Skype us!
Our nick:
vtbulgaria
|
|
We have tried to find the most useful information that a foreigner may need while staying in Bulgaria.
GENERAL
Telephone:
To call Bulgaria from the UK, dial + 359 plus the local number. Omit the 0 from
the area code. (For example, to call Veliko Tarnovo from the UK, you would dial
+ 359-62 plus the local number; to call from within Bulgaria you would dial 062
plus the number.) Pay phones in Bulgaria take telephone cards available at
kiosks and shops.
Mobile phones: There are three major mobile companies in Bulgaria – Globul, Mobiltel and Vivatel. They offer top-up cards which can be bought from their offices. It will only cost you 5 EUR and you will receive Bulgarian number and have around twenty minutes to talk within Bulgaria. Vouchers for additional minutes are available everywhere.
Internet: One can get access to the Internet in many of the Internet cafes and clubs, which can be found at practically every bigger street. The normal price per hour is about 1 BG Lev (about 0.5 EUR).
Time Difference: Winter: GMT+2H (October - March); Summer: GMT+3H (April -September).
Electricity: 220 volts, 50 Hz
Public holidays:
January 1st- New Year
March 3rd - National day of the Liberation from Ottoman Domination
Easter - Two days (Sunday and Monday) according to the Orthodox calendar
May 6th - St. George's Day
May 24th - the Day of Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture and Slav Script
September 6th - National Day of Bulgaria's Reunion in the year of 1885
September 22nd - Independence Day
November 1st - Day of the Bulgarian Revival Leaders
December 24th-26th - Christmas Eve and Christmas
December 31st - New Year's Eve
Emergency numbers:
Police: 166
Traffic Police: 165
Ambulance: 150
Fire: 160
Curious: When Bulgarians nod their heads up and down, they usually mean NO. When they shake their heads from side to side, they mean YES. However there can be exceptions to this “rule”.
Smoking: Smoking is a very common habit among Bulgarians. In Bulgaria restaurants are divided into smoking and non-smoking sections.
TRAVEL
Entry
requirements: EU
citizens can enter and stay in Bulgaria within 3 months just with their ID Card
or passport.
|Non EU citizens can enter Bulgaria as tourists without a visa for up to thirty days. They must register with the nearest police station within 48 hours of arrival. If you they are in a hotel or on a package holiday, this will be done for them. If they are staying in a private house, they will need to do it themselves.
Airports: Sofia is the main international airport. Varna and Bourgas airports are used in summer mainly. The nearest airport to Veliko Tarnovo is located 10km away in the town of Gorna Oryahovitsa, it is now being developed and will be functioning as an international airport in a couple of years time. Regular flights are available from all over the world to the capital Sofia and from there you can get public transportation to Veliko Tarnovo. During the active tourist season (May – September) charter flights are also available to the two big airports on the Black sea coast – Varna and Burgas.
Air Companies:
Lufthansa – www.lufthansa.com
Malev Hungarian Airlines - www.malev.hu
Bulgaria Air – www.air.bg/en
British Airways – www.british-airways.com
Al Italia – www.alitalia.co.uk
Czech Airlines – www.csa.cz/en
Wizz Air – www.wizzair.com
Hemus Air - www.hemusair.bg
Other websites for cheap flights or last minute options:
Trains: Bulgaria is linked by train to Istanbul, Thessaloniki and Athens in Greece, Belgrade, Bucharest, etc. Veliko Tarnovo is on the route of the Orient Express from Bucharest to Istanbul.
You can travel from Plovdiv and Ruse directly to Veliko Tarnovo by train, and from Sofia and Varna you can get a train to Gorna Oriahovitsa, and from there to Veliko Tarnovo you can get a connection train, taxi, mini bus or a local bus (distance to VT is 7 km).
Every day there are international trains to Istanbul and Bucharest, which pass through Veliko Tarnovo. Also from Gorna Oriahovitsa train station you can get a connection to Athens or Belgrade.
Note: Trains are not very comfortable and one uses them as a last resort.
Busses: Regular bus service is available from Sofia and Varna to Veliko Tarnovo with the buses arriving at the “Yug” (South) bus station or next to Hotel “Etar” (depending on which company you’re using). The journey takes about 3 hours and costs about 13 leva (7 EUR).
The buses from Plovdiv (a 4 hour journey), Ruse (2 hours) and Burgas (5 hours), arrive at the “Zapad” (West) bus station.
Driving: Cars are allowed to cross any of the many border points to enter Bulgaria. Any national driver’s license is valid. Route restrictions apply if you're only in transit through Bulgaria. Remember to buy a vignette, vignettes are available in various places, like the post offices, gas stations, at the border crossing points, etc. The vignette consists of two parts. The first one - called a vignette sticker - should be stuck to the bottom right corner of the front window of the car and the second one is kept by the driver of the vehicle. Depending on the term of validity of the vignette, one can get a weekly, monthly or annual vignette.
If you’re traveling with a car, Veliko Tarnovo lies at the cross road between E85 (Ruse – Burgas) and E772 (Sofia – Varna, with the “Hemus” (A2) Motorway at both ends).
Speed Limits: a speed limit of 50km/h applies in every village or town unless otherwise indicated. Out of town, between the villages and towns, speed limit is 90km/h. on major highways – 130km/h
Getting around
One of the best things about Veliko Tarnovo is that you can go everywhere by foot! Whether to stroll along and enjoy the beautiful architecture and the nice weather, for your fitness or if only to get your head right after hours in the pub, you can walk to any point in town without any difficulties.
If you don’t have your own car and yet you want to travel, you can always use the public transport. Many regular bus lines operate into the city and to some of the nearby towns and villages. The ticket for the city bus costs only 0.30 EUR and can be bought in the bus. For all other places outside of Veliko Tarnovo and its immediate surroundings, you can ask at the Western Bus Station or the Tourist Information Centre, located into the city centre, where you can also receive information about rental cars.
For your convenience, many taxis operate and they are not just comfortable, but are also very cheap compared to taxis in many other cities around the country. There should be a meter in every car and their tariff should be noted on the front window screen. Make sure you choose taxis with big telephone numbers on the side of the car – this means they work for a big reliable company and will not cheat you.
TOURISM
Veliko Tarnovo region has a rich combination of prerequisites for the development of tourism: remarkable nature, historical and cultural memorials, unique architecture, many monasteries, marvellous natural relief, temperate climate, ecologically clean areas, mineral springs and hunting farms.
Places to visit in VT:
-
Architectural museum reserves Tsarevets, Trapezitsa, Momina Krepost, Arbanassi.
-
Patriarchal church "Ascension" on Tsarevets Hill; the churches "St. Dimitrius of Thessalonica" , "St. George", "Forty Holy Martyrs" and "St. Peter and St. Paul"; the monasteries "Velikata Lavra", "Preobrazhenski" (Transfiguration) and "Kapinovski".
-
"Gurko" street - the ethnographic exposition and the houses from the time of Bulgarian National Revival, built in 18th and 19th centuries, standing in tiers in a picturesque way and mirroring in the Yantra River are part of the unique architectural specificity of Veliko Tarnovo.
-
The House with the Monkey.
-
The Roman town "Nicopolis-ad-Istrum".
-
Kapinovo Waterfall, Emen Canyon, Bozhur Meadow, Dryankov Hill and the waterfall on the Miykovska River.
-
Supported reserves - Haydushki Chukar, Savchov Chair.
-
Protected sites - Slona, Stariya Dab, Meshovata Gora, Kaykusha.
MONEY&PRICES
Bulgarian Currency:
The unit of currency in Bulgaria is the lev, divided into 100 stotinki.
The current exchange rate is approximately 2.5 Leva to £1.00
or 1.95 Leva
(BGN) to
1.00
Euro
The exchange bureaus display on large boards the daily rates of the main international currencies. Not all offices are reliable - some offer much lower rates than the official figures announced by the Bulgarian National Bank. The easiest way to exchange money is to use the first bank on the way – they all have very similar rates. Hotels and airports tend to give less favorable rates.
Travellers' cheques are more of a hassle as not every bank will accept them, but you’ll still find enough places to cash them for a commission of around 5%. If you do take travellers’ cheques with you make sure that you also have the purchase documents related to the cheques.
Credit Cards: The credit and electronic cards system is still in a preliminary stage of introduction in Bulgaria. Most shops accept only cash so make sure to use an ATM machine before going shopping or eating out. You can only withdraw up to 200 Leva (about 100 euros) at a time from an ATM, twice a day – that makes 400 leva (about 200 EUR) per day. Credit or electronic cards are accepted for payment practically only in hotels, airline agencies, car rentals, the bigger supermarkets and some restaurants. In these places you can use the commonly known: American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Eurocard, Diners Club, Carte Blanche, Balkanamericard, etc.