When you visit Bulgaria do yourself a favour, spare a weekend away from Sofia and Rila to get to Belogradchik Rocks.
Located north west of the country they’re a lesser known but no less amazing natural wonder of the country. The main attraction is the fortress, a walled rocky playground high above the town of Belogradchik where you can climb rocks and stare at the expanse of land that looks like a cross between the Grand Canyon and the Amazon. In it, giant rock formations grow haphazardly out of a verdant landscape like hidden secrets in a lost world.
One of the biggest things holding tourists back from seeing them is accessibility. Travel websites will tell you tale of a one-day bus but often steer you toward a more complex train-bus/taxi combo through a nearby city with a train station. I tried looking up day tours but as a solo traveller, Bulgaria is not friendly. The tours I found charged extortionate amounts for a solo traveller (upwards of €120). Even if it was a group tour and other people had booked it, I’d still have to pay the price for a single. Not happy, Jan.
Weeks of stressing led me to a solution that would take up a weekend but get me there and back for €23.50. The timetable isn’t widely advertised but I did have some help from a fellow blogger’s post, which was a godsend.
The answer? Go by bus. There is one that leaves for Belogradchik from Sofia’s central bus station daily at 4:30pm and does the return route the next day at 3pm on Sundays. It’s operated by Montana AT and takes between 3.5-4 hours one-way.
For the overnight stay, you can get a good studio near the foot of the rocks for €20p/n. Many places require cash payment but will take Euros or Lev. It doesn’t matter which way you pay, the exchange rate is always 1:2.
As mentioned above, the bus leaves Belogradchik on Sundays at 3pm, arriving in Sofia at 7pm. On every other day of the week it leaves at 6am. So if you want to make the trip you can only do it Saturday to Sunday otherwise you’re looking at a 2-night stay if you want to get time with the rocks (it’s worth it!)
You can buy tickets from the Central Bus Station in Sofia right before the ride. The bus there wasn’t full (although the bus back was, but you’re getting on at the first stop, so it’s OK). The counter as I recall is #23 and the return cost is 25 lev. You can purchase a return straight off the bat or buy a one-way at the counter and pay the one-way back to the driver when you board the next day.
The thing I liked about the Bulgarian bus system is that it leaves and arrives ON TIME. I was told to get to the station 20-30 minutes early so I could load my luggage and buy my ticket on the way back. Although I didn’t have any luggage (just an overnight backpack) and I’d already purchased my return, I did arrive at the station around 20 minutes early and there was crowd and the bus. The driver opened the bus minutes later and we sat on it until 3pm when we left.
So that’s the trip to Belogradchik simple and easy. I don’t recommend taking the train as I’ve been told by Bulgarians that they are old, constantly late and extremely slow.
If you want reliable, the bus is the answer.
Steph by Step 