Letter 131
What better way to wind down from a stressful few months of final year university deadlines than to jet off for a fortnight travelling through the cities, mountains and Black Sea beaches of Bulgaria? Well, that’s exactly what my boyfriend and I thought today when we, quite spontaneously, booked flights to Bulgaria.
In just two months we fly out to Sofia for a 16 night holiday travelling though this vast, varied country, before flying back from Burgas on the coast. I am unbelievably excited. I literally cannot wait to get away from everything, spend some quality time with my boyfriend and discover a new country. I fell in love with the Balkans in Montenegro and cannot wait to explore this crazy country. I am already overwhelmed with how much there is to see and do, and I therefore know we’ll only see some things – but that’s okay. We’re hoping for a good mix of cultural cities, beautiful hikes and relaxing beach days. I am buzzing.
So all we’ve done today, and all we’ll probably do until we get there, is book flights. We found a flight to Sofia (west Bulgaria) the day after my boyfriend’s last exam which was at a good time and cheap. The flight was £27.50 and the baggage was £25 – that’s how Ryanair get you. Luckily we’re splitting one hold luggage so technically it was £12.50. Then we saw a flight back from Burgas on the Black Sea for £43 with WizzAir, with a lovely £51 added for baggage, Wizz REALLY get you (£25.50 each). Total of £108.50 for return flights to Bulgaria with half a hold luggage bag – could be worse.
As for the route? Not sure yet. I have a list of initial places that I think we should stop off at but I’m open to suggestions! With 16 nights we can probably stop off in 6 or 7 places, so we should be able to see a lot.
Counting down the days!
From Lou
PS. This isn’t the first time we’ve done something like this – nearly 2 years ago we spontaneously booked flights to Iceland. One of the best week’s of my life! Read that post here: I did something crazy
PPS. I’ve used my budget calculater, described in detail in this post: How to calculate a travel budget (and other tips), to roughly calculate a budget for the 2 weeks:
- Average accommodation price: £10 per night
- From a tiny bit of research I think we can comfortably get either a double room in a hotel/hostel or an airbnb for £20 per night between the two of us. In some places it might be slightly more but in others it’ll be less! Either way, Bulgaria looks to be very cheap!
- Daily budget: £20
- I’ve doubled the accommodation price to get a daily budget which will include accommodation, food and activities.
- For 16 nights that gives a total of £320.
- Transport allowance: £50
- I’ve added on 15% of the daily budget to allow for transport between places, which I think should be enough.
- TOTAL: £370
- We’ve spent £108.50 on flights and will spend around £40 getting to and from airports in the UK.
- Therefore, I predict the overall cost of the 16 night trip will be around £550 or maybe £600 to include some luxuries – but I guess we’ll see!
Letters from Lou 