Top Sofia Day Trips

Very informative tour and amazing guide! We learned so much about the history of the city, politics, religion, and culture. Polina gave us lots of great tips and gave a great overview to get us started on more in depth tours and activities for the rest of our trip.

The rour lasts 3 hours. We don’t enter the buildings but we learn a lot (and insanely interesting facts) about Bulgaria. Our guide, Yoan also shared some personal stories and I learnt a lot in this tour, about Bulgaria of course but also communism. I recommand this tour to any history buff or even someone who wants to really learn about Bulgarian 20th century history and about communism. Thanks Yoan for the tour!

You haven't really seen or understood Plovdiv unless you spent the day with our guide, Desi. On the way she explained Plovdiv's role in Bulgarian history and life. Upon arrival, she ushers you around explaining the significance of what we are seeing and how to appreciate the art, structures, and architecture in each location. She explained clearly how to find our way back to buses and how much time we would need to get there after we completed our bloc of free time. Her guidance about ideas for how to spend our free time and where to find what kinds of foods were very helpful. I attribute her competence, deep knowledge, and personal touch in managing the group to our ability to complete an ample tour fully and on schedule.

7 lakes trek hiking is very scenic albeit fairly tough trail from the top Chairlifts station particularly as track starts very steep climb to the top of the mountain. Chairlifts is very basic with no apparent consideration for safety of travellers, which was little strange thing as it’s nearly 30 mins ride on high mountain with no motorable road access. once you reach the top it’s rewarding and going round the lakes on the way back, we only did five, was also very good. Note the quality of track is not very good in between and will become hazardous during the rain. remember to wear proper trekking shoes! Ria Monastery is majestic and still shows mixture of historical architecture and art. Shops and riverside around also very good. Meeting point in Sofia though a popular place but for navigation point of view perhaps needs more clarity for tourists such as to say Infront of xxxHotel. Our guide Damitri was very helpful and knowledgeable and made the Trip very memorable to us. it’s rewarding day out if you don’t mind climbing difficult tracks up/downhill.

This tour is absolute worth every penny, it’s a whole day tour (from 7 am to 8 pm) but it’s gives you the opportunity to enjoy each location at your own pace. I’m glad I joined this tour and visited such beautiful areas! The hike throughout the lakes can be challenging if you are out of shape, but reaching the peak it’s a reward itself with the amazing views!

Wonderful day trip! Marina was great - so knowledgeable and shared lots of interesting facts about life and culture in Bulgaria. The day was long but there were plenty of opportunities for breaks and rests. Enough time in Plovdiv for a lunch and shop.

The Rila lakes are extremely popular, especially on the weekends. The crowds were unimaginable. The chair lift process is a bit disorganized, the line-up took over an hour to clear. Wish the guides had a way to reserve lift tickets in advance. Nevertheless, the views up above by the lakes were totally worth the wait. We took a guide option and perhaps we should have opted out to a self-guided option as it the pace was a bit high. However, the guide was instrumental in reaching the sixth lake (and potentially the seventh) on time and getting back to the bus. The hike took about 3 hours and the length was about 8 km with the elevation gain of 400m. First, you climb a steep incline to the right of the chalet, then it is a walk on a fairly flat surface until you reach the last big incline to the sixth and seventh lakes. Overall, depending on your ambitions, you may want to spend longer up by the lakes depending on your overall fitness (unless you need to be on-time for the return bus!). There are some food and drinks on both sides of the chair lift. The chalet up top has a small restaurant with sitting outside. We got lucky with no rain as the chairs are open but sure do check the forecast so you come on a clear day. The monastery on the way back was a perfect icing on a cake and a relaxing stop after the mountain hike. Overall, this is probably the best tour we took from Sofia. Very long day but totally worth it.

Tour guide Ani was very friendly right from the beginning. Despite only being booked and required to speak in Spanish Ani kindly translated everything into English for those of us who should have had audio guides. I had downloaded the audio guide but hard to follow given that the numbers etc. didn't tie up with the order that we saw things in Plovdiv. Also, the audio guide is an American voice that goes into a lot of detail sometimes for nearly 10 minutes at a time, which I found quite annoying after awhile and hard to stay interested in. If you can I definitely recommend booking a tour with a tour guide that speaks your required language and don't book the audio guide tours. Plovdiv was lovely and nice weather. We also went to the Thracian tomb near Starosel and Starosel art village to look at the amazing graffiti art work. Thank you Ani and our driver for a lovely day trip in a comfortable minibus.