Hitchhiking in Bulgaria
Hitchhiking to Bulgaria
Recent reviews in Bulgaria
41.72213, 26.33219
reading the previous comments you can understand that it is very difficult to find transportation here. I was lucky and after an hour a kind gentleman from Turkey picked me up directly to Sofia. If it wasn't him I would probably have been standing in this place for hours.
―lovrec, February 2026
42.74564, 23.2293
good place, easily accessible by public transport. A truck driver from Turkey picked me up after 30 minutes to the border, after the border a couple from the Czech Republic.
―lovrec, February 2026
43.82864, 25.9763
Good spot to get towards Razgrad
―morhitch, January 2026
42.21155, 24.7313
Prendre le bus numéro 1 puis marcher 45 minutes jusqu’à la bretelle d’autoroute. Sans panneau, deux voitures se sont arrêtées en 15 minutes mais les deux allaient vers l’Ouest. Après 40 minutes d’attente au totale, un homme s’arrête et nous (ma femme et moi) dépose à la frontière Turque (notre destination). Bon spot pour sortir de Plovdiv
―Waterplouf, January 2026
41.99889, 23.00422
Good spot. Everyone goes towards Macedonia. Had a sign "Macedonia". A truck with macedonian driver stoped and luckily I got a ride almost to Skopje (driver went to Tetovo and had to drop me before Skopje, so the rest I just walked)
―friskyura, December 2025
42.01425, 23.07172
On my way to Macedonia. Good stop has enough space for cars to stop. Has a sign "Macedonia" in both cyrillic and latin. A couple took me to a bordering city where it's easier to get a ride to Macedonia.
―friskyura, December 2025
41.99337, 22.92441
The border police stopped Macedonian cars and helped me get one to the border
―Arphile, December 2025
42.0075, 23.04627
Towards Macedonia, got a ride to Logodazh
―Arphile, December 2025
42.65089, 23.21843
Had a sign for MKD, not a lot of Macedonian cars but I got a ride to close to the border next to Blagoevgrad
―Arphile, December 2025
43.0619, 25.63291
Fantastic spot but a nightmare to get to by foot
―milesandtrials, November 2025
42.63233, 23.45274
10 mins to get to Plovdiv
―Anonymous, November 2025
43.81467, 25.92853
Despite it being dark and me standing with a sign I got picked up all the way to Sofia quickly. The lights are good enough for nighttime hitchhiking, otherwise there’s always the gas station.
―Arphile, November 2025
42.14664, 24.80658
Took us quite a while even in slow traffic and loads of cars.best thing is to go directly at petrol station's and ask
―Jr18, November 2025
42.19232, 25.19094
Great for burgas. Not good for Istanbul, nobody going south at all. Met 2 other hitchhikers and we waited for 4 hours. A Turkish truck driver was sleeping when we got there and after 4 hours he woke up and gave all 3 of us a ride to the border. We tried to hitch during those 4 hours and no luck. Without him we were pretty sure we would have had to sleep at the gas station. It is 24 hour though so not a terrible place to get stuck
―MrZachyPants, November 2025
42.21334, 24.73179
Very average I would say. I’m trying to get to Istanbul and I can’t exactly recommend this way but also I’m not sure how good the old roads and town hopping is anymore. Hopefully some hitchhikers take the town hopping route and we can judge in 2025/2026. Got dropped off at the gas station before the road split towards istanbul
―MrZachyPants, November 2025
42.17376, 24.74218
Just wanted to get to the highway. Took a little long but once I wrote a sign saying 5 km I got picked up right away. I would recommend a sign
―MrZachyPants, November 2025
42.63359, 23.44383
Very weird man obviously waited for people (women) here to ask them if he could take them somewhere. I got on anyway, he seemed nice at first. After 10 min on the highway he said he would only take me further if had sex with him, Dropped me off at a random spot on the highway after i told him thats not gonna happen. After talking to a few people it became obvious that happens at that spot from time to time, so take care.
―frog03, November 2025
42.31937, 24.13175
Very nice couple took me right to the center of plovdiv from the gas station. The spot was alright, if you stand at the exit people have time to read the sign and still stop for you
―frog03, November 2025
41.38142, 23.36274
I mean it’s fine, it’s a border so it’s always good. I was there after dark and it took me a long time to get a ride. A bus stopped and I paid for it to take me to Sofia because I don’t have camping gear and was freezing my ass off. If you get there in the day it should be fine
―MrZachyPants, October 2025
42.6304, 23.46628
Great spot for Plovdiv. Take bus 5 and then walk for 30 mins and it’s super easy, got picked up right away
―MrZachyPants, October 2025
Recent reviews mentioning Bulgaria
44.18588, 26.00228
Lots of space to pull over, definitely possible to get a ride directly to Bulgaria as many cars have Bulgarian plates. With my BG sign I got taken to Giurgiu, the driver offered to take me to the bridge toll booth but I got off at the Kaufland because I needed food instead.
―Arphile, November 2025
42.15732, 22.05465
Unbelievably bad, not traffic towards Bulgaria but if you have to it’s doable, don’t try to go farther than KP. Stand all the way on the highway that way there is a chance for the highway people to stop. Eventually a guy stopped on the curve for me. Only saw like 20 cars over 45 mins
―MrZachyPants, October 2025
42.15751, 21.72804
Do not recommend, cars are going fast and not wanting to stop to go towards Bulgaria, that being said there isn’t a better spot so I agree with the other commenter saying eventually you will be picked up. Use a sign that says KP
―MrZachyPants, October 2025
42.00392, 21.47863
Easy to get to kumanov and closer to the Bulgaria border
―MrZachyPants, October 2025
43.02167, 22.73635
Good spot by the poll station to get a ride to Sofia/Bulgaria. There were a few policemen doing controls but they weren’t interested in us and didn’t stop us. You can even reach this spot by foot (that’s what we did) from Dimitrovgrad by hitchhiking to a spot on the local road nearby and then there’s a path to the toll station. (check out the map)
There was a fence around the station but it had big holes you could claim through and toll station employees and police didn’t mind.
―Anonymous, September 2025
44.34362, 21.0789
Good spot, found a ride to Bulgaria in seconds (he was going all the way to Burgas).
―anettlee17, August 2025
42.10729, 21.6985
Good spot because a lot of traffic was at the start (5pm) but then dropped very fast (6pm). Was standing with a sign bulgaria/k.palanka. Maybe a bit far saying signs but there is no other place kinda to go there on that road. Also maybe i was not that lucky because i was trying kinda late in the evening. But eventually very nice truck driver who was paying a toll(stramge because all others had the autamic one) took me all the way to sofia.
―kiausiniuvagis, August 2025
42.21888, 22.4635
A lot of space, not a lot of traffic, but seems easy. Got taken by a guy that used to hitchhike in the socialist times of Bulgaria. He got me to Kjustendil to a petrol station and immediately found me a ride to Sofia.
―Suip, April 2025
43.34157, 21.92819
Kind of the only decent spot towards Bulgaria, police spend a lot of time here just as locals for coffee.
I've been trying for 3h until night with the little traffic from the petrol station (police was there) and 4h straight on the highway the next morning with a sign BG - СРФИЯ.
Most cars were completely full, I left with a big beer box under my legs and my backpack on my knees, that was the only room available in the car, but I made it to Sofia.
―RoadTripeur, April 2025
43.89788, 25.99694
Still possible to walk bridge from Romania to Bulgaria as of december '23, but I hitched a lift to Ruse here.
―pixelatedcrab, November 2024
40.68284, 22.94078
only 4 cars stopped none went to the bulgaria direction
―minecarman, March 2024
44.28595, 23.79918
Realy good Spot to get a Ride outside of the City to califat (Border of bulgaria). 2 other locals Guys also tryed to hitchhike but 2 young Guys took us.
They drove like crazy and IT was realy funny.
―Anonymous, March 2024
44.66333, 20.61238
A lot of space for hitchhiking just after the toll booth. Lot of trucks go to Bulgaria, I got the ride to Niš after 5-6 mins
―Kompas, February 2024
44.01532, 22.88841
there is often a long cue of trucks waiting for the toll (since bulgaria is not a schengen country) and you can walk along the cue with your sign and find a pretty long ride
―tonipeperoni, December 2023
41.68706, 26.46837
This is the spot you can use to get out of Turkey to Bulgaria. My experience in October 2021 was rewarding. I came to the border gate and the officials said "you can't walk" (it's been like that for years) and when I stood up few hundreds metres before, soldiers from Jandarma told me to get backwards and try asking at/inside restaurants. This doesn't work if you, like me, look Middle Eastern so the truck drivers will ignore you thinking you're irregular. So I took a dolmuş back to the pinned gas station and waited 2 hours (could be much less) until a Turkish man took me with him to casino in Svilengrad, offered me the entrance and a private hotel bedroom.
―GiovanniTonucci, November 2023
43.34196, 21.92703
This is the best spot for HH direction Bulgaria !!! It's not another spot better than this in my own opinion! But I hitchhiked on Sunday, very lonely gas station!!! No cars !!! No trucks !! The best way to HH is to have a sing with ***Pirot*** or ***Dimitrovdgra***
HH to the border can be difficult!!! Because people is afraid about immigrants!! So, better if you look White person hahahaha I am from Colombia and I look very árabe sometimes, but still I am lucky.
The best advice is to HH from the entrance of the gas station, because also you can catch the cars who is passing on the highway, because if you stay inside the gas station! * without traffic* you can be there for hours !!!
To arrive to this gas station you can take the bus Number 4 Ang get out 2 bus stops before the end. And then walk in the highway for 15 minutes and that is ! You will see, use Google maps ! Or just walk from the center if you are too backpacker.
Remember that HH IS ABOUT LUCK!!!!
―Anonymous, October 2023
46.60889, 19.83917
Mostly all Cars an Trucks Go to romania, If they leave hungary.
The Cars to serbia we're "full", company Cars, or they dont Take "Strangers", or Just ignore you.
Even Cars/Trucks to Turkey, bulgaria Go via romania, maybe because the Police controll all bulgarian/turkish Cars and Truck very hard
―sebbo, September 2023
43.11862, 22.62263
Tramprennen 2023 - This spot is strategically if you are going towards Bulgaria. It has shade as it is a bridge and if you are more than one person, one can hitchike on the normal road and another can have access to the highway (easily)
―ipesanz, August 2023
42.44206, 27.47233
Got spot how to set to the borders between Bulgaria And Turkey. Also good way to get to Istanbul.
―Anonymous, July 2023
45.70525, 21.91835
Lots of long distance traffic from southern Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey. Possible to get rides beyond Hungary. Place to stop and a petrol station to ask around for confidence.
―duffajfka, June 2023