is where I start a smart night before heading on to Sofia's clubs, and it's the one bar on this list where I always book: +359 883 253 600 or ozone@ghms.bg.

Kitchen 59 Rooftop

Kitchen 59, also listed as Rooftop 59, sits at 59 Tsar Boris III Boulevard in Hipodruma, in a building that holds a hotel, a restaurant, a cooking school and co-working desks. The rooftop is on the 9th floor, with an indoor lounge, an open terrace and Vitosha straight ahead.

In summer the rooftop pool opens, with daybeds and hammocks around it. It's far too small for lengths, but it's the one I'd add to any list of swimming pools in Sofia for the view alone. The bar opens all year, the dress code is casual, and a tram stops right outside, so you don't need a taxi to get there.

The Corner Piano Bar & Dinner

The Corner has the music. It sits on the 8th floor, at the top of a business centre on the corner of Nikola Vaptsarov and Cherni Vrah boulevards in Lozenets, with a long terrace over Loven Park and South Park to Vitosha.

It's open from lunch until late, there's live music on some nights and DJs take over at weekends. It's my answer when a friend wants live music in Sofia and a view in the same evening. Book ahead for weekends and band nights.

Sky Bonsai Bar

Out in Mladost, Sky Bonsai is the rooftop bar of the Crowne Plaza at 111 Alexander Malinov Boulevard, on the M1 metro line towards Business Park. It opens from Tuesday to Saturday, 5pm to 1am, and closes on Sundays and Mondays. It runs DJ sets, theme nights and live music, and after dark the view is the city's lights.

It's the furthest out of my six, so I'd only make the trip if you're staying out that way, or on a Tuesday to Thursday night.

What you can see from Sofia's rooftop bars

Three landmarks do most of the work from Sofia's rooftops. The bar you pick decides which one you get.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

The gold domes of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral are the picture everyone wants from a Sofia rooftop, and Sense and The Scene are the two bars that give it to you. From Sense the domes rise just across the rooftops. From The Scene the cathedral is one part of a wider view over the centre, with Vitosha behind it.

Vitosha Mountain

Vitosha Mountain rises behind the city to the south, topping out at 2,290 metres on Cherni Vrah. Kitchen 59 and The Corner face it head on, Ozone sees it over the rooftops from the 29th floor, and The Scene catches it beyond the centre. With the sun setting off to its right, the mountain turns pink and orange at dusk.

NDK and South Park

The National Palace of Culture, NDK to everyone in Sofia, is the vast congress centre that opened in 1981 at the end of Vitosha Boulevard. Ozone looks straight down on it and its park, and The Corner's terrace looks over South Park and Loven Park from Lozenets.

Sunset times in Sofia by month

Sunset is the hour to be on a rooftop in Sofia, and it moves a lot: from just before 5pm in December to after 9pm in June. These are the local clock times for the 15th of each month, with the time I'd want to be sat down.

Bulgaria changes its clocks on the same weekends as the UK, the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October, and stays 2 hours ahead of London all year. That's why sunset jumps by over an hour between March and April. June evenings, with the sun going down after 9pm, are a big part of why I call early summer the best time to visit Sofia for drinks outdoors.

Which rooftop bars in Sofia are open in winter

Most of Sofia's rooftops have a warm room behind the terrace, so a December trip doesn't rule them out. Here's how they handle the cold months.

For a winter weekend in Sofia, Sense is my pick, and the cathedral looks even better with snow on its domes. Ozone is the one for a late night, under a closed roof 29 floors up with the city lit below you.

Rooftop bar dress codes, age rules and booking

Rooftop bars are where Sofia dresses up, and the two smartest ones write their rules down.

Kitchen 59 calls its dress code casual. At The Scene and The Corner I'd still go smart casual, because that's what everyone else will be wearing. Book for Friday and Saturday nights at Sense, Ozone and The Scene, and for band nights at The Corner. On a Tuesday or Wednesday I walk straight in.

Rooftop bar prices in Sofia

Rooftop cocktails sit at the top end of Sofia prices. Ozone publishes its full menu in euros on the Grand Hotel Millennium's Ozone page, so here's what it charges, as a benchmark for the rest:

Two house cocktails and a bowl of olives come to €35, less than the same round in a London hotel bar. Sense sits in the same pricey bracket. Back at street level, a half-litre of local beer in Sofia's bars costs €2 to €3.50, a quarter or less of a cocktail at Ozone, which is why I have one drink up top and move on. On nights when I care more about the cocktail than the view, I skip the lifts and go to one of the cocktail bars in Sofia at street level.

Getting to Sofia's rooftop bars and getting home

Sense and The Scene are both in the centre, and you can walk between them. Sofia University, on M1 and M4, is the nearest metro stop to Sense, and a single ticket costs €0.80. Ozone is at the NDK end of Vitosha Boulevard, and NDK station on M2 is its nearest stop. Kitchen 59 has a tram stop outside, The Corner in Lozenets is easiest by taxi, and Sky Bonsai is out in Mladost on the M1.

The metro runs from about 5am to midnight, so it gets you there and rarely home. Getting back is a taxi in Sofia job: Uber doesn't operate here, so I use the TaxiMe app or hail a licensed yellow cab. OK Supertrans charges €1.70 to start plus €0.85 a kilometre between 10pm and 6am, so a 3 km ride home across the centre comes to about €4.25 on the meter.

My rooftop evening in Sofia

When friends visit for a weekend in Sofia, this is the evening I plan around the sunset. In June it runs like this: at Sense by 8.20pm for a drink while the sun goes down over the cathedral domes, then a short walk to dinner in the centre around 9.30pm. After that it's a taxi to Ozone at about 11pm on a Friday or Saturday, when the DJs are on and the city is lit up below the terraces.

In December the same plan starts at Sense at 4.10pm, with dinner at 7pm and a nightcap at Ozone, or at The Scene on a quieter night. Either way, the rooftop is my first drink of a night out in Sofia, and the bars and clubs at street level get the rest of it.