Bulgaria Travel Guide

Bulgaria is a full member of the Schengen area; you can visit on any Schengen visa. Citizens of the EU, of Schengen countries and of the following other countries and regions do not need visas to enter Bulgaria: Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, The Bahamas, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mauritius, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Paraguay, South Korea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, Seychelles, Singapore, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican…

Bulgaria adopted the euro as its national currency on 1 January 2026, replacing the lev (лев, plural: leva), which had been the national currency since 1880 and denoted by the symbol "лв". The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) will continue to exchange free of charge any remaining lev banknotes and coins indefinitely.

By bus

The fastest way to travel around the country is by bus. Buses frequently connect all the larger cities. Timetables information in English can be found online (avtogari.info or bgrazpisanie.com). Always confirm times locally as online resources may be incomplete or out of date. Most bus station agents (except at the Black Sea and in Sofia) as well as the drivers will not speak or understand any languages except Bulgarian (and, if you are lucky, Russian) and the destinations will be written exclusively in Cyrillic. You can look up bus schedules for the Sofia New Central at the bus s…

The official language of the country is Bulgarian, a Slavic language that is written using its own variant of the Cyrillic script. The language is mutually intelligible with Macedonian, which is considered a dialect of Bulgarian by many Bulgarians. Among the other Slavic languages, the next closest related is Serbo-Croatian, while Russian is even more distant.

Emergency phone numbers

Bulgaria uses the pan-European standard number 112 for all emergency calls. If you can not connect to 112, dial 166 for police, 150 for ambulance and 160 for the fire department.

Smoking

Smoking is the national pastime, and evading the fumes of cigarettes is even more difficult than evading exhaust fumes in the streets. Generally, during the Summer, most people generally sit outside, which makes matters less worse. As this is a seasonally-changing obstacle, it's best to stay on guard. Since 2012, smoking is prohibited in public places, including bars and restaurants, but restrictions are rarely followed.

There are three networks (A1, Yettel and Vivacom), all using the GSM/4G/3G/HDSPA standards. 5G coverage is being expanded; as of the beginning of 2023, most larger cities are covered. Phone service has almost full national coverage, with minor exceptions in the highest and the most remote parts of the mountains.

Bulgarians are incredibly friendly and very interested in talking to foreigners. Bulgarians tend to be far more open than some other Eastern Europeans and engaging in dialogue with these people is much advised and worthwhile.

In addition to Christmas, New Year's Day and Easter, the Bulgarian state recognizes another seven national holidays: If one of those days occurs during the weekend, the Monday afterwards is officially a non-working day to "compensate".