10-Day Road Trip in Bulgaria

Hi everyone, In mid-July 2025, we were lucky enough to spend about ten days in Bulgaria. We did a 10-day road trip exploring this beautiful and underrated Balkan country! Since planning a trip isn’t always easy, we’re sharing our original itinerary (different from the "classic" loop offered by travel agencies) and our feedback on the various places we visited. With a few photos to illustrate each day, we hope to wow you 🙂 and, most importantly, inspire you to visit Bulgaria! Here’s our loop itinerary starting from Sofia (a varied program that allowed us to enjoy some summer swimming on the beaches of the Black Sea): Day 1 - The Rila Monastery, Bulgaria’s emblem Day 2 - The picturesque village of Koprivshtitsa, the Russian Church of Shipka, and the listed village of Bozhentsi



Day 3 - The small town of Tryavna and Sozopol, a little gem on the Bulgarian coast



Day 4 - Sinemorets and the wild Veleka beach, the stunning Silistar beach, and the small port of Ahtopol

Day 5 - Nessebar, the pearl of the Black Sea and the astonishing Atanasovsko pink lake





Day 6 - Sunny Beach and the wild beaches around Nessebar (Irakli Beach, Kara Dere Beach…)



Day 7 - The major seaside resorts of Golden Sands and Albena



Day 8 - The "White City" of Balchik and Bolata Beach





Day 9 - The museum-village of Arbanasi and Veliko Tarnovo, the former capital of Bulgaria





Day 10 - The Etar open-air museum and the stunning city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second-largest city





To access the practical info you need to know (schedules, prices…) and especially our tips to make the most of your visit (where to park for free, how to avoid the crowds, the best time for great lighting, must-see photo spots…), feel free to check out our little personal blog. We hope this itinerary and our tips for visiting can inspire you and help you plan your future trip to Bulgaria! If you’d like to share your thoughts or have any questions, don’t hesitate ;)! We’d be happy to try and answer them.

Hi there, and thanks for this little report—it’s really inspiring! It’s true that in France, we don’t hear much about this destination. So I’ll definitely look into it more! 😉

Hi there, A country I really enjoyed. Reading your post almost makes me regret skipping the Black Sea coast on purpose—I never imagined finding "wild" beaches there! I’d happily go back. I especially loved the Rhodope Mountains, with their karst landscape, the Trigrad Gorge, the Koprivshtitsa region (a beautifully restored typical village), and the nearby Pomak villages.

Correction: I just realized I made a mistake. The village in the Rhodopes that I particularly loved is Kovatchevitsa. Koprivshtitsa is very pretty too but isn’t in the Rhodopes—it’s on the slopes of Sredna Gora.