Getting There by Air

The national airline is Bulgaria Air (website: www.air.bg).
Wizzair www.wizzair.com
http://www.latamy.pl/index.html
Approximate Flight Times
From London to Sofia is 3 hours.
From Warsaw to Bourgas: 1,5h

If you have problems to find a good flight, please contact our staff and we will help you without any additional charges.

Main Airports

Sofia (SOF) (website: www.sofia-airport.bg) is 10km (6 miles) east of the city (journey time - 20 minutes). To/from the airport: Buses run from near the arrivals terminal to the city centre regularly throughout the day. Taxis are also available; ensure the meter is used. Otherwise agree a price in advance, taking advice from a local. The airport advises its passengers to use the taxi company OK Supertrans (tel: (02) 973 2121; website: www.oktaxi.net). 

Facilities: Banks and currency exchange (24 hours), post office, duty-free shop, nursery, restaurant, bar and car hire.

Varna (VAR) (website: www.varna-airport.bg) is 9km (5.5 miles) from the city. To/from the airport: A bus service to Varna city centre departs every 20 minutes from each of the two terminals. Taxis are also available. Facilities: Outgoing duty-free shops, banking and currency exchange (24 hours), Internet, ATM, restaurant, bar and car hire.

Bourgas (BOJ) (website: www.bourgas-airport.com) is 13km (8 miles) from the city. To/from the airport: A bus service departs every 20 minutes to the city centre. Taxis are also available. Facilities: Outgoing duty-free shop, banking and currency exchange (24 hours), restaurant, bar and car hire (by prior arrangement).

Departure Tax 
None.

Getting There by Water
Main ports: Bourgas (website: www.port-burgas.com/index.html) and Varna (website: www.port-varna.bg) on the Black Sea.

The official ferry crossing point from Romania is from Calafat to Vidin.


Getting There by Rail

There are frequent services between Sofia and Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Thessaloniki and Istanbul. Sofia is also directly connected with Paris, Vienna, Munich and Berlin. Dining car facilities are available on all routes. For details contact the Railway Ticket Agency (RILA) (tel: (02) 987 0777; website: www.bdz-rila.com).


Rail Passes

InterRail: offers unlimited first- or second-class travel in up to 30 European countries for European residents of over six months with two pass options. The Global Pass allows travel for 22 days, one month, five days in 10 days or 10 days in 22 days across all countries. The One-Country Pass offers travel for three, four, six or eight days in one month in any of the countries except Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. Travel is not allowed in the passenger's country of residence. Travellers under 26 years receive a reduction. Children's tickets are reduced by about 50%. Supplements are required for some high-speed services, seat reservations and couchettes. Discounts are offered on Eurostar and some ferry routes. Available from Rail Europe (website: www.raileurope.co.uk/inter-rail). 

Getting There by car/bus

Main entry points include Koulata and Novo Selo (from Greece); Ruse, Kardom, Durankulak and Silistra (from Romania); Svilengrad and Kapitan Andrikeevo (from Turkey); Kalotina, Zlatarevo and Vrashkachuka (from Serbia) and Guyeshevo (from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).

Foreign citizens entering Bulgaria in a car must have documentation to prove their ownership of the vehicle and evidence that their motor insurance is valid for Bulgaria. They must also state their proposed border crossing and pay suitable road tax.

Bus: There are daily bus connections from other cities, including Istanbul, Athens and Thessaloniki to Sofia. There are also daily buses from Varna and Bourgas to Istanbul. Ecolines (tel: 0870 580 8080, in the UK; website: www.eurolines.com) runs regular coach services to Bulgaria. Passes: Travellers can book a 15- or 30-day pass.

INDICATIVE COSTS OF STAY - MISCELLANEOUS

Going on a holiday we often wonder how much money to take and what will we be able to afford on  place. What are the cost of going outside, transits, are the factor that might makes your mind about vacation in a given place or not.

Here we would like to introduce to you the prices of selected services, meals, food or entertainment in Bulgarian resorts.

1. What currency to take? - Best to bring EUR. Rate EUR to LEV is stable and 1EUR i 1.9556LEV while exchanging in banks you will get mostly 1.95LEV per EUR.
2. Can I pay with credit cards? - Yes, card payments are widespread in Bulgaria and in resorts in most restaurants; stores you can pay by credit card. Also, ATMs are widely available.
3. IMPORTANT, bureaux de change: exchanging the currency at exchange offices, pay attention to whether the board informing and exchange rate is given for both the sale "We Sell" and for the purchase of "We Buy". If on the board in front of the exchange office we have given only the sell course, "We Sell" be careful and check whether it is inside the board with the specified rate of purchase, "We Buy". If you are rushing to exchange, you should first ask the vendor how much we get for our currency. If you forget the last moment when we should light a “fire emergency light" is the moment when we get the bill. If we are asked to sign the receipt, you probably have been deceived and instead of EUR exchange rate 1.95LEV/1EUR you will get 1.59 LEV/1EUR or similar.
4. Shopping in Sunny Beach - the most popular resort in Bulgaria. If you are planing to take larger or more frequent food purchases, search for the “Mladost” supermarket, where prices of goods are as in Bulgarian cities. Most of the stores, such as Zora, offer products at "resorts" prices, which is even 50% higher than the prices they pay for the same products in a normal city, or in Sunny Beach at the store Mladost
5. Can you recommend any restaurants?
   Yes, Sunny Beach’ very popular restaurant, operating throughout the year is: "Djanys. You will find here a very friendly, quick service, pleasant atmosphere and design, superbly prepared food in large selection and lower prices than in most places.
   The restaurant is located on the other side of the main pedestrian street in Sunny Beach,  app.70m in a straight line after crossing the main road and going in the opposite direction to the sea shore. Of course in the resort there is a lot of very good restaurants, where you will find very tasty and fresh food and friendly service and definitely it is worth looking to find our favorite place, but “Djanys” certainly is one of the most famous and enjoyable in the area.
   In the season to be a very interesting place is a restaurant named "Veselo Sielo." This is a very interesting place, more than restaurant, made in the Old Bulgarian village style, where you can enjoy a Bulgarian evening, with great dances and singing, starting from 9pm each day.
6. Smoking in public places - Bulgaria has so far not introduced smoking ban in public places, and smokers can feel comfortable here, however non-smokers are not likely to suffer, because most restaurants, bars has external gardens, and spending time outdoors in during the summer is here a great pleasure.
7. An example of the cost of the stay in Bulgarian resort for 4 people in high season - July / August.

Accommodation - Sunny Beach or St. Vlas
Time spent on site: 10 days
Price of apartment per day: 50EUR
The total cost of accommodation 50x10 = 500EUR/ 4 people = 125EUR/person
Meals per person:
* Breakfast - renting apartments most probably you will eat breakfast in the apartment, which has a fully furnished kitchen, so we can say it would be about 2LEV/person.
* Lunch - beach, or on a tour, some snack, + something to drink, about 5LEV/person
* Dinner- main dish, something to drink like as beer and dessert is about 10-15LEV/person. Fish around 20LEV (in a restaurant, not on the paper tray)

Flight ticket: with cheap airlines you can grab a bargain like 150EUR/person
Leisure: depends on each one of us what we're doing on the spot.

The basic total cost for 4 person family for 10 days stay is about:
Accommodation: 500EUR
Transport: 600EUR
Food: approx 100EUR/person  if we eat every day at least once in the restaurant. 400EUR/4 people

TOTAL: 1500EUR for the 10-day stay in the Bulgarian seaside resort for 4 people. or about 350EUR/person

 FOOD & CIGARET PRICES IN BULGARIA

Food

Cigarets