Sofia

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Sofia
<map lat='42.69858589169842' lng='23.37066650390625' zoom='10' view='3'/>
Information
Country:
Flag of Bulgaria
Bulgaria
State: Sofia-City
Population: 1,400,000
Licence plate: C, CA, CO
Major roads: A1, A2, A5
More info: Hitchbase
Meet fellow hitchhikers on Trustroots

Sofia (Bulgarian: София) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria, lying in the west of the country.


Hitching out

East towards Plovdiv, Edirne and Istanbul

First option

Take the metro (blue line) to Tsarigradsko shose, the Inter Expo Center. You have Metro (shop, mall) on your right, keep walking 1 km, you will reach a traffic light that is perfect to hitch, you might not even wait more than 5 minutes. Perfect stop. Some experiences suggest that it is difficult to get a direct ride to Istanbul from here unless you start as early in the morning as possible when the relevant traffic for Istanbul leaves the city. Also, waiting times can be longer than five minutes. Shorter rides are easier to catch.

Second option

Take metro and get to stop called Младост 1 (Mladost 1). Walk north along Yerusalim street until you get to the main road Tsarigradsko Shose. You should see Carrefour shopping centre around. Then take bus number 5 direction Lozen and go with it until it leaves main road on a cloverleaf junction. Get off on the next stop and go back to the junction. You will stand on a motorway junction with directions north, east to Plovdiv and west to Sofia. Go down the ramp to direction Plovdiv and you will see some shops and bars where people stop next to the motorway. Try standing on the hard shoulder to get a lift or ask people there. Nearly all traffic there goes to Plovdiv or even further east


West towards Serbia E 80

Option 1 Lukoil petrol station

Take metro to Slivnitsa and than bus 54 three stops till Magazin Metro 2. Or walk from metro Slivnitsa up E80/8 highway 3.5 km to same bus stop.There is Lukoil fuel station and a bus stop on the highway

Option 2

Bus 54 towards Kalotina all the way to the end. It ends on the highway to Belgrade on a very good hitchhiking spot. But bring some cardboard with you from the city center since there aren't any trash cans.

This road enters Serbia at the Kalotina-Dimitrovgrad border crossing.

Update 2022: It is by far the best to take a bus out to the highway, like the 54, instead of standing in near the city on the nr 8 highway. If you are near the city you may wait hours, if you even get a ride. Not recommended.

Southwest towards Skopje

Take tram number 19 in the direction Knyazhevo all the way to the last stop. You will recognize the last stop because it turns off the road to make a tight loop and doubles back on its route. As you hop off the tram, come back on the main road and keep walking the direction of tram

To get out of city you need to walk 2 km till Lukoil fuel station

Or After getting out of tram catch bus number 59 after about 8 minutes on the bus get out at Ul. Mala Koriya bus stop and look for Lukoil fuel station


North towards Veliko Tarnovo, Bucharest, Varna

Take tram 22 in direction east, get off at the last stop. The road parallel to the tramline runs directly out of the city, its possible to hitch anywhere from here but I would suggest a better place after the ring road which isolates only the traffic running to the A2 motorway. 7 km up the road is a Shell petrol station, the last stop for gas before the motorway, you can either walk the 7 km straight up the road or if you look to the left you will see a carpark in front of a car dealership. This is the bus station, take either the 117, 90 or 12, all will run directly up the road and stop more or less in front of the Shell petrol station. You can choose either the petrol station or just up the road is also ideal for hitching. An even better option is to take the 90 and persist with it until you reach the end of a road village called Gorni Bogrov (Bulgarian: Горни Богров), where you can hitch-hike from the bus station directly with great success since it has a lot of room for stopping and cars drive slow.


South towards Blagoevgrad, Thessaloniki

Take tram 5 to the last stop - the tram originates behind the court building (Съдебна палата) in the center of Sofia. Walk another 5-10 minutes in the same direction of the tram until it is clear you are out of that neighborhood where all the traffic is heading out of the city. A good place to stop is at or just after the last stop light so the drivers are already stopped and have time to see you. Or don't mess with the walking, take the bus #58 and go till it leaves the road for the village of Vladaya/Владая. If you are lucky a trucker will pick you up going all the way to Thessaloniki and on to Italy, otherwise the first 20 km are tricky (lot or cars going short distances) but after you pass Pernik you'll get a ride all the way to Blagoevgrad in no time.


Hitching In

West from Plovdiv, Edirne and Istanbul

If you're in a car continuing in the direction of Belgrade you can get off where they turn right, where it says something like "transit Belgrado". If you walk a bit further you will find a bus stop for bus #5.


Transport between north and south

If you just want to get through the city as hitching from the direction of the Serbian Niš to Greece to the south or opposite there's a quite useful bus to take. The number is 111 and goes around the ring on the west outskirts of the city. On the north, the end stop is just around some DIY shopping center, need to cross these to get to the ring. On the south the end is not the road to Greece, so be aware to get off in time.


Nomadwiki & Trashwiki

Check Nomadwiki for info on accommodation, showers etc. or Trashwiki for dumpsters...and share your wisdom :)