What a visitor's money does in Bulgaria: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Euro (EUR) · 1 EUR = 1.15 USD · 1 EUR = 0.86 GBP
Bulgaria joined the euro on 1 January 2026, so the lev is gone: everything is in euros, and shops still show the old lev price beside it as the law requires for the first year. Nothing to exchange from the eurozone.
Avoid: Euronet, the standalone machines in the tourist streets
Use: UniCredit Bulbank, DSK, Postbank
Bulgaria has used the euro since 1 January 2026, so there is nothing to change from the eurozone. Decline the conversion prompt; the bank machines are free or nearly.
A short ride in Sofia: €3–6 across town in Sofia — cheap
The yellow taxis are cheap too when the rate is on the window; the ones without it, and the ones at the station, charge what they like. The app removes the argument.
Shopska salad and banitsa are the two things everybody eats; the mehanas (taverns) around the centre do grilled meat by the kilo. Tuesday and Friday markets at Zhenski Pazar are the cheapest shopping in the city, and coffee is a euro anywhere that is not Vitosha Boulevard.
Kapana is the eating district — small plates, craft beer, natural wine — and the old town has the traditional mehanas. Try the kavarma (meat stew in a pot) and the local rakia; the wine from the Thracian valley is cheap and good.
Mehanas with fires, grilled meat, bean soup and kapama (layered meat and sauerkraut in a clay pot) — a full dinner with wine is €15. The rakia is local and strong. The resort hotels are the expensive end; eat in the old town.
Mehanas on Gurko street with the gorge under the terrace; the Shtastliveca chain is the reliable one and the small places are the better ones. Elena-style dried meat, monastery-style bean soup, and the wine from the north — cheap and good.
Fish on the Fisherman’s Wharf and in the beach restaurants under the Sea Garden; mussels, sprats and the Black Sea turbot when it is in season. The centre does the Bulgarian standards cheaply; the resorts north do them dearly.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
SofiaBulgariaA capital with a mountain at the end of the tram line, Roman ruins under the metro, and the cheapest good coffee in the EU
PlovdivBulgariaOne of the oldest cities in Europe, a Roman theatre still in use, seven hills, and a bohemian quarter called the Trap
BanskoBulgariaThe cheapest serious skiing in Europe, a stone-house old town under the Pirin, and a summer of hiking to glacial lakes
Veliko TarnovoBulgariaThe medieval capital stacked above a river gorge, a fortress lit up at night, and a craft street still working
VarnaBulgariaThe Black Sea capital: a Roman bath the size of a block, a sea garden that runs for miles, and the oldest worked gold on earth