Parking in Sofia

Have you ever considered visiting Sofia by car? A lot of people do and that is why this time we are focusing on everything you need to know about parking in Sofia.

WHERE CAN I PARK?

In Sofia the company responsible for all the transport and parking is called the Urban Mobility Centre aka UMC. They are the ones providing parking premises, passes, tokens and basically everything connected with parking in the city as well as impounds your vehicle. If you don’t want to get there it is always better to pay for the parking. There are two types of short term paid parking zones in the center – a Green one and a Blue one. They are active only during the day and the municipality of Sofia has given detailed information about the reach of those zones and provided a map.

BLUE ZONE

• Parking limit: The maximum duration of parking in this zone is up to 2 (two) hours.
• Working hours:
  • Weekdays and Saturdays from 08.30 to 20.00
  • No blue zone on Sundays
• Price: The price of parking in the Blue zone is 2 BGN per hour
• Payment: either by token or by SMS to phone number 1302 (see below for more details)

GREEN ZONE

• Parking limit: The maximum duration of parking in this zone is up to 4 (four) hours.
• Working hours:
  • Weekdays and Saturdays in the time range from 08.30 am to 19:30.
  • No green zone on Sundays
• Price: The price of parking in the Green zone is 1 BGN per hour
• Payment: either by token or by SMS to phone number 1303 (see below for more details)

PARKING PLACES IN SOFIA

Here you can find a virtual map with all the available municipal parking in real time. And a highly recommended website and an app for all the parking places in the country is this one.

PARK & RIDE

There are a total of 4 P&R parking places, which reduce traffic in the city by allowing people to leave their cars and use the metro.

The P&R are located at:

• Metro station “Tsarigradsko shose”. It has two floors and a total capacity of 1350 parking lots.
• Metro Station “Business Park” has 86 spots and is usually very busy due to the myriad of people working there.
• Metro station “Beli Dunav”. This one is divided into a Northern and Southern part. The northern one has a capacity of 128 usually busy, whereas the southern one has 350 that are not that busy at all.
• Metro station “James Boucher”. It has 4 floors with a total capacity of 500 spots.

You can use these parking places with or without using the metro system. The parking prices are calculated based on each hour that is started. Here you can find more information.

FREE PARKING

If you are looking for free parking, there are everywhere around the city outside of the green and blue zones. The closest one to the city center is just opposite the Central Train Station at 116, “Bratya Miladinovi”str.

People with disabilities

If you require it, there is a certain number of fixed parking places for vehicles transporting people with disabilities throughout the city. One should look for this sign

Electric vehicles

If you own an electric vehicle this is good news for you. You can park electric vehicles free of charge if they have a sticker by “UMC” EAD.

HOW TO PAY AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

One has several ways to pay for parking in the city of Sofia. Here we will go through the options available.

• With a coupon

These coupons can be bought from ticket offices of UMC, retail outlets or inspectors. They come in two shapes and sizes. They are easy to use, one just has to scratch out the exact hour and minute as well as the day, month and year and which zone would like to use. Last, but not least the coupons are valid for both of the zones, but the difference is the length of stay and price. The options are:

½ hour in BLUE ZONE or 1 hour in GREEN at the cost of 1 BGN

1 hour in BLUE ZONE or 2 hours in GREEN at the cost of 2 BGN

• With an SMS or app

This option is the most practical, but apologies to the digital nomads, because it is only working with a Bulgarian mobile number.

One should send a SMS to number 1302 for “Blue zone” or number 1303 for “Green zone” with the License Plate Number as the text of the message. Keep in mind that with SMS one can only pay per hour, but not for ½ hour. A maximum of 4 SMS can be sent. Furthermore, the system accepts any combination of 4 to 9 symbols as a license plate number and the text should be in English (the Latin alphabet), without spaces and the content of the SMS must literally reproduce the license plate of the relevant vehicle.

For instance: if you have the car plate number CB1234HP:

The correct input is: CB1234HP

A wrong input is: SV1234NR

Once successfully sent an automatic system answer should confirm the payment, hour and zone: “You have successfully paid the parking fee for СB1234НP until 01:32 pm in Blue zone”. 5 minutes before the hour runs out, a notification is sent to the number informing that there are less than 5 minutes left. To save time and effort, one can also send multiple messages one after the other (maximum 4 are accepted), which will add them up and always be followed by an automatic notification for successful payment.

Another option is to download this app that is very user friendly, it is useful for other cities too and can be programed to send messages for you.

• Business subscription

Businesses in Bulgaria can purchase subscription for parking. Usually, it is an added service to the business, so if you go to the bank, there is a place to leave your car. Useful tip: don’t park and leave your car at these business subscriptions; you can’t pay for it, and your vehicle can be impounded. In most cases there is a time limit during which you can use it and the total number of parking lots under the subscription. Another tip is that out of the working hours, these parking lots are considered normal ones. That means that you can use them on a Sunday or during the night.

• With a vignette sticker for resident parking (for residents in short-term paid parking zones)

If you are a resident of Sofia or plan to become one, residents can pay an annual subscription for parking in both of the zones. In this case, a special vignette sticker is put on the windscreen. If you get a hold on a vehicle with such a sticker you can leave it in the zone subscribed for.

• With a preferential parking permit for people with permanent disabilities.

Just like the subscription for resident parking, people with permanent disabilities are eligible to receive another special vignette that gives them the chance to park for free at the parking lots for people with disabilities up to 4 hours.

I FORGOT TO PAY… WHAT IS NEXT?

You have two options here: either your vehicle has been placed under a car clamp or it has been impounded.

Car clamp

This is a bit better than having your car impounded because only a clamp is put on it. In this case, you will have to call the number on the notification left under the wiper (usually they leave it there). A representative of the UMC will come and remove it. You will have to pay a fine plus the time that your vehicle spent at the location.

Impounded car

It is not your memory playing games with you. You parked your car at that location you liked; it is just … gone. The first thing to do is to make sure your car was not stolen by checking here. You have to enter the plate number of the car and see if it was impounded and where it was taken. Then you have to go to that parking lot, pay the fine plus the time your vehicle spent there, and voila.

We hope that you find this article interesting. Let us know in the comments if there is anything you want to know more about.

Make sure to check out our Ultimate Sofia Travel Guide if you are visiting Sofia for the first time.

You don’t want to drive a car in Sofia? Don’t worry! We’ve got you covered with our full Sofia Public Transport Guide.