Ribaritsa / Teteven

Hi - a colleague has a house in Ribaritsa, near Teteven. We are thinking of renting it for a couple of weeks in September.

I know nothing really of Bulgaria, but we wanted something different from a European holiday. We are going to Majorca, for the first time, in June for 2 weeks, for the usual sun, sea, sand.

We love walking, national parks (been to loads in the US) great views, lakes, nice restaurants, driving round sightseeing etc.

As far as I can see, Ribaritsa would seem to be fine for all this, but as I have had so much help on TA before, I thought I would ask opinions of the people in the know!

Any advice, good or bad would be welcome,

many thanks, Heather

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I guess no one has any information, but thought I would bump it up just in case!

Warm regards, Heather

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See this:

…wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Tourist_Sites_of_Bul…

Buy a road map, if you have GPS, it is even better.

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Not a 3-S place for sure :)

Consider it as a place for mountain-typical activities (though not skiing unless you are interested on skiing on a grass:): hiking, biking, birds wathing, %26quot;photo safari%26quot;, fishing, daily trips to monasteries and caves, etc.

It%26#39;s within the preserved Central Balkan area (in particular- the biosphere preserve named Tsarichina).

The Bulgarian spelling of Ribaritsa is Рибарица

A Google images search under it as keyword could maybe give you vision if this fits to what you%26#39;re looking for.

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These are great, thank you both very much. Heather

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Bulgaria is the right place for enjoying great views, lakes etc. I will reccommend to have a car with as there are a lot of nice places that you can visit (i mean natural phenomenon) in a short distance.

Regards

Bobi

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thanks for replies, we have now got a GPS as we understand the language is pretty much unitelligible so if we get lost at least we can navigate back to the car!!

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Me again - only a few days till our trip - does anyone have any recommendations in the area at all? Any suggestions gratefully received.

We intend to visit waterfalls, caves, monasteries, do some hiking, Sofia. If any are better than others please let me know.

Very excited, Heather

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unintelligible - yes, indeed :]

since you will have had the sun and laying around in Majorca I will suggest some places of interest within 150 km roughly.

Sofia - a walk along %26quot;Tsar Osvoboditel%26quot;Blvd also called %26quot;yellow pavings%26quot; - you will see Presidency, Russian church, National committee, Al. Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia University, etc. Another symbol of Sofia is the Natonal palace of culture - probably the best building from the communist era called %26quot;NDK%26quot;. Place to dine restaurant %26quot;Manastirska magernitsa%26quot; (Манастирска магерница) - traditional bulgarian cuisine - second-best in country after my mom%26#39;s. May also want to see Boyana church in the outskirts of the city.

A must see is Rila monastery. Really. From there if you take the road to Dupnitsa-Samokov-Borovets and then the gondola up the mountain you will be in the very foot of Musala peak(1 h climb) in a very picturesque spot. From Samokov then take the road through Zlokuchene along Iskar dam to go back to Sofia. Great place to eat reastaurant Lebed (Swan) in Pancharevo on the side of the dam mainly fish menu.

From Ribaritsa of course you are at a stone%26#39;s throw to Troyan monastery and town of Tryavna with traditional bulgarian architecture - a nice place to visit. Also near Troyan is the village of Chiflik (Чифлик) a resort area with lots of hotels most of them with pools with warm mineral water. We stay at Diva hotel there outdoor hot min. water pool over a stream - a very neat place.

From Ribaritsa you make take a day to the north - west and visit Belogradchik rocks - road from Botevgrad to Belogradchik is newly reconstructed and quite smooth, Magura cave with 7000 years old stone printings, Kaleto fortress(if you are into medieval staff) and Rabisha lake( never been there but it%26#39;s close and probably worth dropping by)

This is what comes to my mind, google these to help decide and a site I find very helpful planning trips is /www.viamichelin.com/ although distances are ridiculous considering you profile. Feel free to ask. Have fun.