Why Bulgaria first
If you want the Balkans before the Balkans get expensive, start here. Bulgaria gives you 2,900-metre mountains, Roman theatres still in use, and some of the cheapest good food in Europe — a proper shopska salad and a grilled kebapche dinner still comes in under 15 leva (about €7.50). We did this loop in ten days on around €40 a day including everything.
Sofia, 2 days
Sofia grows on you sideways. Take the free walking tour on day one to get the layering — Roman ruins in metro stations, gold-domed Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, brutalist monuments, and the little Church of St George hiding in a courtyard behind the presidency, a 4th-century red-brick rotunda surrounded by 20th-century concrete. Hostel dorms run €12-18. On a clear day, take the gondola up Vitosha, the mountain that fills the end of every boulevard, and walk the stone rivers at Zlatnite Mostove.
Rila Monastery and the mountains, 2-3 days
A direct bus leaves Sofia's Ovcha Kupel station for Rila Monastery each morning (about 2.5 hours, 15-20 leva). The monastery sits at 1,150 metres in a forested valley, ringed by striped arcades and frescoes of graphic, cheerfully terrifying demons — arrive after the day-trippers leave and you can sleep in the monastery guest rooms (about 60-70 leva) or at a guesthouse in Rila village. Hike an hour upriver to the cave of St Ivan, where pilgrims squeeze through a rock cleft that supposedly refuses passage to the truly sinful.
Then reposition to Sapareva Banya or Panichishte for the Seven Rila Lakes: a chairlift (about 25 leva return) puts you at the Rilski Ezera hut, from where a 4-5 hour loop climbs past all seven glacial lakes to a ridge where, on a clear July morning, half of Bulgaria is at your feet. Go on a weekday; Bulgarians love this hike and Saturday queues for the lift are real. Snow lingers into June — mid-June to September is the window.
Plovdiv, 2-3 days
Buses run from Sofia to Plovdiv every 30-60 minutes (2 hours, about 20 leva); coming from the Rila side, connect through Dupnitsa or back via Sofia. Plovdiv claims 8,000 years of continuous habitation and wears it casually: a Roman theatre wedged into a hillside that still hosts summer concerts, an old town of over-hanging 19th-century merchant houses painted like sweet tins, and Kapana, a former craftsmen's quarter turned into the best bar district in the Balkans. Climb one of the tepeta (hills) for sunset — Youth Hill is quieter than the one with the giant Soviet soldier. Dorms €10-15; craft beer about 6 leva.
Veliko Tarnovo, 2-3 days
The bus from Plovdiv to Veliko Tarnovo takes about 4 hours (25-30 leva) over the Shipka Pass if you are lucky with routing — the golden-domed Shipka Memorial Church and the flying-saucer Buzludzha monument sit up here, and some hostels in Tarnovo run day trips to Buzludzha for around €25, which we rate as the strangest building either of us has ever stood under.
Veliko Tarnovo itself was the medieval capital, stacked in tiers above a hairpin gorge of the Yantra river. Tsarevets fortress covers a whole hilltop (entry about 10 leva); the evening sound-and-light show erupts unannounced some nights and the whole town leans out of windows to watch. Walk the old artisan lane of Samovodska Charshia and eat at a mehana terrace hanging over the gorge.
Practicalities
Loop back to Sofia by bus or train (about 3-4 hours). Bulgaria adopted the euro in 2026 but prices are still often quoted in leva during the transition — carry some cash either way, especially in the mountains. May-June and September are ideal: warm, green, uncrowded. Intercity buses beat trains for speed almost everywhere except the lovely slow line through the Iskar Gorge.
