travel advice or tips for bulgaria

bushranger31

hello has anyone have tips or advice on bulgaria in august as we are staying aat the golden sands resorts. please could you give me advice on the following:money, weather , food , things to do and the standard of the resort and is there cheap shopping to be done there ? thank you

Discogod

Hi there,

i went to bulgaria as part of a group exchange thing to the capital Sofia & i absolutely loved it. the people are just brilliant - as is the weather. You will find it very very hot at that time of year, especially on the east coast.

Money - they use LEVS, you won't be able to get these at most 'normal places', i had to order mine in especially - i think from Lunn poly. The exchange rate is massively in your favour & of course absolutely anything over there is far cheaper than here (20p for a pint of beer anyone?). You can easily except a three course meal with drinks to come well under £10. They love their chicken over there (lucky for me), i didn't try any of their local food cos i'm so picky but i'm sure you'd like it.

Clothes are alot cheaper there, electrical goods are pretty much the same though (digital cameras are anyway, cos i looked).

Couple of things to look out for, busses - the busses in sofia work off old token things. You can pre-buy them (not sure where from) & when you get on the bus get it stamped by one of several metal hole stamping things on the bus. An inspector will come on randomly & ask to check everyone's ticket is stamped - they of course prety on tourists. Same for taxis - this pays as normal but dont be suprised if they try & overcharge you, just fight your corner.

I haven't been to the east coast so i cant comment on that resort.

p3gg

Discogod wrote:

the people are just brilliant - as is the weather... You can easily except a three course meal with drinks to come well under £10. They love their chicken over there...

Agree with all that, after 5 trips to Bulgaria. The food is actually very diverse with lots of different regional variations and ethnic influences -- the grilled meats are the highlight for me, and they also have an extraordinary number of different styles of stew! The vegetables and salads are wonderfully fresh -- that goes back to the weather, of course, and the non-dependence on pesticides.

Discogod wrote:

Money - they use LEVS, you won't be able to get these at most 'normal places', i had to order mine in especially - i think from Lunn poly. The exchange rate is massively in your favour

I don't know about the exchange rate being massively in your favour... Not if you buy all your levs over here it isn't! My advice would be to take as few as you need to get you through day one (and yes -- some staff in "normal places" such as the Post Office will swear blind that you can't obtain levs over here: just be insistent and keep telling them yes you can, I don't think their crib sheets must have been updated for about 3 years)... But you will get at least 10% better rate in Bulgaria.

Discogod wrote:

Couple of things to look out for, busses - the busses in sofia work off old token things. You can pre-buy them (not sure where from) & when you get on the bus get it stamped by one of several metal hole stamping things on the bus.

They are tickets. In Sofia they cost fifty stotinki (half a lev; about eighteen pence in our money), or a bit less if you buy 3 or more at a time. You can get them from dedicated ticket kiosks (e.g. where the buses stop at the airport) or from newspaper kiosks all over the place.

Discogod

also..... bulgaria as a country are way behind hte times, but that's part of hte charm that i love about the place.

I took this photo of one of hte main roads at a bus stop in Sofia, in the picture was a horse & cart on the road carryign goods, behind that was a car & then behind that a tram. There's loads of 80's style cars there!

PS, the girls are super-super gorgeous, and of course, slim!

tiff

You might want to check out reviews and comments on holidaytruths.com as I've read there is still a lot of building work going on in the resorts and some people are cancelling their holidays.