Vitosha Nature Park. Sofia. Bulgaria

When it comes to such tourist places as nature reserves and ecological paths, it always takes them a whole day, although there are no attractions like in the city. Here, after all, the main thing is not information saturation, but rest. Rest your eyes, ears, body and soul :-)

Despite the fact that Sofia is full of sights that you will never reach all day, many tourists try to get to the Vitosha mountain and I understand them - this is a real rest, real impressions and also useful for health. But! It should be borne in mind that this will take the entire light day. Staying on the mountain in the dark is not strongly recommended. Firstly, it is a reserve and human life is hounded there: garbage, fires and so on. And secondly, there are wild animals there and no one will vouch for your safety. Well, in the third place, there is nowhere to spend the night. Hotels are only at the bottom of the mountain. At the top - just a weather station.

How to get to the mountain and climb it

You can reach the mountain by taxi or by public transport. If we talk about a taxi, then we can use "Ok supertrans". They are called at the number 9732121. The fare is 0.79 lv per kilometer.

If we talk about public transport, then this can be buses number 122 and 123 - to the elevator station Simeonovo (cab elevator); and bus number 93 to the chair lift station in Dragalevtsi. But only it goes not to the station itself, but to the main square of this quarter, then you will have to walk up to the restaurant "Vodenitsata", from where the elevator starts. I do not know how many kilometers it is, to be honest.

If you did not arrive by car, then on to Vitosha mountain it is necessary to climb the ski lifts, but you can go and walk up through the forest - there are paths. I have never tried it, but I believe that it can take a whole day :-) Also there leads a paved road, by which you can get to the top of Aleko and there to put the car in the parking lot, and then on foot.

Vitosha Mountain in Sofia and what to do there

Sofia is located in the Balkan mountains and is surrounded by various nature reserves, one of them Vitosha Biosphere Reserve. Not to be confused with Vitosha boulevard in Sofia. On the Bulgarian mountain - the planina.

The area of this huge park is 27,000 hectares, most of which are forest. There are no tourist sites here, except for the beautiful nature, the waterfall and excellent panoramas. People go here to walk around the year. In winter, they ski and snowboard, because on the mountain Vitosha there is a ski resort of local importance, for the Sophians. Of course there are several eco-routes for people with Finnish sticks and without them, as well as cycling.

Still here you can pick raspberries, blueberries and lingonberries. I've never seen mushrooms, but I think they are, just below - not at the same height as I'm showing you now in the photo. This, in fact, the top of Vitosha, which at the peak of "Cherni Vryh" reaches 2290 meters, these photos are made at a dozen or so meters below. Because at the very top there is absolutely no vegetation, only stones, a weather station and a wild wind.

Vitosha is the fourth highest mountain in Bulgaria. The highest Stara Planina is 2375.9 meters above sea level.

The only civilization, consisting of two dining rooms and souvenir shops, is at the height of the station "Aleko" (1810 m). The truth is I've never been there in the summer and I do not know if they work. As Aleko crosses the ski track, we walk there in the winter, and in the summer we sometimes use the chair lift from Dragalevtsi and walk along Vitosha with our lunch.

I recommend doing this: arrange a picnic on Vitosha with a view of Sofia. You will have time to walk there while you look for this species). The fact is that Sofia is very far away, and Vitosha is very high and they are separated by several peaks, so Sofia is rarely and badly seen from Vitosha, if there are any clouds or bad weather. This can be seen from my photos.

The most important sight of Vitosha is the so-called stone rivers, which are mistakenly attributed to the name "moraine". This is not true - the correct name for this phenomenon is kurum. These stones do not move anywhere, they just lie down on the mountain like a river, and under them the water murmurs - streams run there. Particularly interesting are these stone rivers from a height.

Origin of name

It is believed that the name "Vitosha" has Thracian roots. They say that this means "two-high." True, this mountain name is called only from the Middle Ages. Previously, the mountain had other names, which meant "steep slope" or "watchtower." What is also true :-)

The budget of this hike is formed from the cost of a picnic + the cost of a taxi ride + lift on an elevator.

Since personally I most often get there by car, I can not say exactly how much it costs to go up there by lift. Because their two and the prices in the winter and summer per person there are different. Cabin in the summer, it seems, costs 10 euros (round-trip) per person, and a chair from Dragalevtsi, it seems, is about 4 euros per person. Yes, still prices vary depending on the type of day: day off, weekday holiday. And a cab elevator from Simeonovo can not walk on weekdays in the summer, because it, like, for skiers.

In general, I'm for a taxi. With them everything is clear and they work smoothly all year round. Take a taxi to Aleko, negotiate with him when he arrives to pick you up and everything is ok! The fact is that the elevators are also inconvenient in terms of time - they stop walking somewhere in the middle of the day, that is, until the evening you will not be able to stay on the mountain.

Thank you for your time and attention.

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All photos in this blog are taken by me unless otherwise attributed.

With love from Bulgaria @varya-davydova

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