Get your card
“The day trip was well organized and extremely educational. Our guide Svet was able to provide great info that we really enjoyed. Would definitely recommend.”
“Well worth visiting, its a good day out, monastery is very big and pretty. Hristo and Peter were a great guide and driver”
“Liubomir was a friendly and helpful guide with very solid information. I had a good time”
This Rila Monastery day trip from Sofia takes care of the whole day. An air-conditioned minibus leaves Alexander Nevsky Cathedral square at 09:00, drives 120 km into the Rila Mountains and brings you back around 17:00. At the monastery, founded in the 10th century and on the UNESCO list since 1983, you explore with a live English-speaking guide or an audioguide in six languages, then have free time for lunch and the museum. You pick a date, book online in a couple of minutes and pay when you book.
Everyone travels on the same minibus; the difference is at the monastery. With the live English-speaking guide you follow a certified guide through the main church, the tower and the courtyard, and you can ask questions. With an audioguide, as a handheld device or on your own phone, you go at your own pace in English, Spanish, Italian, French, German or Russian. A conductor may travel with the group, but there is no guided tour. If someone in your group is more at home in French, German or Russian, the guide plus assistant option adds a translator on the dates it runs.
The main church of the Nativity of the Virgin, painted inside and out with saints, angels and scenes from the Bible. Hrelyo's Tower, built in 1334 to 1335 and the oldest building in the complex. In the museum, Rafail's Cross: a wooden cross carved by a monk with 36 Bible scenes and more than 600 tiny figures, finished in 1802 after the work had cost him his sight. The museum has its own ticket, and you can add a guided museum visit at checkout.
Rila is a working monastery, so shoulders and knees stay covered: no shorts, short skirts, sleeveless tops, flip-flops or sandals. If you forget, a scarf can be added at checkout for €2. Comfortable shoes help on the cobbled courtyard.
€30 per adult, €25 per child aged 6 to 12. Every day at 09:00 from Alexander Nevsky Cathedral square, back around 17:00.
The minibus leaves from Alexander Nevsky Cathedral square in the centre of Sofia at 09:00, so please be there by 08:45. Hotel pick-up is not included. If you take a taxi, use Yellow or Volt; Bolt does not operate in Bulgaria. On 1 January the departure is at 11:00.
Ask on WhatsApp