Driving and travelling inside and to Bulgaria

  The bad news is they drive on the right so you have to get used to that, I found it a minor difficulty as do most UK residents. However be aware that signposting is very bad, often the first signpost is at the junction you want and it is easy to miss it, particularly in the dark as a lot of motorways are not lit. Also signposts are usually written in Cyrillic so you need to know what the place you are looking for is like written in Cyrillic.

Car hire is reasonably cheap starting at about 40 leva a day for a small car and there are many rental companies. Your UK licence is fine, you don’t need an international one. If you wish to bring your own car you need the Green Card insurance for travel outside the EU. Of course it is a long drive from the UK and will probably take at least 4 days.

Taxis are cheap by UK standards although you do have to be wary of ripoffs although I have found that the ripoffs normally charge double and that is still cheap by UK standards. In Sofia I have found OK taxis to be very reliable and most journeys within the city are about 2-3 leva (less than £1!)

Public transport is good, cheap and plentiful although it is difficult to get to know the routes. There is a Metro in Sofia with one line although the areas it goes to are not normally frequented by foreigners.

Buses go everywhere and are cheap. If you need to go to a small village however you may have to get a mainline bus to a major town and a minibus to the village. You will need local knowledge for this so an English speaking guide could be useful.

Trains go to most major towns and are cheap though very old and with few facilities. They are also, surprisingly, slower than the buses because they take a meandering route and stop often. It should be borne in mind though, that travel from Sofia to say Burgas or Varna, takes at least 6 hours so maybe a train is more comfortable as you can stretch your legs. The price is around the same as the bus.