The Rila lakes, the Pirin snow, the Black Sea.
Which Rila Monastery trip leaves you real time inside the walls. Whether Borovets or Bansko suits your legs. What a Melnik wine tasting costs. Every tour in Bulgaria, reviewed.
The days most Bulgaria trips are built around.
A monastery in a mountain gorge, six hours of lake path above the treeline, two ski resorts on two different ranges, and a capital with Roman streets under the tram stops.
Rila Monastery: pick the version that fits your day.
All Rila Monastery tours →
Nearly every visitor books Rila. What changes is what gets bolted on: Boyana Church on the way home, the hermit cave up the hill, or the whole Seven Lakes hike stacked on top of it.
Rila Monastery and Boyana Church
Two UNESCO sites in one loop out of Sofia: the striped arcades and painted porch at Rila, then the thirteenth-century frescoes at Boyana on the way back into the city.
The monastery plus the Seven Lakes
The lakes sit above 2,100 metres and the path links them one at a time. Take this only if you are happy with a dawn start, a chairlift queue and a late return.
Rila and the cave of Saint Ivan
The hermit’s cave sits a short walk above the monastery, and the squeeze through the rock is the point. It stays empty while the coaches fill the courtyard.
Borovets and Bansko are not the same ski trip.
They sit on different ranges, an hour and a half apart by road, and they ski differently. Lessons, lift passes and rental are arranged separately in each resort.
BorovetsThe closest resort to Sofia, an hour up the road from the airport. Pine-lined runs from the Yastrebets gondola, a gentle nursery area at the bottom, and a resort that is essentially three hotels and a lift queue. Good for a first week on snow or a day trip out of the capital.
- 1Private Ski Lesson in Bulgariafrom $132
- 2Private Ski or Snowboard Tuitionfrom $90
- 3Premium ski hirefrom $34
BanskoHigher, steeper and colder, under the Pirin peaks. The gondola lifts you out of a real town with a mehana on every corner, which is why the evenings are better and the morning lift queue is worse. The upper bowl holds snow long after Borovets has softened.
- 1Ski and Snowboard equipment rental in Banskofrom $18
- 2The Best of Bansko: Magical Snowshoeing Adventure & SPAfrom $124
- 3Ski and Snowboard Rental in Banskofrom $20
The tours travellers to Bulgaria book most.
Every Bulgarian review →The days that fill first, from a $20 walk around Sofia to the full run out to the monastery and back.
1
Rila Monastery and Boyana Church Full-Day Tour
Review of Sofia’s Rila Monastery and Boyana Church tour, with practical advice on timing, costs, guides, transport, meals, and waiting times.
From · $24
Read our review →
2
Sofia Escape Room – Teorema Rooms
from $37
3
Rila Monastery & Boyana Church Day Tour
from $24
4
Communist Walking Tour of Sofia
from $21
5
Admission Ticket to the Museum of Illusions in Sofia
from $17
6
Wine Tasting in Heart of Sofia
from $36
7
Sofia Highlights 2 Hour Sightseeing Walking Tour
from $19
8
Group Day Trip from Sofia
from $22
The Bulgarian coast changes character at Varna.
North of Varna the beach runs into dunes, forest and the long strands at Golden Sands and Albena. South of Burgas the old town of Nessebar sits out on its own peninsula, with Sozopol and the fishing harbours below it. Boats leave from both halves.
Sofia keeps its best two thousand years below street level.
Roman Serdica sits open in the metro underpass, a mosque, a synagogue and two cathedrals stand within a few minutes of each other, and Vitosha mountain closes the end of the boulevard. The walking tours cover the ground; the food and wine tours take the evening.
What a Bulgarian day out costs, top to bottom.
Bulgaria is inexpensive by European standards and the tour prices show it. Every tour on the site, sorted by what you pay.
City walks, museum entry, wine tastings and a day of ski rental. Most of Bulgaria lives in this band.
The full-day runs: Rila and the lakes, Plovdiv and Bachkovo, the rocks at Belogradchik, a boat day on the coast.
Private drivers, chartered boats and the multi-day routes that cross the country end to end.
Three things you can only do in Bulgaria.
Monasteries and old towns turn up all over the Balkans. A rose harvest, a canyon of red sandstone towers and a hilltop capital lit for a crowd do not.
The Rose Harvest
The valley between Karlovo and Kazanlak grows most of the world’s rose oil. Picking starts before sunrise, while the oil is still in the petal, and the whole crop comes in over a few weeks in late May and June. Come outside that window and the fields are green rows and the visit is a distillery.
- 1Kazanlak-Rose Valley-Valley of the Thracian Kings – private tour from Plovdiv★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 15 reviews
- 2A Day trip to the Thracian Kings, The Valley of Roses & Buzludzha★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6 reviews
- 3Private Access Rose Festival Kazanlak 05-07.06.2025★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 6 reviews
The Belogradchik Rocks
A three-kilometre run of red sandstone towers on the edge of the Balkan range, close enough to the Serbian border that few itineraries reach it. The Ottomans and the Romans before them built a fortress straight into the gaps, so the walls and the rock are the same structure.
- 1Full-Day Belogradchik Rocks and Belogradchik Fortress from Sofia★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 75 reviews
- 2Belogradchik Full-day Tour from Sofia★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 30 reviews
- 3Balloon Flight over Belogradchik Rocks + extras★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 22 reviews
The Fortress Circuit
Tsarevets at Veliko Tarnovo was the seat of the second Bulgarian empire and still gets lit for a sound-and-light show over the river bend. Asen’s Fortress hangs off a cliff above the Chepelare river, and Baba Vida guards the Danube at Vidin with its towers intact.
- 1Small group tour to Plovdiv, Asen’s Fortress and Bachkovo Monastery★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 164 reviews
- 2Full-Day Belogradchik Rocks and Belogradchik Fortress from Sofia★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 75 reviews
- 3Full-Day Plovdiv and Asen’s Fortress Tour from Sofia★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 36 reviews
The communist decades are inside living memory in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria was a one-party state from 1946 until 1989. These tours cover what was built in those years and what happened in them: the ministries around Largo in Sofia, the housing blocks people still live in, and the party house on Buzludzha. Most guides are old enough to remember the period first hand.
- Communist Walking Tour of Sofiafrom $21
- Sofia Communist History 2-Hour Tour in a Classic Trabantfrom $240
- Sofia Food & Tasting Tour with Communist-Era Tram Ridefrom $91
The Bulgarian days that will not wait for you.
Most of Bulgaria can be arranged the night before from your hotel. These run on seasons, harvests and snow, and none of them care when your flight lands.
- 01Rila Monastery and 7 Rila Lakes Self-Guided Shared Trip from SofiaThe lake circuit is a summer route above 2,100 metres. Snow lies on the upper path well into June and the chairlift runs on a season, not on demand.
- 02Kazanlak-Rose Valley-Valley of the Thracian Kings – private tour from PlovdivThe rose harvest runs from late May into June. Outside those weeks there is nothing in the fields to pick.
- 03Ski and Snowboard equipment rental in BanskoRental and lessons are winter-only and the good kit goes first over the New Year and the February half-term weeks.
- 04VIP Catamaran 4 hour Activity with Snorkeling in BulgariaCoastal boat days run from late spring to early autumn. Out of season the harbours at Nessebar and Sozopol are quiet.
A wet day in Bulgaria is a cave day.
The country is riddled with them: Devetaki with its cathedral-sized mouth, Saeva Dupka, the Eyes of God shaft near Prohodna, the waterfalls at Krushuna in the same valley. When the caves are done, the answer is a cellar, a monastery or a museum, all of which have roofs.
By base — the town you wake up in
Sofia237 tours
Plovdiv40 tours
Borovets28 tours
Bansko16 tours
Varna26 tours
Burgas & Nessebar21 tours
Veliko Tarnovo8 tours
Sliven6 tours- Every tour in Bulgaria →
By day out — snow, sea, stone or supper
Sofia to the sea, the way most first visits run.
Koprivshtitsa
Veliko TarnovoNewest reviews from around Bulgaria.
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