Seven Rila Lakes & Rila Monastery | Must-See Places in Bulgaria 🇧🇬

[@HelenandTimTravel]

We really enjoyed Bulgaria and could see ourselves spending a month there. Apartments, food, public transit, and groceries are very affordable here! We always give a full cost breakdown of each country we visit on our newsletter at www.helenandtimtravel.com You can always drop questions below 👎🏽

[@tamibrink8569]

Just discovered you...and Love the flow of your journeys. Way cool and will play catch-up watching all your videos. Bravo 👍

[@HelenandTimTravel]

Welcome to the community, Tami! Thanks so much. Glad you like our videos. Enjoy and please reach out if you ever have questions.

[@bsavov4300]

Welcome to Bulgaria!

[@HelenandTimTravel]

Thank you so much ☺️ We loved our travels through Bulgaria

[@RaniVeluNachar-kx4lu]

I remember hiking the lakes with Daniela and over the other side back down to the Monastery late June of 2001; no gondola running then, as things were a lot worse off. Our luck we hitched a ride on the back of a maintenance truck running up the road, saved a lot of time, then we hiked up to the huts and spent a night there and had a simple meal in the hall. The hike from the huts started with Dolnoto and winds past the other lakes to Okoto and Salzata. I remember getting to the top and looking back down the precipice at the vista below. We left some stotinki under some rocks piled in the usual rock temple structure on the path leading away and in total 10.5 hours of hiking from the Huts to the Monastery was quite a march, especially since Daniela was about 3.5 months pregnant with Dylan and hiking in the equivalent of Keds sneakers. The trail just went on and on but we made it down before dark.

[@HelenandTimTravel]

Oh wow! Sounds like you had quite the adventure. We contemplated just hiking up, but the gondola was way to tempting. Catching a random ride is the way to go. Thanks for sharing your experience.!

[@Hunzagojalvalley]

great work

[@HelenandTimTravel]

Thanks so much! Cheers ☺️

[@Tavarish21]

I grew up 5min from where you stayed. Haven’t been home in 5yrs 😞. Great video 🙏

[@HelenandTimTravel]

Thank you! It is a really beautiful area! Time for a visit :) Rila Lakes misses you.

[@gamalyelg]

Trail info is not available anymore :(

[@HelenandTimTravel]

Let us check! Sorry about that. Here is another link. Let us know if this works? Seven Rila Lakes on AllTrails www.alltrails.com/trail/bulgaria/--9/seven-rila-lakes?sh=4gewq9&u=i

[@comet11110]

Hi, what is this month? Taking this video!

[@HelenandTimTravel]

We filmed this video around the first week of July

[@sylviayong]

Nice video. It encourages me to go for this hike. Could you fly your drone over the lakes without any registration requirement?

[@HelenandTimTravel]

Thanks so much! Hope you enjoy the hike. We didn’t see any restrictions on drone after doing research and there were not posted signs. We saw others flying too. We always do our best to research ahead of time to make sure we follow all the rules and laws. Hope that helps!

[@KS-np4ul]

I'll be there next month. 😊How far is the drive from the town you've stayed to Rila monastery?

[@HelenandTimTravel]

It was about a 2-hour drive from Sofia. We booked through Get Your Guide…we enjoyed the bus ride up. It did feel rushed, so we recommend renting your own car if you can or doing a tour that spends at least 2 hours there. We only had an hour at the monastery and wished we had more time.

[@HelenandTimTravel]

From Sapareva Banya, the small town we stayed in near Rila Parks area. Looks like it’s a shorter drive, 1 hour and 15 minutes. They have soaking pools there you could enjoy! If you end up staying there, we have a contact for a taxi driver that’s super nice and helpful. Feel free to email us [e-mail] if you need it 😀

[@sallimonezz6041]

Glad you enjoyed the hike :) About the "circus" - it's an incorrect translation, and it should be "cirque" - which is a cauldron-shaped valley, formed as a result of glacial activity. The word itself derives from the Latin circus and the word in Bulgarian is "циркус" - which directly transliterates to "circus", so probably where the error on the sign comes from.

[@HelenandTimTravel]

Thanks so much for taking the time to share this information! Appreciate it so much ☺️ super helpful and interesting

[@MarukuChan-i8n]

Bulgaria is now part if schengen 🎉

[@HelenandTimTravel]

It is!

[@krasimirkirev7178]

' They seem to like their sugar here' coming from an American sounds a little bit ...

[@HelenandTimTravel]

Just an observation. We saw 6 aisles of cookies, chocolates, and such. Not untrue, we like our sugar 😀

[@KSG-g6w]

What about the turkish people

[@HelenandTimTravel]

We would love to learn more about that. We did hear some history on the Turkish from our walking tours. But we don’t mean to miss mentioning things in our video. We aren’t perfect and traveling to learn more ☺️