Best cities for retirement in Bulgaria

I’m retired and living in Bulgaria, but I would never live in a city! We lived on the outskirts of Sofia for 4 months when we first came, and were looking at properties, but we were in a very rural location, which suited us. We’re in a village, now, in the northwest of the country, a beautiful house with lots of land, and our idea of retirement fun is gardening and sorting out the house and outbuildings. We could never have afforded this much land in England, so it’s like a dream come true. Our neighbours are so friendly and welcoming, always giving us eggs, homemade cheese and vegetables. This is such a healthy life, and we feel very grateful to have found it.

I prefere a city, thus living in Burgas. At the seaside, but also some facilities available duign winter time, like cinema, theatre, opera. Or (oldy-) rock club.

I live in Plovdiv and I have everything I want on my doorstep. It’s a wonderful city to live and travel from being from London I didn’t want the good life I wanted a city with life. I have a friend who lives near Lom and it’s nice to visit for a few days but not to live full time especially in winter ❄️ but I also like Burgas and Varna. But Bulgaria 🇧🇬 has everything you want but it’s up to you to decide but I rented for six months before I bought a place in 2015

We have been fortunate enough to have a home in St Vlas And in Sofia.   I recommend ex-pats to consider Bulgaria for the cost-of-living the value and the opportunity for growth

The government is slowly turning west and relinquishing the shackles of former communist and a closely controlled economy.  This will take another 15 to 20 years but they early bird gets the worm

I have been able to put my 50 years of investment experience together by building hotels condominiums and relocating companies from other European states to Bg Because of the abundance of  semiskilled labor

Many young Bulgarian’s who  are  educated leave the country but they will soon realize that they have given up a great opportunity and that void will be filled

The cost of living is extremely attractive particularly in the smaller villages but even in the densely populated and resort areas it is quite affordable

I found Chaskovo to be a nice gem to retire in. Close to Greek border makes the winters mild.


Old meeting new, from my village it´s just 20 minutes to a big city with all you can possible want and back in my village I grow vegetables, hear and see horses, donkeys and goats.


Friendly natives, and poeople from all around the world living here always helpfull and I enjoy the peacefull living to the full. A couple o shops, tavernas, doctors etc makes it easy to live there. And of course, the cheap prices helps a lot

We chose a village just north of Dobrich, as it's only a short drive into town and 45 minutes at the most to the Black sea, the locals are very friendly and keep an eye on the place if were not there. It has a couple of shop's for the basics and a post office and lot's of land to keep me busy.

I prefer to live near the seaside. Spent considerable time looking for a flat all round the Black Sea region. I am a pensioner so finally I chose a quiet residential city Pomorie. Burgas is too overcrowded for me  and according to BG media the local air is not the best. People are friendly here, there is always a space to park my car and many beautiful walking routes along the sea. In fact it is located on a peninsula, so the sea is in a walking distance from any point.

Dear Caromay
you sound very enthusiastic. I wanted to retire in Bulgaria in a year. My question: what about health insurance and doctors in your place? Do you speak Bulgarian?
Thank you,
Leonna

Hello,

We have been thinking about relocating to Burgas. How did you find the apartment in Pomorie?

HI
Were  looking  at  Bulgaria   as  a serious   option  to  retire  from  England. We  do  appreciate  its  a  large  country,  and  many  places   to  choose  from.  In  a  nutshell  like  yourselves  we  dont  want  the  cities would  much  prefer   town or  Village.  IE   quiet and  cheap, not   noisy  and  pricey . Any  recommendations  or  advice  weres  best?   
Cheers  Phil   and  veronica

Hello Caromay, can I ask how you were able to buy a house with land? I read that in Bulgaria, foreigners are only allowed to buy apartments. No property with land.

Leah, non-EU passport holders CAN buy a house with land in Bulgaria, but they need to set up a Bulgarian company to do so. It's a fairly simple process, apparently, and shouldn't cost more than 500 EUR to have someone do it for you.
Caromay probably purchased her house while Britain was in the EU, so no company would have been needed.
If you're an Italian passport holder, you won't need a company to buy a house with land, you can do that easily as an EU citizen.

Thank you, Jane, for that clarification. We are actually from the U.S. May I ask where you live in Bulgaria and how you like it?

Do we want the best "cities", or the best "places"? :-) For cities, the choice is quite small, I think, for most people, it will come down to Sofia (capital), Plovdiv (2nd city, in the middle), and Burgas/Varna (on the coast). But places... there are some smaller cities, large towns, and charming villages inland, up in the mountains, and on/near the beaches (or lakes).

However, while many retirees can, and do, live outside cities, I think for full-on retirement, a low-maintenance apartment in a nice city, with easy access to shops, parks, public transport, and high-quality medical care is hard to beat.

As for me: not really retired, but... the cost of living is so low here that I find I'm not pressured to work very much. :-) And property (initial purchase, and ongoing costs for utilities and property taxes) is relatively inexpensive, so, like @JOHNAVANN, we found we could enjoy the luxury of having a couple of places, rather than having to commit to one. But my wife would probably prefer we had one nice one, rather than our three cheap-and-cheerful. :-)

Like @WAGS, I really enjoy Plovdiv, for a bit of city life. This is a former European Capital of Culture so it has some culture and some nice historical sites. It's big enough for town facilities, but small enough to be very manageable. We live in an area called Hristo Smirnenski, which is only 2km from the main center, so it's very quick/easy/cheap by bus or taxi. I like this zone because it's city-adjacent, but on our doorstep we have Mall Plovdiv, Kaufland/Lidl, a very nice Pulmed hospital, and two great outdoors areas (Youth Hill and the Regatta Lake) for a bit of fresh air and exercise.

Also like @WAGS, I thought the countryside was just for visiting, but the Covid Crisis gave me a new appreciation of the joys of village life. :-) I've spent the last year or so in our country pile in one of the mountain villages in the Balkan Mountains... and it has been a very relaxing lockdown staycation with fresh air and mountain walks (or mountain biking) every day. We're near (10km) Kazanlak so we still have access to civilization. Village life (and working online) is helped a lot by Bulgaria's good internet. I have fiber to the house with 80 mbps wifi (after I upgraded to a gigabit router), for only 20 leva/month. Like @CAROMAY, my village neighbors are delightful too. Great as it is, I'd find it hard only to live here though.

We also have a small flat in Bansko, and this is a lovely little ski town. It's a bit too small/touristic for me, personally, to live here all year round... but if you like skiing and an outdoor life, it could definitely work as a full-time home... especially as property is still quite cheap, so you could get a nice flat/house for your money.

The Black Sea coast is great too. There are two big cities (Burgas and Varna), and then some lovely smaller places nearby. We particularly like Sozopol (and Balchik, Sveti Vlas, Nesebar), but there is plenty of choice on the coast if you want the seaside life.

We've found also found that it's very easy to find nice places to stay on booking.com for 20-30 euros per night, so it doesn't break the bank to spend a few days exploring a new part of the country.

Hi, this is Leah Naomi.I can’t seem to sign up with correct name or nationality (my fault!). My husband and I are Americans. Thank you all for the informative posts! Wow, three houses in three different places in Bulgaria, that’s living! You said what I was thinking, that village life year round might be too isolated for our tastes. We would want to be within reasonably close public transport distance to an international airport. We have been to Plovdiv, I agree it is a lovely city. But hard to get from there to anywhere internationally directly by plane, no? I know that area where you live, it is nice. We stayed at an airbnb on the north side across the river when we visited. We are currently in Sofia, have been doing dental care here for the past few weeks. This is our third time in Bulgaria. We will be headed to Burgas for a few days. The Burgas area would I think be warmer to live in, how about Pomorie? I see that is close to the airport.  I also suppose that a house with land could be found for a good price if one went a half hour inland as opposed to living on the coast. Also, your neighbors would be full time residents rather than tourists. Have visited Varna as well, and Kyundestil. We find the Bulgarian people to be friendly, helpful, and curious about Americans. It seems that, if one lived here, the language would be a problem. Hard to learn, I am told. I can get by in Spanish, French, and Italian, but none of that helps here!

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Howdy @NAOMI77, and welcome to the board!

We have many Americans in Bulgaria, I think one is @JOHNAVANN a local expert and frequent poster. I imagine he'd be happy to give you the US expat perspective.

Well... our 3 pads (one house, and 2 small apartments) are quite humble... so I would not say it's a ritzy lifestyle. But in most countries I've been happy if I owned one. :-) And we do enjoy having a bit of variety. That being said, because of Covid I've just spent 15 months in the house... and, actually, it's been lovely. :-)

So, a couple of points:

(a) LANGUAGE. I am a bit useless (or rather, very lazy), so I speak practically no Bulgarian. It's Cyrillic, so a bit more challenging than Latin languages, but not impossible. There are many expats who have picked it up well, and I think it would not be difficult with some proper classes. I have learned a few phrases so I can say hi to the neighbors, and ask them how you doin'? This is easy, and goes a surprisingly long way. Russian used to be the second language in schools (Soviet era), but now it's English. So you'll find younger folks and well-educated folks (lawyers, doctors, etc.) will often be able to converse in English with you. These days, Google Translate is a popular stand-by (even my old neighbor is happy enough with this), so this often works. Finally, you'd be surprised at the languages around here. Many Bulgarians left to work in Europe for more money, and some have now come back. I speak Spanish with my mechanic, Italian with my coffee-and-a-crepe lady, German with my builder, and Portuguese (Portuspanglish, maybe) with one of my new neighbors.

(b) AIRPORT transport & your home location. There is decent bus/rail connections from Sofia to other cities. I find it a bit of a faff because you have to go from Sofia airport to Sofia center, first. Plus, I found a great limo service who wait at the airport with a name board, and do door-to-door service in a decent vehicle. They do Sofia airport to our flat in Plovdiv in 90 minutes, and it's only 50 euros. And it doesn't matter what time your flight arrives, they'll wait, and you can sleep in the car on the way home. Public transport will save you 30 euros, but it's a lot more hassle, and doesn't work so well at night (and will take you a few hours longer to get home). After a long flight, this is a very nice luxury - another one that's affordable here. So, really, I'd say it doesn't matter much where you live, if you can do this kind of door-to-door service at a sensible price. Plovdiv, Burgas and Varna also have airports, but not sure that there's a wide range of flight options. I've flown a couple of times from Plovdiv, but mostly it's cheaper and easier (and possible) to just accept it's gonna be Sofia.

(c) DENTISTS AND DOCTORS. You can register in the Bulgarian system for free healthcare (after paying some social security contributions, I pay 25 leva per month), but private medical insurance is surprisingly inexpensive (especially after USA prices). I am still amazed by how cheap it is. I have a great dentist in Bulgaria (perfect English, trained in Israel) and my last 2 visits were a cleaning and an emergency filling replacement. Both times the cost was 90 leva (and he had spent nearly an hour on me, and he had done an outstanding job, better than most dentists I've been too). Yesterday, I was in Plovdiv, and I decided to get a tetanus booster. I didn't go to a doctor, I just went to Pulmed's emergency room... and nobody was in line. So they gave me the shot. 12 leva. This was the private treatment price, I paid it all myself without insurance. :-) Last year, I wanted a check-up (I know it's a bit naughty, I really should find myself a doctor), so I did the same Pulmed emergency visit, and said I was a bit worried, could they check me over. They did blood pressure, blood panel, EKG, ultrasound... that was 140 leva. Imagine what that would be in the USA without insurance!

(d) ISOLATED VILLAGES. It depends where you go, many are much isolated than others. And many are suffering from substantial depopulation and ensuing neglect. I thought exactly the same as you though, and I imagined village life would be impossible. But my 15 months here have been great. Admittedly, Covid Crisis is a special case, village houses are perfect for it. :-) But it has made me realize it is feasible. My village is very close (10km) to Kazanlak, so civilization is near, I think this makes a big difference. The roads are very good too, so I can be at LIDL in 10 minutes. My neighbors are always friendly. There are loads of trails around the village so I can walk/bike in any direction from my house. Plenty of room for the dogs/cats/chickens/pigeons/koi. My village has lots of development (it's very popular because of the mountains and proximity to Kazanlak) with lots of renovation and new construction, so it feels alive. It also has sewer, and fiber internet to the house, which few villages have. It's a nice house too, so I have all my home comforts. 80 mbps wifi and IPTV so I can watch UK and US channels. :-)

(e) BEACHES AROUND BURGAS. I think the potential negatives of village life are similar for Burgas beach villages/small towns. Very nice in summer, but not sure how great in the winter. (But probably not as bad as Sunny Beach which goes from insane to dead-as-a-doornail.) I'd prefer Burgas or Varna cities, but they are getting pretty expensive for real estate now. However, there are several nice places to look at, not just Pomorie...  Sveti Vlas... Nesebar... Ravda... Pomorie... maybe Sarafovo (I haven't seen it, but near Burgas airport with quite a lot of development)... Chernomorets... Sozopol... maybe even as far as Primorsko/Kiten/Lozenets. Enjoy your tour!

Leahmekira, sorry for the delay in replying, I've been crazy busy working!

I don't live in Bulgaria yet but have visited many times staying in a few different places. I love the country. I'm in the process of buying a small house in a small village in the North East, about 90 minutes from Varna. It's not a pretty touristy area, more agricultural. But it's a nice village with a couple of shops and good trasnport links to a bigger town. Unfortunately Brexit has made it a little more difficult for me to move permanently, plus hubby has some health issues we need to get sorted out.