All Sofia Tours & Excursions in 2026

There is quite a lot of driving to each venue. The scenery as we came home was magnificent (unfortunately, horrendous weather in the morning so our window was steamed up). The monastery was great - and enough time to enjoy fresh donuts as well as interesting architecture. We loved the thermal bath - it was just what we needed after travelling to Bulgaria the day before.

Please make sure to check the weather. We started the day with a visit to the Rila Monastery. The monastery is beautiful. Bring cash so you can try some of their delicious snacks. The 7 Rila Lakes hiking portion was canceled due to significant snow and mud on the ground. The tour leader was kind enough to replace this with an excursion to see a waterfall followed by free time in a thermal spa. Overall it was a very good experience.

Our tour guide/driver was fantastic and took great care of us. It was raining heavily but he ensured we got the full experience and asked how much we wanted to push through all the parts of the tour given the weather - meaning he followed the desires of the group. He was on time and wrote the day before to reconfirm which I thoroughly appreciated. He was personable and a safe driver, and had great recommendations for meal and shopping. The town itself is nice and walkable (quite beautiful when you see the placement of the fortress), and the history is interesting.

I recently attended a three hour private Bulgarian food and drink tasting tour of Sofia with friends. Our guide, Rali was excellent, friendly and very knowledgeable. The venues we visited were all good and my friends and I felt that we gained an excellent insight into the history and culture of Bulgaria, it’s people and the cuisine.

We went on this trip on Sep 15 with Ivo. He picked us up on time. His car was spacious and clean and he even offered us some water, as it was supposed to be a very hot day. He was a very safe and calm driver and very good guide. Maybe a little softspoken, but very knowledgeable. The Devetaki Cave was absolutely fascinating, the Krushuna Falls were beautiful, we enjoyed our time in Lovech and had a really great time overall. After our trip on the day before was rather an ordeal, we were so lucky to have Ivo as our guide this time around and were extremely impressed with how beautiful and diverse Bulgarias landscape and history is.

This was a long day, but it was worth the time and money. Our driver/host Apostolos inew a lot about the country and kept us on track while ensuring we had opportunity to stop for food and bathroom. We very much enjoyed the 2hr walking free tour (tip based) that Apostolos arranged for us( we learned a lot about Plovdiv from our very knowledgeable local tour guide. We had enough time at the Rila Monastery to walked around and admire the architecture and religious wealth. We wished that we had received the audio tour hyperlink from the company that runs the tour one day in advance, as we had planned our time there more efficiently. However, we strongly recommend the tour.

We had our tour of Rila Monastery and Boyana Church in February 2025 at 9 am. The day before we got all the information of this so it was easy in the morning. When we first got to the meeting point, there were 3 tour buses. You just say what company you are with and then they point you to the right bus. Our tour guide was Lubdomir. The first stop was Boyana church, spent about 40 minutes here, in total we had 22 ish people on the tour so we had to go inside the church in 2 groups. Also it was extra payment for Boyana Church (approximately 5 EUR per person) but this was communicated the day before. After that we left for Rila Monastery. We got there at 12 pm. You had the choice to leave at 1:30 pm to go to a local restaurant where you can pay via card or leave at 2:45 pm from the monastery, the choice was yours which was nice. There was a bakery and some souvenirs outside of the monastery where the local breakfast pastry bread was 1 LEV. After we got driven back to Sofia and finished the tour around 4:45 pm. Solid tour, felt like we had an ample amount of time, nice coach and solid guide.

Plovdiv was very beautiful and has a lot more history than people probably realise. So if you like history, this trip would be perfect. But also, some amazing sights and views and with the guide, we saw more sights than we probably would've if we were on our own. On this trip, we had a nice long walking tour, about 2 and a half hours, and then an hour and a half free time afterwards, but that's all that would be needed because we covered a lot of Plovdiv with the guide. Going this time of year was perfect as it was hot but not super hot, and it was like a slightly cheaper Greece. The ancient theatr of Philippopolis was unbelievable and was definitely worth going to, it only cost 5 Lev to enter and was 100% worth it. Our guide gave us the option to follow on the walking tour or not, as long as we met back at the end meeting point which was nice to have that freedom, but we felt the tour was worth it, though some people did do their own thing. He also had some pictures, facts, sheets, activities for us as a group, which was a nice touch, made it interactive and a lot more visual. Todor was a brilliant guide, with good knowledge and was a very nice guy. If you're in Sofia and have a spare day, definitely go to Plovdiv. Several people we met in Sofia before going on this trip, did highly suggest Plovdiv.