Rila Monastery is a nice day trip from Sofia taking you into the mountains where you will find a colorful monastery. It does feel special and I can’t quite fathom the bad evaluation it got by Unesco.

The site spans multiple locations with the monastery in the center. If you want to see the other parts you will have to do some hiking (or bring a car). For your efforts you will be rewarded with nice nature and mountain views.

It took me 1:15h to make it to Saint Ivan’s cave. On my way up I wasn’t able to spot the start of the trail and walked along the road. The sign posting leaves much to be desired; it’s also mostly in Bulgarian. From the cave it’s quite straightforward following the trail back, though. But the trails were still rather rough. I assume they will do some maintenance before the hiking season starts in earnest. Given the ubiquity of camping sites and barbecue areas I would guess the area is rather popular in summer.

Getting There

There are daily busses from Sofia departing the western bus station Ovcha Kupel (Tram Line #5) at 10:20h. Tickets are bought on the bus and cost around 6€ one way. Be advised that the bus may be crowded. So if you prefer to have a seat for the next three hours of bus ride, it’s best to queue early.

The return by direct bus is already at 15:00h, giving you a less than two hour time window. Enough, if all you want to see is the monastery itself, get a coffee afterwards and get in line early again for your seat. Too little if you actually want to hike to the cave which I would recommend.

I returned with the bus at 17:00h to Dupniza. From there half hourly busses run back to Sofia. This connection isn’t even much slower than the direct bus clocking in around 3h. The direct bus makes a lot of stops and does a 15min break in Rila. Not really tourist friendly.

If you are travelling onwards to Bansko (Pirin) or Thessaloniki you may want to consider staying in Blagoewgrad. There is a 7:00h and a 12:00h bus to the monastery and it saves you some time as you don’t need to go back and forth to Sofia twice. I skipped on this option as I was eager to get to Sofia and wasn’t sure what to do about my luggage. Some German travellers I met asked around in the monastery and had their luggage stored with the security of the monastery, probably for a tip.

For current bus schedules please check the monasteries site.