Bulgaria (May 2024) - Intro



Better late than never! Here is my trip report for last spring's thoroughly enjoyable 2-week visit to Bulgaria. Enjoy!

Purpose:

This spring I aimed to spend migration somewhere other than my home region of the northeast United States. An international trip seemed most appealing, particularly to a place where visible migration could be observed. Having never been to eastern Europe, it seemed a destination worth considering. A bit of research revealed the Black Sea coast as a place worth seeing, and a few Balkan nations had been mentioned in positive light by friends in recent years. Bulgaria seemed a good fit and has gained some steam as a birding destination, at least for Europeans. The number of Americans visiting this part of the world still feels quite low. In my case, there were several dozen life birds on the table and many more second or third looks available. LFG!

The plan was to fly into Sofia, drive southeast to the Rila Mountains for high elevation targets, hit Trigrad Gorge for Wallcreeper, proceed eastward through the Rhodopes, and then do the Black Sea coast from south to north before returning to Sofia for departure. Well, the weather threw a curveball when the mountain portion of the itinerary was interrupted by a couple days of rain. Staying flexible, I audibled to the coast while it dumped rain inland, then returned to the mountains and resumed the itinerary as planned. This worked beautifully.

According to a couple locals, this had been a “strange” spring. Following a really warm winter, the spring had been wet and cold. So migration seemed a bit behind schedule and probably contributed to the absence (Paddyfield Warbler, a later arrival) and presence (Great Snipe and Pallas’s Gull, typically early departures) of some species relative to their normal timing. Despite the wet, often cool, and sometimes windy weather, I powered through and rarely felt as if the weather was a major hindrance. In fact, it was clearly an ally at times, particularly with grounding terns and gulls along the coast.

Apparently the shorebirding was subpar this year because the coastal salt lakes’ water levels were high thanks to all that rain. Bulgaria lacks any real coastal estuary, so the quality of the shorebirding is highly dependent on those lakes’ muddy edges. Not helping matters, according to one source, was that the salt flats around Burgas, which are normally great for shorebirds, were not functioning normally. He told me a story about rivals flooding each others' salt farms with freshwater, ruining the salt production and the shorebird habitat to boot. This lack of habitat was reflected in my shorebird totals, though I did find a couple sites that were productive.

In the end, the trip couldn’t have been much more successful, save for one big miss (Paddyfield Warbler). I accomplished most of what I set out to do, though I would have loved another week-plus for more migration/viz-mig, exploration of several sites that I researched but never got to, targeting a couple species such as Rock Partridge that I didn’t have time for, and a hike above treeline for even more birds and scenery. 

Not many foreigners seem to DIY the birding in Bulgaria; most folks use local guides. Sure, guides will likely always get you more birds, but I want to emphasize here just how easy it was to bird on my own in Bulgaria. I would 100% recommend exploring this safe and beautiful country on your own, especially if you are the type of person who enjoys the satisfaction of locating your own birds. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Flights:

Turkish Airlines flights were paid in cash for USD $777. Flew from New York (JFK) to Sofia via Istanbul. Perfect 2-3 hour layovers made for an easy trip, and Turkish seemed to have their shit together as an airline. I booked 4 months in advance and prices actually came down. I later saw my itinerary for $670, and other airlines’ flights had dropped into the same price range.

Rental Car & Driving:

Car Rental was booked directly via local Bulgarian company Top Rent-A-Car, which boasted much stronger reviews and slightly cheaper prices than the search engine chains. For 13 days’ rental I paid USD $378 for an automatic transmission Opel Mokka, which is a compact 4-door SUV with extra clearance that came in useful countless times. The price included third-party liability and the “vignette” national toll pass. The agency has a shuttle that picks you up at the airport and brings you to their office about five minutes away. Staff was friendly and helpful, and no surprise charges materialized.

Regarding vehicle choice, I could have booked for an even cheaper economy sedan but the potential problem with such a vehicle is ground clearance. I would have regretted going cheap and booking a low-clearance model as, per usual, I drove down many uneven dirt tracks that would have bottomed out a small sedan but was no issue for the Mokka. My advice: spend the extra few bucks and get a vehicle with solid ground clearance. Sure, Bulgarian roads are generally paved, and most of the ones that aren’t paved can be traveled slowly in a small sedan. But I would have either been limited or would have driven much more slowly down those questionable tracks in a sedan.

Specifically, I can fully endorse the Mokka as a birder’s vehicle. One of the perks of Top Rent-A-Car is that you can reserve specific models, so you can research exactly what you’re getting.

Quick note about International Driving Permits. It was unclear to me if they are required for Bulgaria. I didn’t take any chances and purchased one ($20 at AAA office in the USA). When I picked up the car, the Top Rent-A-Car employee stated their company did not require it for vehicle rental, but that it is required to produce if you are pulled over by the police. Which makes no sense to me. But I did not care to follow-up for clarification, as I was prepared with the IDP if I in fact did need it.

Again, roads were in good shape overall. There are obvious traffic cameras along the major roadways, though I am not sure how many of these are actually used for speed checks. Still, I tried to not take any chances and slowed down for all of them. Some of the other drivers were doing the same, but many were not. Months later I received a letter from Bulgaria that I was in violation of a camera speed trap for doing 85kph in a 60kph zone. The fine was for 100 Leva (=USD 55). Speed at your own risk! I did plenty of speeding, actually, but slowed down for the aforementioned conspicuous cameras. I also saw a few old fashioned manual police car radar traps during my travels, but I managed to avoid getting pulled over by a human cop. One camera got me anyway.

I had read prior to the trip that road conditions could be an issue due to construction or acts of god, and it was recommended that I monitor this map for conditions. Turns out my travels never took me through any areas of concern.

Nearly all of my navigation was done with Google Maps. Thanks to the Airalo eSIM, I had service nearly all the time, so I was able to use Google online with few interruptions. I had Maps.me (app) downloaded and ready as an offline backup, but that was never really needed for navigation. The quality of the Google navigation was excellent and didn’t lead me astray…except this one time 😊. While trying to get from Potochnitsa to Madzharovo, Google tried to take me along an impassible rutted dirt track along the south side of the Arda River. While that would have been a great shortcut, I could not make it in my vehicle. Instead you have to cross to the north side of the river, take the main road eastward, and then cross back to the south side as you approach Madzharovo. Luckily this only set me back about 25 minutes. Otherwise, Google Maps was fantastic.

Lodging:

For maximum flexibility I did not book anything in advance. Being off-season for tourism in Bulgaria, there was no need to book ahead. Not only were places readily available in nearly every town, but I soon realized that I was sometimes the only person staying in a given hotel! I stayed at two AirBNBs and the rest were hotels booked via Booking.com or via the Chase Bank travel portal (I had credits and points to burn). It really couldn’t have been easier – just opened the appropriate app on the phone and quickly found a well-reviewed place to stay pretty much anywhere I tried. Lodging was cheap. I paid anywhere from USD $25 to $60, with the average probably coming in at about $45/night. Several places included breakfast, which I nearly always skipped because I wanted to be out birding at that time. It is common for hotels to have their own restaurants, even in smaller towns, which made for convenient dining.

Food:

The average full dinner cost came in at $10-13 including drink. I ate most breakfasts and lunches on the road with purchased groceries. I spent about $15/day on food.

SIM card:

This couldn’t have been easier. Rather than getting a physical SIM card I opted for the eSIM route this time. I used Airalo which seems to be the best-reviewed eSIM distributor. For $9 I purchased a 15 GB data-only plan via Airalo, which taps into the A1 network (this is one of the top carriers in the country). Note that the Airalo eSIM seems to quote “Bultel” is the carrier, but it is really A1. The cell coverage was incredible. I had 4G data nearly constantly, including in the mountains, save for some brief lapses. The data lasted me the entire trip despite heavy map use and somewhat frequent eBird/email checking. I had purchased the eSIM from home a few days before I left, and it was activated once I began to use it in Bulgaria.

If you are not familiar with eSIMs, PLEASE NOTE that you MUST DISABLE your home country’s eSIM card when you arrive at your destination, otherwise it might continue to work in the background and rack up charges without you realizing it. Back in the day with physical SIMs, that was not an issue, as you would have to remove your home SIM and replace it with your travel SIM. But with eSIMS, multiple SIMs can be active simultaneously. Be sure to educate yourself on this before your trip.

Money:

Most hotels and restaurants accepted credit card, but there were a few exceptions, especially in the smaller towns. I pulled 300 leva at the airport upon arrival which was plenty for the trip.

Language:

Most restaurants and hotels had at least one person on staff who could speak some English, so I had to use Google Translate quite a bit less than anticipated. The language barrier wasn’t much of an issue all trip, a bit to my surprise.

Books:

Finding Birds in Eastern Bulgaria by Dave Gosney. This was a massive help, both during the planning phase and certainly while in the field. Before the trip I made my usual Google map of points, and Gosney’s habit of drawing maps and providing coordinates for each point of interest really helped round my map into form and got me to some places that might have been difficult to figure out solely from eBird checklists, etc.

Birds of Europe by Svensson, Mullarney and Zetterstrom. The classic field guide.

Additional Apps & Websites:

Merlin proved useful as both a field guide supplement and a source of sound recordings. Before the trip I checked the app to see if any key recordings were missing, and I only came up with about a dozen needed vocalizations. Those were easily downloaded from xeno-canto and transferred to my phone.

Accurate weather forecasts for Bulgaria were initially difficult to pin down, but after a few days it became apparent that two apps really shone. First, The Weather Channel’s daily/hourly forecasts for a given town were quite reliable. The big issue with TWC was their lack of radar for all of Bulgaria. I’m not sure why Bulgarian weather radar was so difficult to find. I’m still not sure I found the “right” source for that. The best I could do was this page on Accuweather. And of course there is the incomparable Windy.com (available via website or app). Their forecast was solid, at least the wind and rain layers, both of which I used quite often and found to be very impressive.

(Detailed trip report coming in future posts)

 - NB

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