Vitosha Mountain, Sofia Region, Bulgaria

5Darren Ledger 5:00 PM Apr 14, 2021

Breathtakingly accessible from Sofia City Centre, diverse range of forest hikes, waterfalls, jaw dropping views.
When you arrive in Sofia your attention is immediately drawn to the Mount Vitosha range which stands tall in the backdrop. Beautiful snow-capped mountains fringed by lush green mixed woodland and forest draws you in immediately. Easily accessible by car, buses and trams, you can even jump the various chairlifts to get higher up the range. My favourite starting point for any hike in Vitosha is Boyana Church. From here there is a myriad of routes to choose of varying difficulty all clearly marked. Take your pick from The Golden Bridges, Boyana Lake and Boyana Waterfall, or just choose a path that looks good, hit the trail and go with the flow. Advisable to wear good walking shoes, the terrain is very diverse and changeable and varies from easy-going paths to steep rocky (and slippy) climbs. Always take plenty of water, make sure you have some food. There are lots of mountain huts that serve great traditional Bulgarian food, beers, wines and soft drinks, but you have to get to them first. Fabulous days out, I still haven't done the actual Black Peak yet, but it's on the agenda.

4nico H 5:00 PM May 9, 2022

Amazing views of the city from up here
The mountain is an impressive and constant backdrop as you are moving around Sofia. I would advise taking the 64 bus from outside the cinema near Vitosha metro station. They run every 20 minutes or so and will take you up the foothills to Boyansko Hanche. The church is uphill on the left from the bus stop and you then have a steep 400m walk up the road which runs past the back of the church to find the trailhead. My plan was to visit the waterfall and then push on to the Kamen Del viewpoint at 1800m. But virgin mobile were not playing ball and so I was unable to access my roaming internet , so had to rely purely on the trail signs. Should have started with the green trail which would in retrospect have been the easier route. But saw the white sign waterfall route and followed that. Or tried to. More direct, and very, very steep. Needed to use my arms and hands... a lot. Gruelling, but worth it. The waterfall is impressive in lots of different places on the way up, which took a couple of hours. Then got a little lost - due to virgin and to indistinct paths, but had a moment of serendipity by stumbling across a clearing just to the west of the waterfall which afforded a magnificent view of the whole of Sofia at a height of about 1400m.