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The A1 (Trakia) runs 360 km from Sofia via Plovdiv and Stara Zagora to Burgas on the Black Sea, and the A2 (Hemus) from Sofia to Varna. The highlights below lie partly right along this vignette-required national road network, and partly a manageable detour away.
Rila Monastery
Bulgaria's largest and most famous Orthodox monastery, founded in the 10th century, with a vividly striped church, wooden galleries and the 14th-century Hrelyo's Tower. UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Plovdiv, old town
One of Europe's oldest continuously inhabited cities, with a well-preserved Roman theatre and an atmospheric old town full of Bulgarian National Revival houses, plus Thracian and Roman finds in the archaeological museum.
Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak & Valley of the Thracian Kings
A Hellenistic domed tomb from around 300 BC with unique frescoes of Thracian funerary rituals, set amid a region scattered with thousands of burial mounds, also known as the Rose Valley, where the famous Damask rose is grown. UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Nesebar
A 3,000-year-old port town on a Black Sea peninsula, with Greek ruins, Byzantine churches and wooden National Revival-era houses, entirely a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983.
Sofia, city centre
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, one of the world's largest Orthodox cathedrals, dominates the Bulgarian capital's skyline, surrounded by a compact, green city centre.
Veliko Tarnovo & Tsarevets Fortress
The medieval capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, dramatically built on hills above a loop of the Yantra river. Tsarevets Fortress towers over the city, with an evening light-and-sound show projected across the hillside.
This selection is a starting point. Combine it with the prices and validity periods of the Bulgarian vignette to complete your route.