Burgas Travel Forum

Hello, I am flying to Burgas next week, and am planning to spend 3 days there before making my way to Kosovo. I would like to know if there is a direct bus from Burgas to Skopje. If not, I will have to get to Sofia first. I checked train schedule, and trains to Sofia travel 8 (!) hours, which seems to be too long. How long does it take to travel to Sofia by bus? Sorry, I tried to call Sofia and Burgas bus stations, but couldn't get through. Many thanks!

Hi,
Sofia - Bourgas with bus is about 6h. There is no direct transportation between Bourgas and Skopie, you shold come in Sofia first and the get a bus to Skopie.

Regards
Bogo

Hi,

There is no direct train from Skopie to Sofia, the trains travel via Nis (Serbia) or Thessaloniki (Greece).

You can check the timetable for the Skopje - Sofia bus here:
http://www.sas.com.mk/en/timetable.php
The travel time is about six hours, the exchaneg rate is ~60 denars for one euro.

The timetable for the Sofia - Burgas bus is here:
http://213.240.239.190/guide/searchDeparturesSimple.jsp;jsessionid=00005Ve0KoDwuA8PMaP4AIk_nB3:-1
The travel time is again about six hours, the exchange rate is 1,95 leva equals one euro.

Sorry for my overlooking the direction of your travel.

This is the Arrival section of the Sofia Bus Station:
http://213.240.239.190/guide/searchArrivalsSimple.jsp;jsessionid=00005Ve0KoDwuA8PMaP4AIk_nB3:-1

Thank you for your replies. Unfortunately, the bus schedules do not give the exact travel time - only the time bus arrives or leaves, and there seems to be some discrepancy between the schedules of bus stations in Skopje and Sofia, on their sites.

Does it really take 6 hours to travel between Skopje and Sofia?? They are not that far away on the map....

I got a bus from Skopkje to Sofia last month. It took about 5 hours. Of that, maybe half an hour was in rush hour traffic jams in the outskirts of Sofia, at least half an hour going through border formalities (it takes a while to check the passports of 50 people on both sides of the border), and half an hour "pausa" at a cafe. So depending on how all those things go it could take more or less time.

One of the companies running these buses is called MATPU. Their website, www.matpu.com, shows both departure and arrival times, and fares. But of course it won't show buses run by other companies.

Also be careful that not all Sofia-Skopje buses leave from the main Sofia bus station (the big new building) - this can be a little confusing. Some leave from a separate parking lot between the main bus station and the train station, sometimes called "Trafik Market". There are a bunch of kiosks selling tickets beside this parking lot, but no actual bus station building. These buses won't be shown on the Central Bus Station timetable.

Don't forget you will "gain" an hour in the Sofia-Skopje direction as Macedonia is on CET and Bulgaria on EET.

Alan, thank you for the information which turned out to be very precise and correct.

Cheers,
Sergei.