Dear guests of Sofia, arriving in the city is good to know the best options how to travel in the city.
ARRIVING at the AIRPORT;
Arriving at the airport you have two options to get to the city center or other directions. The first option is to take a taxi. You have to follow few advices for your safety trip. First, never accept invitations from private drivers with private cars to drive you for " less money". They usually count on your desinformation or your imagination to tax you. Any taxi driver offering you drive directly is most likely illegal to. Theere are only two regular companies serving Terminal 1 and 2. These are OK SUPERTRANS 973 21 21 and Taxi 9 12 80. They have stop on the airport. At the Arrivals gate. On Terminal 2 this is on the write site of the airport. The problem is that other taxi companies imitate the the logo, especially of OK SUPERTRANS company. There are imitations that are totally confusing like ok superchance ot ok autotrance. Everyone can make a mistake, because some letters are written with very small font.
For your security you can ask operator to call for you from the desk office inside the airport or you just make sure that you are in the stop with the taxis. There are usually many cars from both companies.
Taking taxi from the city you can call OK if you can't call or order a cab you have to be really careful. Always check the logo of the company. Always check the price list. The price list is usually displayed on any of the taxi windows.
You can call the directly for OK supertrans for mobiles: 1 82 94.
Some reference information:
Initial tax: 0.60 BGN
Daytime rate: 0.59 per km
Night time: 0.70 per km
Wait rate:0.18 km
call charge: 0.50 km
The rate from the Airport to The Rooms is about 10-15 BGN.
If got cheated: There not many options that you can avoid the confusing situation after you've been using the service. In fact there is not limit price for the taxi services in Bulgaria. You can be charged from 3lv to 20lv per km and that is legal. The driver will probably print a receipt. Even if it's fake it takes long time to check this. If you call the police even they can't help because they can't prove instantly wether the receipt is legal. You can only bargain with the driver. It usually works but again you can only reduce the loss. For that reason, again. Always check the price list!!!
About the bus: Before you take the bus is better to buy ticket from kiosk. It costs 1.00 BGN. When you get in the Bus you have to validate the ticket with perforator attached in the Buses. Some buses have electronic ticket machines. They work with coins. And you can ask the driver to sell you ticket when the Bus is stop. Most drivers don't speak English, but they will probably understand you. To go to the center you have to catch Bus 84 or Bus 284 from the Airport. These Buses stop at the very central point of Eagles bridge. From there you can get a Bus to almost every other point in the city.
From the Eagle's bridge you can take buses # 213, 305 or 214. And than you follow the map below.
From the Railway/Bus station you can go to the hostel by walk. It takes about 10-15 min.
You can also get a bus number 305, 213, 214 that stops in front of the Railway station. You need it just for two stops. The other way is to take tramway but at the moment there are massive reconstructions for the new subway lines and the tramway has changed the its itinerary.
Here you can get more detailed information about the transport network in
Sofia;
FROM THE RAILWAY STATION YOU WALK DOWN MARIA LUIZA BULV. THAN YOU CROSS THE BRIDGE WITH THE LIONS AND THAN TAKE ON THE LEFT SITE ALONG THE BOULEVARD SLIVNITSA. THAN YOU TAKE THE SECOND ON RIGHT AND THAN THE FIRST ON LEFT. THIS IS POP BOGOMIL STR. THE HOSTEL IS 50 METERS FROM THE CORNER. PURPLE HOUSE WITH YELLOW AROUND THE WINDOWS. WE HAVE A VERY SMALL SIGN IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS TO FIND US CALL 02 9836712
ATTENTION! Few cheap hotels on the street recently changed their signs with ROOMS. That is confusing for some of the guests. To avoid this problem and find the way to the Rooms hostel always check the address. You have to look for number 10, Pop Bogomil.
Central Sofia - between the 2 main streets of Rakovski and Maria Luiza. We are closer to Rakovski which is the better part. 10 min walking from the busrailway station. Contact us before you arrive for exact details.
