RV RENTAL BULGARIA

Bulgaria RV Hire Specials: If you place your Bulgaria RV rental booking request with Motorvana online, our software will apply any relevant specials from the RV hire vendor as well as our own Motorvana QUANTUM online discount.

Book early to secure availability. Many clients book their Bulgaria motorhome rental months in advance. Moreover, said discount tends to be higher the earlier a RV rental booking is made.

The second cheapest country to visit in Europe, Bulgaria is bordered to the north by the Danube River and Romania (the cheapest), to the east by the Black Sea, to the south by Turkey and Greece, and to the west by North Macedonia and Serbia. Several wild mountain ranges and lakes grace Bulgaria, as do incredible caves, well preserved cultural traditions and architecture, vibrant bazaars, delicious cuisine, and a Black Sea coast dotted with outstanding resorts. Moreover, ten UNESCO World Heritage Sites await your motorhome rental holiday in Bulgaria — plus another 26 if you pop up to Romania.

The Balkan Mountains are the chief geological feature of the country, laterally bisecting Bulgaria before forming the border with Serbia, entering that country and running northward in more subdued fashion as its eastermost flank, and then — after dramatically suffering the eastward passage of the Danube River — strengthening into the mighty, Carpathian Mountains of Romania, Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia, which range stretches in a great primordial curve nearly all the way to Vienna. Thus from Bulgaria's Cape Emine headland on the Black Sea a remarkably contiguous forested wild exists involving six countries. This magnificent contiguity amounts to Europe's greatest wilderness, a living museum of yesteryear, a veritable Land of the Lost. Most of Europe's large mammals inhabit this very three-dimensional expanse, including the brown bear, wolf, boar, chamois and deer. Your camper van hire or RV hire in Bulgaria gives you ideal access to this entire living museum.

The Bulgarian capital Sofia lies in the west of the country, not far from Serbia and just south of the Balkan range. Sofia's famed Vitosha Boulevard is at the heart of the city, with shops, restaurants, bars, and cafes opening onto the wide pedestrian way. Nearby is the famed Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, an Eastern Orthodox Church considered a symbol of the city.

Just north of town, on the Iskar River, is Camping Ribkata, its clean facilities, spacious grassy pitches and riverside situation making it the best motorhome campsite near Sofia. On the Bulgarian flank of the Balkan Mountains shortly before the border with Serbia sit the variegated Belogradchik Rocks and their famed fortress. Nearby are the archaeologically loaded Kozarnika Cave, used by humans since the Lower Paleolithic (Homo Erectus bones dated 1.6 million years old), and Magura Cave, bearing hugely important prehistoric rock art.

On the southern outskirts of Sofia rise the Vitosha Mountains, good for hiking, mountain climbing and skiing. A little farther south you'll find Rila National Park, featuring the highest peak in the Balkan peninsula along with some 120 glacial mountain lakes and the Eastern Orthodox Rila Monastery, dating from the 10th century and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A short drive again southward brings you to another gem: Pirin National Park, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 and famed for its glacial mountain lakes. The mountain town of Bansko boasts one of the cheapest ski resorts in Europe. The area — and Bulgaria in general, really — is perfect for traveling by RV.

Speaking of wintertime in Bulgaria, the various Kukeri festivals alone are worth an off-season trip. Essentially a New Year celebration akin to Halloween and Carnival, Kukeri is an age-old tradition meant, it's said, to keep evil spirits in the past. People don homemade costumes made of natural materials such as animal fur, horns, feathers and wood and featuring especially scary masks. These Kukeri monsters are meant to scare away any real monsters. Men in these costumems dance and jump with huge and very heavy bells (some over 100 kg!) tied around their waists. The costumes vary greatly from town to town and region to region, but many are evocative of ritual costumes more commonly associated with the likes of New Guinea. In olden days the Kukeri monsters would go from home to home, performing their exorcism of sorts. Nowadays they keep to public festivals. In small villages around the ski resorts of Bansko or Razlog, the Kukeri festival occurs on the modern New Year, January 1. A remarkable Kukeri festival occurs in the Rhodope Mountains village of Shiroka Laka — with its traditional black and white houses — at the beginning of March (the Roman New Year/Carnival). The Surva Festival in the town of Pernik just 50 km from Sofia is the known as the biggest Kukeri festival but is really a competition between Kukeri groups from around Bulgaria. Thousands of people from across Bulgaria attend the three-day festival at the end of January or the beginning of February. Festivals very similar to the Kukeri occur throughout the Balkans and Greece — and your heated RV hire will allow you to enjoy any of them depsite the cold.

Eastward of Pirin, near the border with Greece, rise the Rhodope Mountains. Known for large caves and river gorges cutting beautifully through karst limestone, the Rhodopes are home to ancient Thracian sites — Belintash, Perperikon, and Tatul, to name a few — along with medieval castles, churches, monasteries and picturesque villages with antique Bulgarian architecture dating from over 300 years ago. Again, perfect territory to explore in your motorhome rental.

For four days in early June the little Rhodopean village of Polkovnik Serafimovo plays host to perhaps the most unique and intriguing music festival in Europe: Meadows in the Mountains, a multi-genre celebration of Bulgarian music and tertiary international acts — from folk to rock to indie to experimental to ED. The MITM festival is a "Cosmic Adventure" of personal freedom and expression, with many attendees attired in elaborate, idiosyncratic dress, and myriad performances and theatrics blossoming all about the grounds. Camper vans and motorhomes must park at the main car park, 3 km from the village.

Not far to the north is Plovdiv, the vibrant second city of Bulgaria. Sitting on seven hills and featuring Roman ruins — theater, odeon, aquaduct, and stadium — and an Old Town of cobbled streets, Plovdiv is considered the cultrual capital of Bulgaria and was even annointed European Capital of Culture for 2019. To park your RV hire near town, go to Parking Plovdiv (located next to a supermarket). The public bus from there will take you to Old Town (where you can't enter or exit between 10pm and 6am).

Directly north, in the Balkan Range, lies Central Balkan National Park, one of the largest and most valuable of the protected natural areas in Europe. The park and eight of the nine nature reserves it harbors are protected by the UN. Four of the preserves are protected by the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme. All the preserves' ancient beech forests are protected as Primeval Beech Forests World Heritage Sites. This is some serious nature, folks.

A few hours farther north is the famed Devetashka Cave. Home to humans almost continuously since the late Paleolithic, this karst cave played host to humans as early as the Middle Paleolithic, some 70,000 years ago. Two equally stunning yet unique caves are nearby: Saeva Dupka; and Prohodna Cave — with its oft pictured Eyes of God. Loads of good places to free camp in your rented RV are in the vicinity. Wild camping with your motorhome or camper van is popular — and very legal in Bulgaria if you do not stay on private property or in national parks or nature preserves.

A mere 30 minutes eastward you can find the idyllic Krushuna Falls, its source springing from the mouth of a travertine cave. Take a dip in the soft blue waters and then drive eastward an hour and a half to the medieval gem and former political capital of Bulgaria: Veliko Tarnovo. Magnificently situated on three hills girding hairpin curves of the wonderfully meandering Yantra river, Veliko Tarnovo was among the prime European centers of culture during the Middle Ages. The Tsarevets Fortress therein is home to the royal and patricarchal palaces and to eighteen churches, including a cathedral. The fortress dominates the town to this day. Camping Veliko Tarnovo is an excellent RV campsite nearby.

From here a drive of some three hours takes you via the seaside city of Burgas to the "Pearl of the Black Sea", the ancient town of Nesebar atop its promontory (formerly an island). Another living museum and UNESCO World Heritage site, Nesebar has thrived under many different flags for over three millenia. Nearby is Camping Aheloyska Bitka, where you can camp in your motorhome within walking distance of the beach. Slightly north is Sunny Beach Resort, the most popular vacation spot in Bulgaria.

Between Veliko Tarnovo and Nesebar an extra hour of driving allows you to visit the 4th century BCE Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak. The tomb itself is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is not open to the public, owing to the sensitivity of the wall paintings it contains. However, a life-size replica nearby allows you to experience the beehive tomb decorated with murals depicting a Thracian couple at a funeral feast. The tomb is part of a royal Thracian necropolis in the Valley of the Thracian Rulers near their ancient capital of Seuthopolis. More than a thousand tombs of kings and members of the Thracian aristocracy have been discovered in the area.

An hour and a half north of the aforementioned Sunny Beach is Varna, third largest city in Bulgaria and considered the country's maritime capital. Varna is rich with history. The world's oldest gold treasure, dated to at least 4200 BCE, was discovered in the Varna Necropolis. Equally rich with culture both old and new, Varna boasts fine museums, professional arts companies, and longstanding traditions in the visual arts, music, and book publishing. Recently Varna has become known for arts and music festivals and a bustling hip hop and youth-culture scene.

When booking your Bulgaria RV rental you can book a one-way rental from the Sofia rental depot to Plovdiv, Burgas, or Varna, Bulgaria, or to Zagreb, Croatia, but not the opposite directions. You can also book transfer in a passenger van to or from the Touring Cars Sofia RV rental station from or to the Plovdiv airport, Burgas airport or Varna airport.

Apart from our Motorvana QUANTUM online discount, the prices and policies presented on the Motorvana website match the prices and policies of our suppliers. You aren't paying extra by going through Motorvana — in fact you're paying less, thanks to our unilateral, QUANTUM discount.

Motorvana facilitates the whole RV rental booking process, presenting a single total cost you can count on — and acting for you as an accessible resource and, if necessary, as a mediator.

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