Bulgaria is pretty easy place to travel around – there is a good train network although the trains do tend to be a bit basic and rather slow but the stations are interesting. Buses between cities are frequent and much quicker than the train but they don’t serve smaller towns quite so well; i.e. there are express buses that whiz past little towns. Large cities have their own transport systems – a main variation being whether you have to buy you’re ticket on the bus or from some mysterious kiosk.
All of the travel options are very cheap and usually reliable.
You pre-book a car (called “rent-a-car” here) via the Internet in the usual way – to be collected at any major city. Tourist guides and Information centres will direct you to local car hire. In Sofia and Varna the prices appear to be around 30€ a day but in Veliko Turnovo and other smaller towns it tends to be 30leva a day (15€) but be sure to test drive it before you agree to take it! At the moment there is no car hire in Popovo or Voditsa but I think that may change as people recognise that there is a market with tourists – contact me if you want to hire a car locally.
If you are from the British Isles then of course you have the immediate problem that driving here is on the right. That’s not too hard to get used to (I have to keep telling myself “I do not have the right of way when I turn left”!) but there is an element of mystery about road signs in Bulgaria – there are not a lot of them and especially in cities it often isn’t apparent who has the right of way. Following the car in front usually works.
People do tend to drive very fast on country roads and have a completely weird perception of what is safe when it comes to overtaking. But the very positive thing is that there is very little traffic on the roads. I have generally found driving here to be a good experience. Note that some cars run on Gas – not the American term for petrol but Liquid Propane Gas that goes into a cylinder in the trunk of the car.
I haven’t seen a cycle lane in Bulgaria and there is little awareness of the needs of cyclists but that’s the same in many countries, including the UK! Again, the lack of traffic is a bonus but every motorist tends to sound their horn when they pass a cyclist. I plan to have cycles for hire at the campsite which you can book in advance.
The main airport is Sofia with flights and links to most places. Whizz Air are the only cheap airline as of October 2006 but I’m pretty sure Ryanair and EasyJet will already have plans for Bulgaria’s entry into the EU. I’ll try to keep this updated.
Varna and Borgas both have airports which up to now have dealt mainly with charters for summer holiday makers. Both are beginning major redevelopment and are probably the most likely places for the cheap airlines.
Of course, flying is not very environmentally friendly. It is possible to cross Europe quite easily by train or by coach, or you could also try hitch-hiking! Eurolines run many coach services across Europe, and you can find more information about rail-travel at the Bulgarian State Railways website or you could even incorporate Bulgaria in an Interrail trip!
…are coming soon! Please check back in the next couple of weeks.