8 Things You Should Know Before Visiting Bulgaria

Here are some of the things you wouldn’t even think about before travelling to Bulgaria and knowing these things will save you time and money.

Holly and I backpacked Europe and we spent some time visiting some of the main cities in Bulgaria. These are things we wished we knew before we arrived in the beautiful country.

Bulgaria is cheap, but you still need to find the deals.

I read somewhere that Bulgaria is 66% cheaper to live in than the UK and that statistic doesn’t seem far off. One thing you have to remember is they live differently.

What I mean by this is you are far more likely to see a corn van than an ice cream van. I don’t need to explain how corn can be cheaper and more filling than ice cream so you will save money there.

The best way to save the most money is to embrace the place. Try some of their local cuisines, and clothes, and skip over worldwide brands.

Food sits cooked for ages

When picking where to eat you might need an iron stomach, take this from the lactose intolerant man when I see these I need to find the nearest toilet.

The food hygiene rules are not the same as the UK. The 2-hour cook then chilled window doesn’t exist or doesn’t get followed.  You will walk past shop windows with meat sitting in then cooked at 9 am and you go past again at 7 pm and the same meat is still sitting there. It’s common practice there and the locals don’t seem to have an issue with this. But if you come from a country with different food rules you might want to avoid or slowly introduce this food into your diet.

People can speak English but it’s not easy for conversations.

What I mean by this, is the fact you can get the information you might need but it’s hard to get a conversation.

For example, The conversation between me and the information centre lady in the bus station was by using photos and writing the number 12. This was me asking for the train to Plovdiv and what platform it was on. The difference was when we arrived in Thessaloniki In Greece I brought some bus tickets and had a conversation about football.

Airbnb can be your friend.

Hostels and hotels can be found for a good price but Airbnbs can be even better.

We found a 1-bed apartment in Plovdiv for £25 a night. It was a little more than the others but while travelling we decided to only travel with super hosts. This is because we have heard that people use Airbnb for scams. Like fake apartments or robberies. Best to stick to Airbnbs with genuine reviews.

Getting out of Bulgaria can be harder than planned.

Bulgaria has a lot of neighbouring countries which does make it very nice to start a backpacking adventure as we chose. But the issue with this is there are more difficult routes than others.

Trains out of the country can be complicated at certain times of the year and the information on the Internet can be difficult to find.

We originally planned to go from Sofia to Skopje (North Macedonia) but this route was only daily via bus and also was more dangerous than first thought, as this route included Kosovo.

We then looked at going from Plovdiv to Greece, but this meant heading back to Sofia to head to Thessaloniki via coach again as the trains weren’t running.

The coach was OK, no toilet and little information if we get a chance for a wee on a 5-hour journey. We got one at the border crossing.

Don’t be a coffee snob

People in Bulgaria seem to have coffee just for the caffeine hit. They get it however they can and mainly just have the espresso straight. If you do this you will save some serious money. The milk or added hot water is a tourist tax.

What I mean by this is the fact you can get an espresso for as little as 22p and no more than 90p but if you want a cappuccino your looking at £2- £3. Even an Americano will cost you double for just adding hot water.

But if you truly want to save money use the coffee machines you will see all over any city you visit. They are super cheap and the coffee is tasty, small instant coffee but it’s good

Bakeries are your friends

Want to save money and try some amazing food? Bakeries are the places you need to go.

The selection of food is great, not only do you get the normal croissants, pain au chocolate and Cinnamon Swirls.

There is much more like ;

• Crescent Dogs (Hot dogs in croissants, my personal favourite)
• Banitsa ( which are filo pastry, with cheese and egg)

The best way to find good bakeries is to look for ques or ones that people use. Other cheap bakeries can be found inside Lidl and Billa (Supermarkets)

Use Google lens

A quick and easy app to use when you travel, not only in Bulgaria but anywhere that doesn’t write in English. We use this app daily when backpacking. It can translate any written word into your chosen language.

We mainly use this when buying food, finding out what the item is, or what the ingredients are. For me, if it contains milk or not.

Thanks for Reading

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Here is an article you might want to read Everything You Need To Pack For Backpacking Europe