When traveling from Bucharest to Sofia Bulgaria, Flix Bus is a comfortable and inexpensive option. We took this 7 hour journey and had some unexpected surprises along the way.
Booking Bus Tickets to Sofia Bulgaria
We booked our tickets directly on the Flix Bus website, and found it to be obscenely cheap. The cost was just 10 euros each for the bus fare. Then there’s an option to pay another 4 euros each to book your seats, which I did.
I was very happy to find that 2 front seats were available, so I booked 2 front seats and 1 in the second row. This is a great seat if you want to take any video, which I was hoping to do for YouTube clip.
The bus departure point is Autogara Militaria Bus Station in Bucharest. This is about 7 km to the west of our Bucharest Old City apartment. We used an Uber to get to the bus station, which incidentally are great value in Bucharest. The trip took 28 minutes and cost us 23 Romanian Lei.
Autogara Militaria Bus Station in Bucharest
It’s a fairly standard Bus Station, with a variety of different bus carriers is using it. There are about a dozen different bus parking bays, and each one has a permanent sign above it showing which buses use the bay each day.
Flix bus has an office in the Autogara Militaria bus terminal, where you can purchase tickets. There’s also a well equipped convenience store inside the Flix Bus terminal, where you can stock up on drinks and snacks.
Departing Bucharest Romania
When we boarded the bus, the bus driver had a different idea about our pre-booked seats. He tried to push us back further into the second and third rows. It seems that the front seat was better suited for the bus drivers to use for their storage area. Actually both the bus driver seemed interested in having one side of the front of the bus each, and us paying passengers were supposed to move backwards into the bus.
After some debate we finally convinced the drivers to let us sit in the front seat. The driver side front seat was for the relief bus driver, and us passengers were on the other side. So it was a happy ending, but it took a solid 10 minutes of negotiating with the bus drivers.
Bucharest to the Bulgarian Border
The bus was very comfortable, new and modern. There is no entertainment system, no phone charging USB ports, and no Wi-Fi. But for the price we were satisfied with a no-frills bus trip. Anyway the seats were comfortable and clean, and as an added bonus they were reclining.
Usually on a bus trip you see some interesting things along the way. Maybe a castle or two, maybe some beautiful mountains and rivers. So from Bucharest to the Bulgarian border I was eagerly looking out for something interesting.
All I saw was sunflowers. Millions of them, field after field. I didn’t see any other point of interest along the way. Sunflower fields are nice and they’re pretty to look at, but that’s all you get to look at. This is not really the route to take if you’re looking for interesting scenery.
Breaks Along the Way
The seven hour bus trip had 2 breaks along the way, both in Bulgaria. The first break was at a Bulgarian service station, about the half way mark. The second break was when the drivers decided to swap over, about 2/3 of the way into the trip. Of course you have to pay at the service station to use the toilets, which is standard practice throughout Romania and Bulgaria. The cost is normally one Romanian Lei.
Border Crossing into Bulgaria
The border crossing into Bulgaria took around 30 minutes in total. The bus stopped at the passport control station, then a Passport Control Officer control person came on the bus and collected everybody’s passport.
They take the passports away into a nearby Passport Control Office and take care of the passport stamping. Then they come back and give the passports to the bus driver who re-issues them to all the passengers. It all seems to go without a hitch, and best of all you don’t have to leave your comfortable bus seats.
Scenery in Bulgaria
After you cross the border into Bulgaria the scenery is… you guessed it… all sunflowers and cornfields. But it’s prettier than Romanian farmland. In southern Romania the countryside is very flat, at least in Bulgaria it’s rolling hills. It’s very pretty to see on a sunny summer day, especially with the millions of sunflowers in full bloom.
About two hours before you reach Sophia Bulgaria, you start driving through some seriously big mountains. The bus starts going through several long tunnels through the mountains, and across some extremely high bridges. This part of the drive is extremely scenic, travelling through forested mountain country interspersed with quaint Bulgarian villages.
Arriving at Serdika Bus Station, Sofia
After the mountains the bus descends onto some flat country and arrives in Sofia Bulgaria. This is a city nestled on a a flat plateau with tall mountains all the way around it. Once again the bus station in Sofia was fairly standard, if not a little confusing.
The three things we wanted to take care of as soon as possible we arrived were.
- An ATM for some local currency
- SIM card so we could call our accommodation contact person to obtain the key
- A taxi to get to our accommodation.
A quick look around the Serdika bus terminal and I could find none of these three essential things. After enquiring at the small Flix Bus office, I learned there is a supermarket behind the bus terminal which has an ATM inside. So I walked across the road and sure enough the ATM was in the supermarket, and I stocked up with some local currency.
Also outside the supermarket is a taxi rank, about 200m from the bus terminal. It seems like the taxi serves the supermarket rather than the bus terminal, which I found a little unusual. I did not see any way to pick up a SIM card, that had to wait.
And we got our first taste of taxi drivers in Sofia Bulgaria. It was pouring rain and we did not want to walk 200 metres to the taxi rank, so we enquired with a nearby hire car. The driver refused to operate his taxi meter, but give us a flat rate instead. After some arguing in the rain, we accepted this inflated deal. I’m fairly sure we were charge triple the going rate.
Review of the Flix Bus to Sofia
Here’s my ratings of the facilities and conditions on board the Flix Bus from Bucharest to Sofia Bulgaria:
- Wi-fi: 0/10, non existent.
- Phone Charging: 0/10, non existent.
- Entertainment System: 0/10, non existent.
- Bus Noise: 10/10, the bus was quiet and relaxing.
- Toilet: 9/10, a small but fully functional toilet on board.
- Cleanliness: 10/10, the seats were immaculately clean.
- Baggage storage: 10/10, big bags under the bus and small overhead bag rack.
- Seat comfort: 8/10, they were quite comfortable and even reclined!
- Driving Safety: 10/10, the bus drivers drove safely for the entire journey.
- Passport Control: 9/10, it was fast and smooth.
- Sticking to Schedule: 10/10, the bus departed and arrived right on time.
- Value for Money: 10/10, so cheap.
We found this journey to be overall pleasant and not too tiring. It’s certainly a no frills bus trip, but the bus is clean and comfortable. Consequently we can highly recommend the trip from Bucharest to Sofia Bulgaria on Flix Bus, if you just want to get from point A to point B.
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