The Tour

The tour itself lasted 10 nights and was based around 4 different centres, with a mix of included and optional excursions. Having looked at the Inghams brochure for 2008, it appears that they have change the route to include some time at the coast - so our itinerary no longer exists and it probably not worth me going into too much detail about what we did! The tour started and ended in Sofia, and we spent two nights there first, followed by 2 nights in Veliko Turnovo, 2 nights in Plovdiv and 4 nights in Bansko. In Sofia, we had a walking tour of the city, plus some free time there, and we also took an optional visit to the village of Koprivshtitsa. In Veliko Turnovo, we visited the fortress and other points of interest and also chose to see the optional sound and light show. On route to Plovdiv, we visited the Etara crafts village, the Shipka pass and a Thracian tomb. The tour of Plovdiv was rather spoiled by the bad weather, as was our short stop in Borovets, but luckily the weather had improved by the time we visited the Rila Monastery on the way to Bansko. We had a walking tour of Bansko included, and chose to go on the optional tours to Dobarsko village (to see the Granny Choir - a must see) and Melnik and Sandanski.

In all honesty, I can't remember anything we didn't like about the content of the tour - the pace was quite relaxed, the guide (Maria) and driver (Plamen) were both excellent - especially when we got stuck in a huge traffic jam on the way back to the hotel on the final day. The coach was pretty comfy and we stopped for regular breaks during long journeys. We found it useful to take snacks and water on the coach along with a travel cushion and an MP3 player to pass the time. It is better to pay for the optional excursions in sterling as this is what the trips are priced in and the exchange rate Inghams used to convert Lev back to sterling was not very good. We took £50 in Lev with us and withdrew a further £150 while we were there - this was enough to cover day to day costs and some of the optional excursions. We tipped the driver and guide in sterling though as we had completely run out of Lev by the end.

Many of the meals on the tour are included and we found the food to be of variable quality. One of the major problems seems to be that Bulgarians don't like hot food, so a lot of the time we end up with meals that would have been great if they had been warm, e.g. cold mashed potato, and it became a standing joke that we were given salad for nearly every meal. We did have some exceptionally good meals though - including in the restaurant at the Crystal Palace Hotel, the cafe next to the Archaeological museum in Sofia, Pizzeria Ego in Veliko Turnovo, the Four Seasons restaurant at the Novotel in Plovdiv and the Mehana Momini Dvori on the main square in Bansko (http://mominidvori.com/index_eng.htm). Prices were very cheap by UK standards - you could easily get a main course for £5 and a glass of wine for £1.

Obviously the change in itinerary makes it hard for me to definitely recommend this tour in future, but Bulgaria is definitely worth visiting if you like going to places that are slightly off the normal tourist trail. We certainly had a great time!