Sofia
Bulgaria
A capital with a mountain at the end of the tram line, Roman ruins under the metro, and the cheapest good coffee in the EU
Photo by Ivan Nedelchev on Unsplash
Photos by Alexandr Bormotin, Natalya Letunova, Roaming Pictures and Stefan Vladimirov on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Bulgaria
May to June, and September to October (winter is skiing on Vitosha; high summer is hot but the mountain is next door)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 75mm in Jun
Where it is
42.70°N, 23.32°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Walk through the Roman city under the Largo
- Take the tram and the lift up Vitosha
- See Boyana church in the morning
- Day-trip to Rila monastery
- Eat at a mehana in the old streets around Alabin
Sofia travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Bulgaria
Good valueBulgaria 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.
ATMs & cards
UniCredit Bulbank, DSK and Postbank machines are free or nearly; the Euronet machines in the tourist streets charge a fee and push conversion — decline it and pay in euros. Cards are taken almost everywhere now.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- the standalone machines in the tourist streets
Use these instead
- 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.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Bulgaria
SafeComfortable, and walking the centre late is normal. Pickpockets on the trams and around the central station are the complaint, and the yellow taxis without a posted rate overcharge — use Bolt or check the window. The street dogs are gone; the potholes are not.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the trams and the central station — pickpockets at the doors in the crush
- yellow taxis with no rate on the window — the overcharge; use Bolt or read the door
- the streets around Lions’ Bridge late — rougher than the centre rather than anything else
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Bulgaria visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Bulgaria
Good and affordableRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis for hiking in the mountains in summer
Getting treated
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.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodShopska 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.
Nightlife
Cheap, late and student-heavy: bars in the streets between Vitosha Boulevard and the university, clubs in the old industrial spaces.
- Vitosha Boulevard — and the side streets, for the terraces
- the streets around Shishman — craft beer and the wine bars
- Studentski grad — the student district, cheapest and loudest
Closing: Bars around 02:00, clubs 05:00 at weekends.
Getting around
Easy- BoltWorks here
- Yandex GoWorks here
- UberNot here
- Against a taxi
- 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.
Uber does not operate in Bulgaria. Bolt runs in the cities and the coast resorts; the mountains are a phone call.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Sofia — 7 hours ahead of you
1 hour of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–10:00 your time, 16:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 02:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 02:00–10:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Bulgaria
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Good. Comfortable for two people working, streaming in the evening, large downloads. Broadband here runs at 78% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fast. Enough to work from a cafe or a beach on a hotspot all day. Mobile runs at 2.9× the global median of 109 Mbps.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Bulgaria, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Bulgarian
- HelloЗдравейте (Zdraveyte)zdra-VEY-teh
- PleaseМоля (Molya)MO-lya
- Thank youБлагодаря (Blagodarya)bla-go-da-RYA
- Yes / NoДа / Не (Da / Ne)da / neh
5 more phrases
- Excuse meИзвинете (Izvinete)iz-vi-NEH-teh
- How much is it?Колко струва? (Kolko struva?)KOL-ko STROO-va
- CheersНаздраве (Nazdrave)naz-DRA-veh
- DeliciousМного вкусно (Mnogo vkusno)MNO-go VKOOS-no
- GoodbyeДовиждане (Dovizhdane)do-VEEZH-da-neh
Cyrillic, which is where the alphabet was invented, so signs need a moment. English is good in the cities and among the young; Russian is understood by the older generation and not always welcomed. A nod means no and a shake means yes.
Religion
Bulgarian Orthodox, with a Muslim minority
Around three quarters Orthodox and a tenth Muslim, mainly Turkish and Pomak communities in the south and east. The monasteries — Rila, Bachkovo — are working houses as well as monuments: shoulders and knees covered, no photographs during a service, and candles bought at the door and lit below for the living and above for the dead.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Learn that a nod means no and a shake means yes, and that people switch to the foreign way for you, which is worse
- Buy the candle at the monastery door and light it below for the living
- Say nazdrave and look people in the eye when glasses meet
- Round up rather than tip heavily; ten per cent is generous
Don't
- Do not call the country a Balkan backwater to its face; the euro and the EU are recent and hard-won
- Do not wear shorts into a monastery church
- Do not photograph people at prayer
- Do not assume everyone speaks Russian, or that the assumption is welcome
Where to stay in Sofia
No Holistay rentals in Sofia yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Sofia on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Sofia SOF
20 minfrom the airport· 10 km as the crow flies
20 min by metro line 4.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
