02 Oct 2025
The Roman ruins in Plovdiv are wonderful to see but getting there and back may not be worth it, especially if you are over 5'10" tall. The bus -- not much bigger than a van - was small and crowded. The seats are undersized and my knees were up against the seat in front of me with no room to move.
We had the bad fortune of going on a rainy day. The hilly cobblestone streets of Old Town were extremely slick and dangerous due to the rain. The streets are treacherous enough without the rain just trying to walk up and down the hills. The advertised 2-hour drive from Sofia is almost doubled because of the ongoing road construction and heavy traffic. We considered taking a train instead of a tour bus but the hotel warned us that the trains are very unreliable in Bulgaria.