Trip to Sofia , Bulgaria

A quick long weekend trip to Sofia, Bulgaria – essentially 2 nights and 2 days.

The journey was made by car from Thessaloniki (2 cars, 6 people), though it could also be done with cheap flight tickets.

The city of Sofia is about 5 hours away from Thessaloniki – depending on traffic, as the road from a certain point onwards is single-lane and quite tiring.

We arrived in Sofia on Friday evening, found our hotel (God help us), left the cars in the car park (5€ for 2 nights) and began our tour of the city by night. After a short walk through the – wild – alleys, we arrived at the place we had decided to dine – Divaka. A place famous for its soups and generally for its good quality food. Indeed, everything we ate and drank (wines) was very good and of high quality, and the prices were quite reasonable.

On Saturday morning, we woke up and ventured out to Sofia's main pedestrian street, Vitosha, which has all sorts of shops – retail and dining. After having breakfast at a place that resembled a French brasserie and served us… expired milk and sour breakfast items (unbelievable), we continued our walk. Vitosha doesn't offer much, as it features all the well-known brands at prices comparable to Greece – and perhaps slightly more expensive.

We returned to our room and took the cars to visit the shopping centres – Sofia has 3 large ones. First, to Serdika Center. A very good shopping centre, large, with plenty of shops. Next stop was Sofia Mall – also huge, with pretty much the same shops. Personally, Serdika Center won me over due to its variety and clothing stores offering quite low prices.

In the evening, we went out to Happy – it appeared from reviews to be one of the best entertainment venues in Sofia. And indeed it was. The quality was quite low, but the fun was at its peak. Music was mostly Bulgarian, with the DJ occasionally speaking and dancers – trying – to dance all night in shifts on the main stage (see photos).

Overall, Sofia is a good destination for a weekend getaway and a trip through the Balkans and former Soviet areas. Communism has left its marks and they haven't completely disappeared yet. However, Bulgaria is developing, and especially large cities like Sofia show that they are overcoming the past and entering a new trajectory. There is a lot of poverty throughout Bulgaria, but not in the central and large cities.

Fear of robberies, etc., does not exist in large cities and central areas – Yes, we do not recommend walking through small and secluded alleys in Sofia either.

Nightlife in Sofia

For travel to Sofia, we recommend cheap flight tickets that you can book quickly and easily online through travelo.gr.