Bulgaria: walking the Rila Lakes, Pirin and the Rhodopes

1. Day 1: Arrive in Sofia

   Sofia Airport to your hotel in central Sofia

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Sofia
   Day 1 details

   A driver meets you at Sofia Airport (SOF), about 10 km from the centre, whatever time your flight lands, and takes you to a central hotel within walking distance of Vitosha Boulevard. Sofia sits on a high plain at about 550 m, with the dark mass of Vitosha Mountain rising straight behind it, so the first view of the week's mountains comes from the hotel window. In the late afternoon, if you have arrived in time, a local guide walks the group through the centre: the Roman streets of Serdica uncovered beside the metro, the 4th-century Rotunda of St George in a hotel courtyard, the brick Church of St Sofia that gave the city its name, and the gold domes of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. In the evening your See Sight Tours guide briefs the group on the walks ahead, checks boots and gear, and we sit down together to a welcome dinner of Bulgarian salads, grilled meats and local wine.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Sofia Airport (SOF)
   • Late-afternoon walk in central Sofia with a local guide: Serdica, the Rotunda of St George, the Church of St Sofia and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
   • Welcome briefing and gear check with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the late-afternoon walk

   Activity: Plan to land by about 3 pm to join the walk; later arrivals meet the group at dinner.

2. Day 2: The Seven Rila Lakes, then Bansko

   Sofia to Panichishte and the Seven Rila Lakes, then Bansko

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Bansko
   Day 2 details

   We leave Sofia at 8 am and drive about an hour and three quarters south to Panichishte, above the spa town of Sapareva Banya, and ride the chairlift up to the Rila Lakes hut at about 2,100 m as early as the first runs and the queue allow, ahead of most day visitors. From the hut a well-made path climbs past the seven glacial lakes, each named for its shape: the Lower Lake, the Fish Lake, the Trefoil, the Twin, the Kidney, the Eye and, highest at about 2,535 m, the Tear. Your mountain guide sets an easy pace and we stop often. From the ridge above the Kidney you look down on all seven at once, stepped one above the other. Back at the hut we sit down to a hot lunch, then ride the chairlift down. The afternoon drive runs south through Dupnitsa and Blagoevgrad and over the Predel pass to Bansko, about two and a quarter hours, arriving early evening. The evening is free in Bansko's old quarter.

   Included

   • Panichishte chairlift up and down
   • Walk past the Seven Rila Lakes to the viewpoint above the Kidney with a licensed mountain guide
   • Lunch at the Rila Lakes hut

   Easier option: Walk to the first three lakes, about 2 hours with little climbing, and wait at the hut over a long lunch.

   More active option: Continue past the Tear lake onto the Haramiyata ridge above the cirque, about an hour more.

   Free time: Evening free in Bansko

   Activity: About 5 hours on foot, 10 km and 450 m of climbing, between 2,100 and 2,500 m. Rocky in places; walking poles help on the way down.

   

3. Day 3: Pirin National Park below Vihren

   Bansko to the Banderitsa hut and the Banderitsa lakes, and back

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Bansko
   Day 3 details

   Pirin National Park has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1983 for its marble and granite peaks, glacial lakes and old forests. After breakfast we drive about half an hour up the Banderitsa valley to the Banderitsa hut at about 1,810 m, below the pale marble pyramid of Vihren, at 2,914 m the highest peak in Pirin. From the hut the path climbs into the Banderitsa cirque to a chain of glacial lakes, Okoto, Ribnoto and Dalgoto among them, at around 2,300 m, with Vihren and the jagged Kutelo ridge above. We walk in the morning, when the light is clean and the afternoon thunderstorms of high summer have not yet built. Back near the hut we stop at Baykusheva mura, a Bosnian pine believed to be about 1,300 years old, and have lunch at a hut before driving back to Bansko. Anyone climbing Vihren starts instead from the Vihren hut, a couple of kilometres further up the road. The late afternoon and evening are free for the Holy Trinity Church and the cobbled old quarter.

   Included

   • Walk to the Banderitsa lakes with a licensed mountain guide
   • Baykusheva mura, the ancient Bosnian pine
   • Lunch at a mountain hut

   Easier option: A gentle walk from the Banderitsa hut to Baykusheva mura and the lowest lake, about 2 hours, then a slow lunch.

   More active option: Climb Vihren (2,914 m) from the Vihren hut with a mountain guide: about 7 hours and 1,000 m of ascent on a steep, rocky path, weather permitting. Lunch is carried and dinner is early.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Bansko

   Activity: About 5 hours on foot, 9 km and 500 m of climbing, between 1,810 and 2,350 m.

   

4. Day 4: Through the Chepino valley to the Rhodopes

   Bansko to Yakoruda and Velingrad, then into the Rhodopes to Shiroka Laka

   • Drive about 5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Shiroka Laka
   Day 4 details

   Today is the one long drive, about 240 km and four and three quarter hours on the road, because the Rhodopes lie east of Pirin and Rila across a tangle of valleys and there is no shorter road in. We break it into three parts. We leave Bansko at about 9 am and climb north-east past Yakoruda to the Avramovo saddle, then drop into the Chepino valley around Velingrad, a spa town in a wide green bowl with the Rila peaks behind it, about two hours from Bansko. There we have a sit-down lunch and a 45-minute walk around the Kleptuza karst springs and their park. Then we head south through the pine forests and reservoirs of the western Rhodopes to Devin, stopping for coffee, and on to Shiroka Laka in the late afternoon. The village is a protected architectural reserve, its white-and-stone houses with overhanging upper floors climbing both banks of a stream crossed by humped stone bridges. Your guide takes you on a short evening stroll through the lanes before dinner. This is home for the next three nights.

   Included

   • Drive through the Chepino valley with stops
   • Sit-down lunch in Velingrad and a walk around the Kleptuza springs
   • Evening stroll through Shiroka Laka with your guide
   • Dinner in Shiroka Laka

   Activity: A rest day for the legs: about an hour on foot in two short, flat walks.

   

5. Day 5: The Trigrad gorge and the Yagodina cave

   Shiroka Laka to Trigrad and Yagodina, and back

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Shiroka Laka
   Day 5 details

   We drive about 45 minutes, some 35 km, to the Trigrad gorge, where the Trigradska river runs between limestone walls a few hundred metres high, and walk the gorge road early, before day visitors arrive. At its top the river vanishes into the Devil's Throat cave: a staircase leads down into a chamber where it falls as an underground waterfall, and visitors climb out on about 300 steps beside it. After lunch in Trigrad village we cross to Yagodina for a guided tour of the Yagodina cave, a multi-level cave with about 10 km of passages, of which the tour shows roughly a kilometre of stalactites and draperies at a steady 6 degrees, so bring a fleece. Late in the afternoon, for those with legs left, we walk up from Yagodina village to the Eagle's Eye, a viewing platform built out over the edge of the Buynovo gorge, with the border mountains towards Greece on the skyline; everyone else rests in the village. We are back in Shiroka Laka for dinner.

   Included

   • Walk through the Trigrad gorge with a licensed mountain guide
   • The Devil's Throat cave
   • Guided tour of the Yagodina cave
   • Walk up to the Eagle's Eye platform above the Buynovo gorge
   • Lunch in Trigrad and dinner in Shiroka Laka

   Easier option: Skip the climb to the Eagle's Eye and rest in Yagodina village over coffee. Where local 4x4 rides up the forest track to the platform are running, we can book one; we confirm this at booking.

   More active option: Walk down from the Eagle's Eye into the Buynovo gorge, where the vehicle meets us, about an hour more.

   Activity: About 4 to 5 hours on foot including the caves, with about 450 m of climbing to the Eagle's Eye. The Devil's Throat has steep, wet steps; the caves are cool year round.

6. Day 6: Shiroka Laka to Gela and a bagpipe evening

   Shiroka Laka on foot to Gela, back by vehicle

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Shiroka Laka
   Day 6 details

   No vehicle in the morning: we walk out of Shiroka Laka on the old mule paths and forest tracks that linked the villages before the roads came, climbing through spruce and beech and across hay meadows to Gela, about 1,400 m up. Your mountain guide points out the meadow flowers and the signs of the bears and wolves that live in these forests, though seeing one is rare. We have lunch at a village tavern in Gela, then the vehicle takes us the 10 km back down. The afternoon is free: a rest, a walk to the 19th-century Church of the Assumption, or coffee by the bridges. Shiroka Laka is home to a national school of folk arts, and in the evening, over dinner, local musicians play the kaba gaida, the Rhodope bagpipe, whose low drone carries across the valley, and sing the slow songs of these mountains.

   Included

   • Walk from Shiroka Laka to Gela with a licensed mountain guide
   • Lunch in Gela
   • Rhodope bagpipe and song evening with local musicians over dinner

   Easier option: Ride to Gela by vehicle and walk a 2-hour loop through the meadows above the village before lunch.

   More active option: Continue from Gela up to the ridge pastures above the village before lunch, about 1.5 hours more.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Shiroka Laka

   Activity: About 4 hours on foot, 9 km and 500 m of climbing on forest paths.

   

7. Day 7: The high Rhodope pastures, then Plovdiv

   Shiroka Laka to the Perelik ridge and Karlak, then Smolyan and Plovdiv

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Plovdiv
   Day 7 details

   This is the last walk, about 4 hours on foot over open grass. After breakfast we leave Shiroka Laka and drive about 45 minutes up to the ridge below Golyam Perelik, at 2,191 m the highest point of the Rhodopes. From there the path follows the high summer grazing land east to Karlak, wide and treeless, with forested hills folding away south to the Greek border. The going is easy on grass and farm tracks, and the vehicle waits where the path comes back down to the road. We lunch in Smolyan, then drive north about two hours through Chepelare and down the Chaya valley past Asenovgrad to Plovdiv, arriving late afternoon. There is time to shower before we walk into the Kapana quarter, a grid of small streets of workshops and bars, for a farewell dinner together, the last evening of the trip, with the Rhodopes we have just crossed on the southern skyline.

   Included

   • Ridge walk across the Perelik and Karlak pastures with a licensed mountain guide
   • Lunch in Smolyan
   • Farewell dinner in Plovdiv's Kapana quarter

   Easier option: Walk the first hour onto the ridge and back to the vehicle, then wait in Smolyan.

   More active option: Add the longer descent off Karlak through the forest, about an hour more, if time and weather allow.

   Free time: Short free time in Plovdiv before dinner

   Activity: About 4 hours on foot, 11 km and 300 m of climbing on open ridge between 1,900 and 2,190 m. The summit of Golyam Perelik is a military installation, so the path stays below it. Exposed to wind and sun; bring a hat and a warm layer.

8. Day 8: Plovdiv's Roman theatre and home

   Plovdiv old town, then Sofia Airport

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   We walk up to Plovdiv's Roman theatre at opening, while the marble seats are still in shade and nearly empty. Built in the 2nd century AD and uncovered after a landslide in 1968, it looks out over the Maritsa plain to the Rhodopes we have just walked. A local guide then leads us through the old town on its three hills: cobbled lanes, the painted fronts of 19th-century merchants' houses, a visit inside one of them, and the hilltop ruins of Nebet Tepe. On the way down we pass the end of the Roman stadium, uncovered beneath the main street. After an early lunch on your own we drive about two hours to Sofia Airport (SOF), arriving mid-afternoon; your guide sees you to the terminal. If you are staying on, we can drop you in central Sofia or leave you in Plovdiv instead.

   Included

   • The Roman theatre at opening
   • Plovdiv old town with a local guide, a 19th-century merchant's house and Nebet Tepe
   • Drop-off at Sofia Airport (SOF)

   Activity: Book a flight leaving Sofia after about 5 pm. Plovdiv's old town is steep and cobbled.

Wildlife and weather: June brings wildflowers and lingering snow high up; July and August are warm in the valleys and cool on the tops, with afternoon thunderstorms, so we start walks in the morning; September is settled and quieter. Brown bears, wolves and chamois live in these mountains but are rarely seen; birds of prey, butterflies and orchids are easier to spot.

• Sofia1 night
• Bansko2 nights
• Shiroka Laka3 nights
• Plovdiv1 night