Sofia Travel Forum

I'm going to Sofia on the 4th september and i'm thinking of doing a day trip to either of the following cities Thesssloniki (Greece),Skopje (Macedonia) or Bucharest (Romania) and I was wondering the following
Are their train's or buses to all of the above cities?
How much would it roughly cost to get to either city?
How long it would take to either city?
Do you need visa's to get into either country?
Thanks,Chris.

I've been to Sofia (2006),Bucharest(2007) and Thessaloniki (2008). The two ex-eastern bloc capitals were similar, I think. If you are doing a day trip, Thessaloniki, a Greek city with Ottoman influence, would offer something more oriental, at least architecture-wise. Also there is a lovely sea front.

I think all three are too far for a day trip, I'd rather spend time exploring the many interesting places close to hand in Bulgaria - or else visit one of the other countries for long enough to enjoy them properly. But here are some more specific details:

There are trains to Bucharest, but they take about 12 hours one way. So you could only do a "day trip" if you mean a night on a train, a day in Bucharest, and a night on the return train. And frankly I don't think Bucharest is sufficiently interesting to spend all that time travelling - Romania has lots of things to see but most of them are not that close to Sofia.

There are 3 trains daily to Thessaloniki, taking between 6 and seven hours. Again, only practical as a daytrip if you travel overnight in both directions. I like Thessaloniki a lot, but not everybody does - it doesn't have many must-see attractions and it probably helps to know a bit about its history to appreciate it.

There are no direct trains to Skopje, so travel by bus is much faster. There are several buses daily, taking roughly 5 hours one way. Depending on the timetable I suppose a very long daytrip might be possible. Although I like Skopje, once again it doesn't have the sort of specific sights that would tempt me to spend 10 hours in one day on a bus to spend part of a day there.

As for visas, as always that depends on your nationality.

I'm not sure what you mean by "either country" since you then mention 3, but if you are Irish and not just resident in Ireland, you couldn't possibly need a visa for Greece or Romania since these, like Bulgaria, are members of the EU; and (again if you are an EU citizen) you don't need a visa for FYROM when going as a tourist.

Buchurest is too far from Sofia. Thessaloniki is great ,but you'll have too little time there for a day trip.I don't know you're plans - but you can stay in Bulgaria ,there are many places too see for a day. Rila Monastery is not far at all.Malnik is near the Greek border ( it's the smallest town in Bulgaria but very beautiful with lots of traditional stuf ) , Plovdiv is only on 2 hours far and it's lovely ( see my Plovdiv page ).
I don't know kuch for Skopje , so I can't help you here:)