Sofia Travel Forum

How "safe" is the train to Istanbul. I understand I sound uber american asking this question but I will be by myself and have some rough single traveler stories from some friends.

This isn't an exact answer to your question, but we took the bus from Veliko Turnovo (a great city) to Istanbul and were the only non-Bulgarian or Turkish on the bus, (e.g, the only Americans) and we were absolutely fine.

From my pre-trip planning, I was pretty much told that the buses were the way to go in Bulgaria, at least.

(The only really funky thing is that they took our passports at the bus station, and didn't give them back until the bus started moving.....Scary!)

We took the train in 2006 with three kids. It was pretty safe. We had sleeper from Belgrade all the way and there was besides us almost nobody in the sleeper. The sleeper from Sofia is not that nice but perfectly adequate.

The problem is not the safety but the trains being late and esp. the Turkish border police de-training everyone at the border and the entire border crossing being a pain in the rear.

It will cost you a little more, but the crossing of the "Filia" express coming from Thessaloniki into Turkiye is more pleasant, also there are two trains daily from Thessaloniki to Istanbul.

Given that the Sofia-Thessaloniki round-trip is a mere 15 Euro and IMHO Thessaloniki has also a lot to offer for a day, I would probably add one day, save on a hotel and take a stroll in Thessaloniki.

The Thessaloniki-Istanbul o/w is 30-something Euro by train, with the sleeper it's ca. 48 Euro.

The good is, the passengers usually are not forced to de-train in the middle of the night in Uzunköprü on the Turkish/Greek border.

It is safe to travel anywhere if you don't make a target of yourself. Thieves are out looking for easy pickings.

Hi, I dont think you will have any problems unless you make it by yourself. Just keep the general safe rules.

I was travelling alone from Bulgaira to Istanbul and the only scary thing i was affraid of was, that someone would put drugs in my backpack. (that means long prison in Turky)so i made sure all the zippers in my backpack were locked, a little paranoia...for the rest there was a long time of waiting at the border chicking passports. but the hourney wasnt dangerous