• Go and see the huge Mall of Sofia[22], housing many shops, and one of the biggest IMAX 3D cinema in the world.

Sofia is one of the oldest cities in Europe with ruins spread across the city center. It was founded because of the quality of its mineral waters. In the city alone there are 7 independent mineral water springs. An interesting constellation can be seen in the city centre, where a Catholic church, an Orthodox church, a mosque and a synagogue are located at great proximity.

In the administrative center of Sofia the streets are covered with specific yellow pavement.

Churches of interest are the St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral (and one of the largest orthodox churches worldwide), the Russian St. Nikolay, and the old ones St. Sofia, St. Petka, St. Georgi rotunda, St. Sedmochislenitsi, St. Paraskeva.

• The National Archeological Museum, 2 Saborna St. (ул. Съборна 2), tel: +359 2 988 2406,[14].

• National Museum of History, 6 Vitoshko Lale St. (ул. Витошко лале 16) (Take trolley #2 southwest from the corner of Praga Blvd. and Patriarch Eftimi Blvd. Get off at the roundabout at the end of the bus line. Cross the busy Okolovrustino Shosse (ring road) and walk through the trees. The museum is not visible from the road, nor are there any signs.), ☎ +359 2 955 42 80, [15]. The National Museum of History in Sofia contains more than 650,000 exhibits and is one of the largest history museums on the Balkans. The aim of the museum is to provide a comprehensive view on Bulgarian history from the prehistory to present, in as broad an European context as possible. Be prepared to spend several hours as the museum is quite large. About half of the exhibits have English captions.  edit

• The Earth and Man National Museum (Национален музей "Земята и хората"), 4 Cherni Vruh Blvd. (бул. Черни връх 4), tel: +359 2 865 6639, [16].

• Sofia City Art Gallery (Софийска градска художествена галерия), 1 General Gurko St. (ул. Ген. Гурко 1), tel: +359 2 987 2181, [17].

• The National Palace of Culture (НДК, Национален Дворец на Културата), [18]. The biggest congress center in the Balkans (a massive monolithic communist-style building).

• The Red House Center for Culture and Debate (Червената Къща, Център за Култура и Дебат), [19].

• The National Museum of Natural History (Национален Природонаучен Музей), [20] is four floors of everything from rocks and minerals to insects and stuffed bison. It is a nice way to spend a rainy afternoon.
• The Ethnographic Institute and Museum (Етнографски Институт и Музей), [21] has a permanent collection of traditional Bulgarian costumes as well as a changing exhibition.

• The Central Bathhouse (Централна баня) is an old building of interest, although it is in process of renovation at the moment.

• Slaveykov Square (Площад Славейков) is the open-air book market.
• The Ministry of Agriculture, a nice building with the two spires on Macedonia square, and other ministries as well.

• Boyana Church (Боянска църква) (Getting here is quite difficult. Take tram #9 or #10 from the stop underneath Pl. Bulgaria to Khladnikov neighborhood. Then walk south and ask someone where to catch bus #64. The stop for the church is a small plaza with a few shops near the end of the #64 bus line. There is no sign for the church, nor can you see it from the road. Ask the driver where to get off and then walk uphill and turn left.). This small 14th-century church and garden is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The church contains some very well preserved Christian murals.  edit

• Knyaz Battenberg's Palace (Дворец на Княз Батенберг) right in front of the city garden.

• The nice building of the National Theater "Ivan Vazov" (Народен театър "Иван Вазов").

• Boris Garden (Борисова градина), the "lungs" of the city, with Ariana Lake (Езеро Ариана).

• The Monument to the Liberating Tsar (Паметник на Цар освободител), representing the power of freedom and across from it are the National Assembly and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
• Boulevard "Tsar Osvoboditel" (бул. "Цар Освободител"), the "Yellow Brick Road". Extends from TsUM toward Sofia University in front of many of the main sights of the center.

• The Church of St. Sofia, which gave the city its name. It was built over an even older church which can be seen through glass in the floor.

• The ruins of the ancient town of Serdica (Сердика), located in the geographical centre of the city under the flags of the EU.

• The interesting constellation of four different temples right in the center of the city: the Orthodox St. Nedelya church, the Catholic St. Joseph cathedral, the Banya Bashi Mosque, and the Sofia Synagogue (one of the largest in Europe).

By bus

The cheapest way to get into Sofia, both from the countryside or from abroad, is by bus. With buses going several times a day in all directions Sofia is well connected to all regions. International connections are available to several locations in Greece, to Istanbul, twice a day to/ from Vienna, and several times a week to different cities of Western Europe. Example for bus fares (one way tickets: Thessaloniki: 68 leva (54 lv. for travellers younger than 26); Vienna 94 leva (82 lv. for travellers younger than 26). For bus lines see Airkona [3] and MTT [4]. Bus to Skopje costs around 14 €. The most useful website for transportation to and from Sofia is the Central Bus Station website [5] it gives a listing of all international departure & arrival times and costs and in country departures & arrivals and costs. While it doesn't list the departure times from other cities, it does give a traveller exact knowledge of what bus connections there are and roughly the departure times at other cities (if own knows the traveling time between cities). The website is in Bulgarian and English.

By train

• Bulgarian State Railways [6]

International trains provide a large number of routes to Sofia, arriving from such places as Kiev, Istanbul, Vienna, Athens, Thessaloniki and other common cities.

Allow up to three hours delay if travelling from Belgrade while the Serbian and Bulgarian customs officers ransack the trains due to cigarette smuggling. However, the cigarette smuggling is worth experiencing once.

The primary trains from Bucharest to Sofia, and back, run twice daily through the border city of Ruse. For example, recent trains are scheduled from Bucharest to Sofia in the daytime departing 11:35/arriving 21:30 and a night train departing 19:35/arriving 06:10. Passport control and customs takes place in Ruse, approximately mid-trip. Check local trainstations for updated information.

To İstanbul the train costs 25 euro (a bus-tıcket just 20), the train departing at around 18:30 (the bus at 21:00) and arrives at 9:00 (bus 6:00)

By plane

• Sofia Airport [7] (IATA: SOF) (ICAO: LBSF)

Sofia Airport has two terminals Be sure to know your departure terminal before you arrive (flight departure information is available at [8]). The old crappy Terminal 1 is mainly used by budget airlines, the flashy new Terminal 2 is home to the 'traditional' carriers. A little shuttle bus runs every 30 minutes between the two terminals and its a few kilometres between the two so if you are running late for check-in you don't want to get out of your taxi at the wrong terminal.

There are several flights a day to Vienna, and daily flights to some of the major European hubs. Tickets of traditional airlines can be pretty expensive, since there aren't that many carriers flying daily to Sofia.

Bulgarian flag-carrier airline is Bulgaria Air [9] with Sofia as a hub, and for example two-way ticket to/from Madrid & Barcelona will be about 230 Euros. Another Bulgarian company Viaggio Air [10] can also be a bargain with two-way ticket to Vienna for 200 Euros. Other traditional airlines with flights to/from Sofia are Air France, Al Italia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Czech Airlines, Helios Air, LOT, Lufthansa, Malev, Olympic Airways, Tarom, and Turkish Airlines.

As of July 2007 there are four low-cost carriers traveling to Bulgaria. These are WizzAir [11] flying to/from Rome, London-Luton and Dortmund, SkyEurope [12] to/from Prague and Vienna, MyAir [13] to/from Rome, Milan, Bologna and Venice, Air Italy [www.airitaly.it] to/from Verona.

Cheap charters to Varna and Burgas airports on the Black Sea coast are available (especially in spring & fall), and from there to Sofia (for about 60 euros one-way).

Sofia now has a new airport terminal (Terminal 2). There, as well as at terminal 1, the taxis are "regulated", and the only taxi company that is allowed to service both terminals is "OK Taxi." The fare to the city centre should be about 10 BGN (depending on traffic, could be 12 BGN).

Be careful! There are many "touts" in the terminal that will try to ask you if you need a taxi as you exit the departures area. These guys will seriously overcharge you. Most planes are now arriving in the new Terminal 2. When you exit the customs/declarations door, turn to your right and exit the terminal (do not go straight, out the exit in front of you!). There you'll see a big queue of "OK" taxi's lined up. However, if you go straight out to the roadway rather than right, there are unregulated taxi's. These guys will seriously overcharge you as well (trying to charge you as much as 20 EURO!). The signage is poor, so make sure you take the right-hand exit and go towards the large group of yellow taxi's with "OK (973 2121)" written on them in blue writing. There are now rogue taxis with OK on them. There is a serious risk of overcharging on your first visit, even if you go to the kiosk. At least get an official paper from the kiosk.

By car

The highway from Sofia towards Stara Zagora.

Otherwise coming from Greece the road is in very good shape, so the 300 km from Thessaloniki are done fairly fast if you don't happen to fall into big waiting-lines at the border. Coming from Fyrom, the roads are in rather bad shape. From Central Europe you can drive almost the whole length on highways (via Slovenia-Croatia-Serbia or Hungary-Serbia), with only the last 100 km between Nis in Southern Serbia and Sofia being heavily trafficked mountain roads in not the best shape.

To get around Sofia you can use several means of transport: public autobuses, some trolley lines, many tram lines, a subway line and private mini-buses (marshrutki).

The public transport in Sofia works from 5 am to about 11 pm. Price per ticket is 1,00 lev (about 0,50 euro) if you buy it from a kiosk. Tickets should be bought before you get in the bus. When you board the bus, find the punches in order to punch the ticket. Unpunched ticked is invalid. The bus control rarely understand English and you might have problems with the security if you travel without a ticket or even with unpunched one. If you come to Sofia by plane, take bus#284 or #84 from the airport to the center, if you come by train or bus, to the center, take public bus #305, #213 or #214 (to Orlov Most) or tram #1, #7, (to Sveta Nedelya square) #6, #9, (to the National Palace of Culture) #12 (to Slaveykov square) or #19 (to Macedonia square).

Mini-buses stop if you just wave a hand and usually are fast way to go somewhere without need to change the car. You pay to the driver when you get on the car. Prices are 1,50 leva (about 0,75 euro).

Metro in Sofia is now under construction and a few more lines will be available in the next years. Now there is only one line from the city center to the western edge of town.

Taxis in Sofia are yellow. There are many companies offering taxi services, some of them are OK Taxi, 1 Euro Taxi, etc. The taxi drivers should give you receipts. Usually they also should have stickers or similar with Taxi ID number and a customer care telephone number and they are required to have prices on a sticker on the window of the left front door and on the windshield. Prices vary but are about 0,70 leva (0,35 euro) per kilometer. Also make sure they have a driver ID on the dashboard, that's quite important and also read the price on the stickers before getting in some will have outrageous prices on them and usually hang around hotels and tourist spots picking on unsuspecting customers, its the top line for the per km fares and bottom line for time you need to look at.

A bit more on taxis: Taxi OK (the word "OK" being written in blue lettering on the trunk and sides) are generally reasonable (read: won't rip you off). Also, Taxi "91280" and "Radio CB Taxi" are generally very reliable as well.

• Radio CB Taxi, tel: 91263 - they speak English
• OK Supertrans tel: 9732121

Other taxis can really overcharge you significantly. Some taxis also have a hidden pump that boosts the kilometers on the meter when you're not looking. It's a foot-pedal near the drivers other pedals, so can be difficult to detect. Generally the three taxi companies listed here will not use this technique, but it does happen from time to time (and certainly more often with other taxi companies.

Rent-a-Car is possible, but not necessarily a good idea if you are not used to driving here. Be prepared for traffic jams and disorganized traffic. Parking is major problem. To park you can use tickets for parking in the so called Blue Zone (синя зона). These tickets can be purchased from the people wearing bright green jackets, hanging around the parking lots. The tickets should be clearly marked with pen and placed on the dashboard so they are clearly visible.

The currency in Bulgaria is the Lev, plural Leva. You will also see the abbreviation BGN or lv. The currency exchange rate is fixed at 1 EUR = 1.96 BGN. Currency exchange offices and most offer a buy rate of 1.95 and a sell rate of 1.96. However at the airport and train station the rates are worse (cashing in on tourist ignorance). A new tourist might prefer to exchange their money in a big bank. ATMs (Cashpoints) on Visa, Mastercard and many other credit networks are widely available, although not all can withdraw money from bank accounts held outside the country, in spite of the Visa / Mastercard stickers suggesting otherwise. Credit cards are somewhat accepted, but certainly not in every store or restaurant; you will definitely need to carry some cash, preferably smaller denomination bills.

Souvenirs can be bought many small shops in the subways in front of the old Party House and in the metro station at the Largo. The Ethnographic Museum has a small shop tightly crammed with souvenirs of all kinds from all over Bulgaria (on the right, just as you enter the main entrance).Antiques and souvenirs can also be found in Alexander Nevski square, in stalls just opposite the church.

Shopping Malls The two main city centre malls are TZUM (ЦУМ) [23] and the Mall of Sofia [24]. Both are large shopping malls selling high-end western brands, in flashy western shops at high-end western prices. You'll notice that very few people actually buy anything from these malls, the Bulgarians that can afford these prices don't do their clothes shopping in Bulgaria. Just south of the city centre is the City Center Sofia [25] mall which also has a big supermarket (a rarity is Sofia) in the basement, a cinema and an indoor climbing wall. Prices are more reasonable here, with people actually buying things.

Opposite the Banya Bashi mosque there is a covered-market, Halite (Халите) (from French "Les Halles"), with many stalls selling all kinds of food, drink and cosmetics. The second floor has various fast-food cafés.

Budget

Pizzeria-type restaurants and snack bars can be found all over Sofia. Although many are very uninteresting for the traveller looking for a meal with a local flavour, some include excellent Bulgarian dishes.

• Mr.Pizza, Neofit Rilsky St.(359) (0) 29888258. Very popular with Bulgarians, get there early or reserve if you want a table in their courtyard. 10 to 15 BGN per person for a meal with starters, main meat dish, desert and wine.

• Baаlbek, Near Slaveykov Square (the book market). This is great Arab food. Downstairs is take-away kebabs and falafels, and upstairs a small eat-in. Excellent humous and salads, etc., and cold beer.

Mid to High End

• Happy's Bar and Grill Just across the street from the Sveta Nedelya church, Happy's is the Bulgarian equivalent of an American diner, and the Sofia representative of a nationwide chain. There are English-language menus, and the staff (all microskirted young girls, who apparently have to be smiling when they serve you) all seem to have at least some English as well. Portions are generally huge and represent a sort of "watered down" version of their traditional Bulgarian equivalents, although more Western fare is also available.
• Motto This place is always fairly busy with a trendy crowd. The decor is modern and cool, and the people typically good looking. The service here is usually pretty nice, and many of the wait-staff speak english. The food is consistent and enjoyable. Prices vary from about 5 BGN to 13 BGN depending on the dish. On some nights they have a DJ spinning house music (but not too loudly). The wine selection is adequate and not too overpriced, with a bottle of No Mans Land (a pretty good/consistent red wine from the Melnik region) going for about 38 BGN. Motto is on the street right behind the Radisson hotel, and then two blocks East (turn to the right on the first small street behind the Radisson if you are walking from the big horse statue) - it's kind of hard to find as the sign is a small black sign with white lettering.
• Opera, off Rakovsky street near Dundukov street. Owned by the same owners as Motto, this place has a similar style and hippness. It's situation in the ground level of the Opera house.
• Elia, Rakovsky street one block south of Crystal restaurant (which is next to Tambuk 2). Hard to find, but worth it. Walk about 20 meters and it'll be on your left; you need to basically enter a building enrance (it could be the same building as the fairly famous bar called "Alcohol") and walk straight back. It features Mediterranean fish. The service is excellent and the food is tasty (Try the salads and whatever fresh fish of the day they have). The wines are very good (try the Constellation whites). The decor is also tasteful and modern.
• Timbuktu, off Rakovsky street, by the park. Generally speaking, the fish is good and the service is good, but it's also a bit overpriced. Some find the decor to be a bit dated as well.
• Carerra A fairly modern restaurant over in the Lozenetz area. The decor is well done, the service good, and the food very good. Prices are in line with the quality and style of the place. The wine selection is excellent. They also have a nice summer/winter garden area.
• Talisman, Helzinki square, near the City Centre Sofia Mall (across the street to the East, and then South a few bocks). Talisman has won a few awards for best restaurant, but some find it on par with Carerra personally. The food, service and wine selection is very good however, and you really can't go wrong here.

Sofia has quite a vibrant night life scene. You can find anything from BG pop-folk (chalga) or dance clubs to small rock clubs or alternative hangouts.

• Apartmenta Popular among locals as well as foreigners is the "apartamenta", some sort of private club in the first floor of a turn of the 19th century mansion: after ringing on a not-descripted door, you ascend a flight of candle-lit stairs. There you find a series of rooms like in a real apartment, all in different styles and wall-drawings, colourful tapestries, etc. Go to the right, get a drink in the kitchen (everything is 2 lv), and just pick and choose a room which looks cozy enough (shouldn't be too hard to find one with all the couches lying around). If you don't like the music, there are Mac computers in most of the rooms where you can pick something else out of the playlist. Have a game of chess, or ask for tobacco for the water pipe. There is also a room which serves as cinema, if there is nothing running just go in, pick a movie out of the list and start the projection.There is also home- made chocolate and cream and all different kind of drinks like Himalayan tea,Kiwi nectars and much more...
• Bilkova A popular bar which can get vastly crowded but still remains a favorite is Bilkova on the Tsar Shishman street. No one knows how it is really named since there are no signs outside, but everybody calls it after the pharmacy in the next block. With two bars, rock musing playing most the time, B52s for 2,5 BGN and a cozy, oriental-style back room (locals ignore the non-smoking signs), it can get fairly crowded.
• Generalite A bar which on Vasil Levski Street. If you have an apointment on Popa (one of the most popular places for meetings in the center of Sofya with a momument of Patriarch Evtymiy (POPA)and you stand with you back to the monument, cross the railroad and walk 10 metres on Vasil Levski Street. When you see stairs at your left side. Go down and get a beer. There are couple of cozy rooms where you can just sit and talk or another where you can dance.
• O'Shipka on the Shipka street near the main university building. On the first floor a normal pizza place, you might as yourself going in: "What the heck, this is supposed to be a club?" Well, just go past the bar, turn to the right, and you'll find a staircase leading down into the cellar: brick walls, several small rooms like in some catacombs, good rock music, and a stage room where, if you're lucky, you'll get quite a good live performance by a local rock group blasting on the small stage. Just the type of small little rock club you might be searching for. The club portion of this pizza place closed in the summer of 2006.
• Lodkite In the huge "borisova gradina" park near the stadion (just ask you way around) you'll find this open-air place, located in an old leisure-park parcour (you know, that type of small water-channels where kid can drive around in little gondolas). The boats have gone and the channels serve as improvised sitting places (basic tables made out of wood planks put between the two sides of the channel). There are also some tables on the court and lights decorating the trees luminate the scene. The public sound system has experimental electronic music, ambiance, progressive rock, or whatever the DJs feel like. The later it gets, the more you'll find people sitting everywhere on the floor on the trees. On warm summer nights, this place is a must-be.
• Alcohol a pleasant disco with two rooms. One room offering popular music with high tables and chairs the other room decorated in oriental style and chill out atmosphere with Nargiles.
• Tri Ushi a small club with brick walls and candles. Mostly new bands play here and drinks are around 1.5 lev.
• Toba&Co a small, trendy bar with resident house DJs, located in the very centre of Sofia, just behind the National Arts Gallery
• Chervilo [26], Yalta [27], PR [28], Escape [29] and Lifehouse are fancy house/trance music clubs, where many of the world's best DJs have played. If you like this kind of atmosphere, you should try them.
• Mascara [30] is a trendy club located in the basement of the National Opera. Dress up, since the face control is picky sometimes.