Sofia, Bulgaria

Day 1

• Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the crypt

  The neo-Byzantine cathedral with the gilded dome, consecrated in 1924, is open daily 7am-7pm and free to enter. The crypt, though, is a separate museum, the National Gallery's Museum of Christian Art, with its own ticket: 4.09 euros for adults, 2.05 reduced, dropping to 1.53 on Thursdays. Inside is one of the largest collections of Orthodox icons in Europe, and it is the part almost nobody sees because they stop at the church above.

• Boyana Church

  UNESCO-listed for its frescoes of 1259, which anticipate the Renaissance by almost a century. The access rules are strict and worth knowing in advance: a maximum of nine people at a time and ten minutes inside, which means slots and waits at weekends. Ticket 12 lev, that is 6.14 euros, reduced 3 lev for students, free on the last Monday of the month after 3pm. Open 9am-5.30pm in winter and 9.30am-6pm in summer, with the desk closing half an hour earlier.

• The square of tolerance

  Within three hundred metres of Sveta Nedelya square stand the Orthodox cathedral of Sveta Nedelya, the 16th-century Banya Bashi mosque still in use, the Sephardic synagogue of 1909 and the Catholic cathedral of St Joseph. All four take 90 minutes on foot, entry is free or by donation, and the mosque requires shoes off and shoulders covered. Next door is the covered market of 1911, the easiest place for a quick, cheap lunch.

Day 2

• Church of Sveta Sofia and the underground necropolis

  The sixth-century brick basilica that gave the city its name, 2 minutes on foot from the Nevsky cathedral: above it is austere and almost bare, below lies the archaeological level with tombs, mosaics and the remains of earlier churches. The church above is free, the underground museum has its own ticket run by the regional history museum. On the roof outside burns the flame of the unknown soldier.

• Rila Monastery

  The most famous UNESCO monastery in the Balkans lies two and a half hours away, and it is a full-day trip. The direct public bus from Ovcha Kupel has not been reliable since 2020 and attempts to restart it were short-lived: today the dependable options are the daily shuttle with advance booking, around 30 euros, or the guided tour that adds Boyana at around 35. The monastery is open 7am-8pm and costs nothing; its internal museums charge a few lev and close at 4.30pm in winter.

• National History Museum

  Housed in Todor Zhivkov's former residence at the foot of Vitosha, minutes from Boyana Church: the two are done in the same half-day and that is the only sensible way to organise them. Ticket 9 euros for adults, 2 euros for students and children, 3 euros for over 65s, 6 euros for groups of ten. Open daily with no closing day: 9.30am-7pm from April to September, 9.30am-6pm from October to March, with the ticket office closing forty-five minutes earlier.

Day 1

• Rotunda of St George✦ hidden gem

  The oldest building in Sofia, a fourth-century brick rotunda with layers of frescoes from the tenth to the fourteenth century. The point is that you cannot see it from the street: it is hidden in a courtyard ringed by the Presidency buildings and the Balkan hotel, 5 minutes' walk from Sveta Nedelya square, reached through an arched passage. Entry is free, it is still a working church and morning mass is open to anyone.

• Serdica archaeological complex✦ hidden gem

  The paved streets, baths and Roman houses uncovered during the metro works were left below street level and covered with a glass structure: you cross them free in 5 minutes passing from the Serdica metro station towards the Largo. It is not a museum with hours and a ticket but a pedestrian passage, so you can walk it at any time, and in winter it is also the warmest way to cross the centre.

• Central Mineral Baths and the thermal fountains✦ hidden gem

  The neo-Byzantine building from 1913 now houses the Sofia History Museum, open Tuesday to Sunday and closed on Mondays. The thing you see for free, and that almost no visitor notices, is outside: on the side of the square, 5 minutes' walk from the mosque, are public fountains delivering hot mineral water, and locals turn up with containers to fill. They are open to anyone, the water comes out at around forty degrees and it is drinkable.

Day 2

• Zhenski Pazar, the women's market✦ hidden gem

  The largest open-air market in the city, 10 minutes on foot from the mosque: vegetables, cheeses, spices, pickles and Turkish and Roma stalls, in a district no tour crosses. Prices are the city's real ones rather than the centre's, and there is little haggling because the goods are cheap already. It is the place to buy lyutenitsa, sirene cheese and local honey.

• Mount Vitosha

  Cherni Vrah reaches 2,290 metres and city buses get you there: the 66 climbs towards Aleko, the 61 to the Golden Bridges, the 64 to Boyana, at 0.80 euros a ride. What to know before setting off is that the Simeonovo and Dragalevtsi lifts are not running: in summer only the two Vitoshko Lale chairlifts operate, at weekends and in good weather. Anyone counting on the gondola to gain height will be walking.

Day 1

• Banitsa, mekitsi and the morning bread

  Banitsa is the coiled filo pastry filled with sirene, the salty white cheese, and eggs: bought over the counter in bakeries and eaten standing, usually with boza, a dark fermented drink that divides even Bulgarians. Mekitsi are the fried yeast dough eaten at breakfast with yoghurt and jam. Neighbourhood bakeries open before 7.00 and that is where you find both: not in the restaurants in the centre.

• Shopska, tarator and kavarma

  Shopska is the national salad, tomato, cucumber, onion and a mountain of grated sirene on top, named after the shopi, the people of the Sofia region. Tarator is the cold soup of yoghurt, cucumber, garlic and dill, ordered as a starter in summer. Kavarma is the stew served in an earthenware pot. A full dinner in a neighbourhood mehana stays under 20 euros a head, wine included.

Day 2

• Rakia and Bulgarian wines

  Rakia is drunk cold alongside the salad, at the start of the meal and not the end: ordering it as a digestif is the mistake that marks you out as a foreigner instantly. It is a grape or plum spirit at 40 to 50 per cent. On wine, Bulgaria has native grapes found nowhere else: mavrud, dark and tannic, and rubin. In the wine shops in the centre a producer's bottle often stays under 10 euros, what a glass costs in western Europe.

• Zhenski Pazar, the women's market✦ hidden gem

  The largest open-air market in the city, 10 minutes on foot from the mosque: vegetables, cheeses, spices, pickles and Turkish and Roma stalls, in a district no tour crosses. Prices are the city's real ones rather than the centre's, and there is little haggling because the goods are cheap already. It is the place to buy lyutenitsa, sirene cheese and local honey.