Bulgaria travel health
Required is not recommended: the first is what the border asks about, the second is what a clinic would suggest. Both, for Bulgaria, then the number to dial and what care costs a visitor. Applies to every guide in Bulgaria: Sofia, Plovdiv, Bansko, Veliko Tarnovo, Varna.
Required to enter
Nothing. No vaccination certificate is asked for at the border.
Recommended
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis for hiking in the mountains in summer
Emergency number
112
Care for visitors
Good and affordable
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Tap water is drinkable everywhere. Ticks in the forests from spring, and the sun on the Black Sea beaches. Sofia and Plovdiv have good private hospitals; the mountain resorts rely on the nearest town.
The general rules — clinic timing, water, mosquitoes, insurance — are in travel health tips.
The guides in Bulgaria
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