Flexible Day Trip to Rila Monastery and Boyana Church

El monasterio de Rila es precioso, el trayecto es un poco largo pero el enclave es maravilloso. Después de la visita, nos llevaron a un restaurante cerca para probar la comida local. Trucha a la brasa, carne a la brasa, ensaladas y panes buenísimos. Tras el almuerzo, visitamos la iglesia de Boyana. Es patrimonio de la Humanidad. Solo dejan estar 10 minutos dentro, suficiente porque es bastante pequeña. Recomendaría que el tour se hiciera a la inversa, primero visitar la iglesia y luego el monasterio. Impresiona más.

事前に依頼していた日本語のガイド(書面)は機械翻訳以下の出来栄えで読むに耐えないものでしたが、当日は他のグループと一緒になり、英語のガイドも受けることができました。 英語ガイドのおかげで、リラの僧院とボヤナ教会の歴史的な背景がよくわかりました。

Do not choose this tour nor the operator. It's a tourist trap. The tour was named "Self Guided Tour", and our first impression was shuttle buses were provided, and guests will guide themselves in the sites. This is a common understanding of a "Self Guided Tour" in Bulgaria. However, this was not the case for this tour operator. The tour operator sent us a PDF at midnight before the tour start, and the PDF contained nothing more than public information (such as public bus and time schedule) between Rila Monetasary and Boyana Church. Every person can google by themself without any cost. The PDF has only 13 pages and with low quality of tourist site introductions, which is not worth the money at all. When I realized this tour was a fraud, it was already too late to cancel. I applied for a refund, however, the operator declined and responded like " It is clearly stated as a Self Guided tour", "It's your responsibility to choose a tour", etc. We asked the tour operator how the 13 page PDF can charge 46 euro for two people (the price is enough for people to join a guided-bus tour), but he didn't explain. Instead, he offered us a two-hour guided tour in Sofia based on a "goodwill". The tour in Sofia is not worth what we paid for and we didn't want it as well. How can anyone comfortably join a guided tour provided by an unreliable operator? I contacted TripAdvisor and received a partial refund from TripAdvisor, which was better than nothing. This is clearly the worst experience I had with tour operators in my life.