Free Sofia Tour's Blog

Sofia is probably the only European capital with such a big mountain so close to the city center. If we don’t consider the European ministates like Andorra. Vitosha is a ski resort (though a bit underdeveloped), nice hiking place and gives you a great panorama view of the city. The city is also one of the highest capitals in Europe. It’s Andorra la Vella again on top, followed by Liechtenstein’s Vaduz and arguably Madrid. So the question inevitably pops up – ‘How to get to Vitosha mountain?’. Here are some options: WALKING AND HIKING IN VITOSHA This is actually how organized tourism in Sofia started. In 1895 the famous Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov managed to convince around 300 people to leave the ‘dusty streets’ and ‘stuffy cafes’ of Sofia and get a refreshing walk from the city centre to the top of the mountain – Cherni Vrah (Black Peak) at 2290 m above sea level. In front of the National Theatre there’s a stone that marks the starting point of this interesting […]