Where to stay in Bulgaria

Bulgaria is not a big country, so there aren’t a whole range of cities to pick from.

The first city you should visit is Sofia, the capital. Sofia isn’t the prettiest city nor is it a particularly pleasant city to be in. In many ways, Sofia reminds of a 2nd or 3rd tier city in Russia or Ukraine. It’s nowhere near the level of sophistication or grandeur of Kiev or Moscow. It’s also nowhere near the prettiness of Baltic capitals such as Riga or Vilnius.

Nevertheless, Sofia is the very best that Bulgaria has to offer, so you have to visit it and see it for yourself.

lovdiv was another city I visited. I spent about a week there, just hanging out, getting some work done, and approaching women. It’s cheaper and slower than Sofia, and maybe even a bit friendlier.

Till, this being Bulgaria it’s not a city that I can see myself living in.

The third and final city where I spent a lot of time in was Burgas on the Black Sea coast. Burgas is a small city with a nice beach, but it’s nowhere near the grandeur of Odessa, Ukraine’s main beach destination.

After about a month of living there, I was pretty done and finished and was ready to move on.

Where you stay will really depend on whether you’re a big city guy, a small city guy or prefer somewhere along the beach. The right approach is to visit all three cities and decide for yourself.

When to visit Bulgaria

Like the rest of Europe, Bulgaria has very hot summers and cold winters. Unlike Ukraine or Russia, Bulgaria is more south so it enjoys much longer summers and relatively mild winters (there’s still plenty of snow).

I had the fortune of experiencing Bulgaria in both winter (Sofia) and summer (Burgas).

During the winter, I experienced heavy snow with the temperatures hovering around -5 – -10 C degrees. During the summer, it was around 30 C, so I spent many days inside air-conditioned malls.

One of the benefits of visiting in winter is that there are much fewer tourists, especially by the coast. But I still don’t know if it’s the right trade-off with the freezing temperatures.

Come to think of it, the summer wasn’t bad at all.

What’s Bulgarian food like?

I don’t usually write this, but I wasn’t terribly impressed with Bulgarian cuisine. Maybe I went to all the wrong restaurants, but my only recollection about Bulgarian food was really bitter cheese, lots of fried food and that’s about it.

As an Eastern European guy, I know that Bulgarian cuisine is great, it’s just I didn’t really experience that.Maybe on my next trip, I will do my research as to where to go in order to have the very best culinary experience in that country.

Final thoughts

Bulgaria was only my second exposure to the Balkans (Serbia was the first).  I definitely need more time on the ground to learn more about this interesting region and its beautiful women.  That should all change this summer when I return there for a longer and more deeper exploration.