Two weeks touring Bulgaria in a hired motorhome

[bobandjanie]

Brilliant loved it, our neighbour in Spain has family in Sofia, and a while ago they decided to get their elderly parents to move to Sofia, they packed up and shipping the car and dogs, putting their apartment for sale and renting one, it didn't last long and they moved back.
Reading this and seeing the photos it looks a wonderful country to visit, thanks for taking the time and sharing it's on our list. Bob.

 

[dryad]

Phew! Not sure if there's a limit to number of photos! Here's the blue mayo one I deleted!

wow, that is a very vibrant colour mayo, wonder why they did that except to make a psychedelic plate of food..

and thank you for taking me around your tour of bulgaria from the comfort of my sofa, have enjoyed every post, every photo, loved it..

are you thinking of doing your home country, would love to see..

.

 

[Poms_from_Adelaide]

Looks fantastic - I’m trying to add it to my saved places in Mundus and I can find the monastery but not the village or restaurant. Do you have a GPS location or what three words? Please keep blogging - you are a great writer and take some lovely photos.

I think it’s 42.1548,23.3995 you continue on past the monastery and keep going to the end of the road - it’s on Park4night #354223

And thank you for your kind words.

 

[Poms_from_Adelaide]

Again would love a location for my app please! Our dog would love this overnight stop!

This one is 41.7431, 24.3578 - also on Park4night #67519 -narrow road up there and apparently the fish restaurant at the thermal baths is very good - when it’s open!

 

[Poms_from_Adelaide]

So how was it generally? Off grid park ups acceptable and safe? People friendly? Campsites cheap? Safe? Many motorhomers aground?

Felt very safe. The people we met in restaurants etc were lovely. Campsites varied from 26euros a night at the Glamping Alliance place down to 10euros at Ivan’s place near Sofia. I think the Varna one was 40Lev and not sure about Kamping Kromidovo as they also took us in and out of Melnik so we paid for all together. Saw a few other Mobis - nice English couple at Shipka, and a few Dutch, German and Russian ones. Park4night seemed to have best options for free parks out of the various apps.

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[Poms_from_Adelaide]

That is worthy of “blog of the month” status, sadly no such thing(Jim take note). The hire van, Knaus, looked good quality. How much did they charge for your hire if you don’t mind me asking?
Phil

Works out around 100euro a day - I use Campanda.co.uk (think I may have used a different one in Spain last year, but Campanda definitely for Slovenia and Bulgaria). When you price up a hire car and Airbnb and cost of breakfasts/coffees out etc that you’d have to pay if not in a motorhome, plus the convenience of not having to pack/unpack multiple times, I don’t think that’s too bad. Prices seem pretty consistent - I’ve been looking at Croatia for 2024 and still around the same.

We did use Anywhere Campers for a Germany-Netherlands trip in 2018 and that was a little more pricey, although great service and very convenient for a non round-trip.

 

[Poms_from_Adelaide]

thanks for that, I am interesting in moving to Bulgaria in a few years so a good tour needed prior.

I got some fantastic help in the planning stages from a nice guy who had moved to Bulgaria from the UK a few years previously, who replied to a Facebook group post about motorhoming in Bulgaria. And John and Sara at Kamping Kromidovo are UK expats too.

 

[Poms_from_Adelaide]

wow, that is a very vibrant colour mayo, wonder why they did that except to make a psychedelic plate of food..

and thank you for taking me around your tour of bulgaria from the comfort of my sofa, have enjoyed every post, every photo, loved it..

are you thinking of doing your home country, would love to see..

.

Spirulina I think! Or something like that! It did lead to discussion about the practice of wearing blue plasters in the kitchen so it would show up if it dropped off in the food! We checked carefully for plasters before eating!!

We do a bit of travel - mainly within South Australia at the moment as both still working - but the trouble is, you can travel for days in Australia, but you still end up speaking the same language, eating the same food, using the same currency, and not being in a foreign country! I really really miss Europe! (We moved from Essex in 2004)

 

[Poms_from_Adelaide]

Ivan’s place near Sofia by the way is 42.7432,23.2857 and Park4night #47075

 

[dryad]

Spirulina I think! Or something like that! It did lead to discussion about the practice of wearing blue plasters in the kitchen so it would show up if it dropped off in the food! We checked carefully for plasters before eating!!

We do a bit of travel - mainly within South Australia at the moment as both still working - but the trouble is, you can travel for days in Australia, but you still end up speaking the same language, eating the same food, using the same currency, and not being in a foreign country! I really really miss Europe! (We moved from Essex in 2004)

i see your point..

selfishly i didn't want your adventure to end, was so enjoying it, but then, i guess you'd have liked longer too..

.

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[Chasnam]

Great write up ,easy read and great pictures my better half has a degree in archeology and when we went to Croatia we visited a lot of roman sights they look very similar to those you posted ,you will enjoy a trip there .
Chasnam

 

[Poms_from_Adelaide]

i see your point..

selfishly i didn't want your adventure to end, was so enjoying it, but then, i guess you'd have liked longer too..

.

I ALWAYS want longer - at the moment we combine our trips with a visit to the UK first to see elderly parents for a couple of weeks, so we can’t take much more than another fortnight to ensure we both still have jobs when we get home… I’m trying to work on 3 weeks for Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina in 2024 though!

 

[Stonemags76]

Thanks for posting! Enjoyed it!

 

[PxJ]

Brilliant thread, well written, very informative & can’t wait for your next trip/expedition

 

[Rohana]

Summary

Another great trip, a fair amount of driving, but plenty of stops along the way to see as much of this amazing country as we could in the time we had.

We initially bought drinking water, but everywhere along the mountain roads there are free springs with the sweetest, freshest water where you can fill up your drink bottles.

Architecture around Bulgaria is a crazy mix of Roman – even pre-Roman – ruins, stark and confronting communist and post-communist projects, and cobbled streets and painted houses of the Revival Period before the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule in the 19th Century.

We were there in April, and the main season doesn’t really start until May, so a lot of places were either closed or very quiet. This meant we could use the Park4Night app without trouble to find free camps that didn’t offend the locals, and only actually paid for six nights camping over the 14 nights we had the camper. Campsite prices seem to be sometimes in Bulgarian Lev, other times in Euros.

When I did my initial research, there were very few campsites around Bulgaria, but George gave us a copy of 2022’s Camping Bulgaria guide by Camping.bg https://camping.bg/ which had a few in it I hadn’t found before, and apparently the 2023 version has another 9 campsites added, so it’s a growing tourism trend.

Great blog. Thanks!

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[berni109]

Be in Bulgaria tomorrow and just found this. Need to check where your travels intersect with ours to glean a few tips.

 

[berni109]

Looks like it's only Plovdiv and Rila where we intended to go and maybe the pretty village Koprivshtitsa u mentioned as a detour if we have time.
On the road to Bansko in the morning.
How did you find the standard of driving? My son who visits frequently recons they are some of the worst drivers he has ever come across.

 

[Gingernuts]

Excellent write up and photos

 

[WillysMB]

I think I'm going to have to add Bulgaria to the list of places to visit

 

[Poms_from_Adelaide]

Looks like it's only Plovdiv and Rila where we intended to go and maybe the pretty village Koprivshtitsa u mentioned as a detour if we have time.
On the road to Bansko in the morning.
How did you find the standard of driving? My son who visits frequently recons they are some of the worst drivers he has ever come across.

Some of the overtaking is pretty scary! And I think we were the only ones obeying speed limit signs!

Watch out for potholes on the road to Koprivshtitsa - some of them will swallow you whole if you let them!

Where are you planning to stay in Plovdiv? The Glamping Alliance was quite pricey, but a very convenient base with the bus stop into town right outside. Best stop to get off for the Old Town is the one immediately after the tunnel.

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