Our costs in Bulgaria

Congratulations to the 2wandereres

who have achieved 30% savings during their staying in Bulgaria! This will compensate for our overspend in Macedonia.

So, yeap! All the literature out there about Bulgaria being a cheap country is actually true.

We spent €498 during our 10 days travelling around Bulgaria and we had predicted a spend of €709. Our cost per day was €50, so well under compared to our budgeted daily cost of €69. This makes Bulgaria the second best value for money country to which we have been so far, after Portugal.

The bads, only one: Diesel

We have only overspent on Travel (€236 actual costs against €161), for the same reason we have given in previous posts. We seemed to have underestimated our diesel costs at the time we put the budget together before we started our trip. After having travelled for 9 months, we have realised that budgeting fuel prices could be quite challenging. This year, they have fluctuated enormously, due to speculations in the international markets. Another factor that also influences gas prices is the local taxes, which we hadn’t taken account for.

The goods, everything else

1) Accommodation

You can park anywhere in Bulgaria, as long as it is not in front of a private property.

Water is available almost everywhere, in the form of springs and fountains. Moreover, days are now longer and it is very sunny in Bulgaria at this time of the year. As a result, Dora’s PV panel has worked at its maximum capacity, so we have had no issues with electricity. In summary, we had not needed to sleep in an aire or campsite to replenish her reserves.

2) Repairs

There was nothing wrong with Dora. The €15 showing below was to do with the tax road that we needed to allow us to drive in Bulgaria.

3) Food

Food is really good value. We have been unfaithful to Lidl and did shopping in Kaufland, a posh supermarket chain.  We did go out for a meal on the last day, and we were still 33% under budget.

4) Others

4.1 – Communications, a pre-paid SIM card with the largest local operator, Vivacom, including 2.5 GB for 10 days cost us Lei 15 (€7.5). We bought two lots which gave us plenty of data to update the maps on the blog, download podcasts, etc.

4.2 – Laundry. There is a general draught of self-laundry places in Bulgaria, so we have to end up taking our clothes to a dry cleaning place. Incredibly good value, we paid Lei 40 (€20) to wash around 25 kilos of clothes, and we didn’t have to do it ourselves. We went trekking instead!

4.3 – Activities. Most of the activities we paid for related to things we did in Veliko Turnovo and Varna. The €32 total expense relates to a couple of museums in the former and the a mud bath in the latter.

SM