GUEST GUIDE
Everything you need for your stay — Wi-Fi, check-in instructions, local recommendations, and more.
Welcome to Sofia and to our sunny apartment! We are delighted to host you at Cherkovna Residence — a modern complex we are truly proud of, awarded "Building of the Year" in 2023.
In this guest guide, you will find everything you need for a seamless stay — Wi-Fi access, check-in instructions, and local recommendations. We wish you a wonderful and memorable stay!
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CONCIERGE
Local guide Curated by your host — every place opens in Google Maps.
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1 Sunrise walk through Borisova Gradina 2 Light a candle at Alexander Nevsky, then browse the icon stalls 3 Join the Free Sofia Tour from the Palace of Justice 4 Fill a bottle at the warm mineral fountains by the Central Baths 5 Gelato promenade down Vitosha Boulevard 6 Ride up Vitosha and walk Aleko to Cherni Vrah 7 Picnic at the Golden Bridges stone river 8 Hike the trail to Boyana Waterfall 9 Pedal-boat hour on Pancharevo Lake (a few €) 10 Opera night at Sofia Opera — tickets from ~€10 11 Market breakfast crawl at Zhenski Pazar 12 An hour among giants at the Museum of Socialist Art 13 Roman Sofia walk: Rotunda, Serdica ruins, the Largo 14 Quiet reading hour in Doctors' Garden 15 Night walk past the lit cathedral to the theatre fountains 1 BILLA One of the absolute highlights of this apartment’s location is having a premium BILLA supermarket right outside your door. Open every single day from 7:30 AM to 10:00 PM, this well-stocked store takes the stress out of your daily routine. Whether you want to grab freshly baked traditional Bulgarian pastries for breakfast, pick up ready-made hot meals after a long day of sightseeing, or stock up on affordable local wines, cheeses, and fresh produce, everything you need is just a few steps away. It is ideal for international guests who enjoy the flexibility of self-catering while saving money on dining out. 2 Lidl The budget champion: pantry staples, a surprisingly good in-store bakery and rotating country-themed weeks at the lowest prices in the neighbourhood — a full grocery run rarely passes €20–30. Also inside your 2 km circle. 1 Serdika Center The closest proper mall to the flat — several levels of high-street brands and a large food court, a short ride along Sitnyakovo Boulevard. Note: This mall does NOT have a cinema. 2 Sofia Ring Mall The big out-of-town option at the foot of Vitosha mountain on the Ring Road — vast and calm, with IKEA right next door. Pair it with a mountain afternoon; a Volt taxi out usually runs €6–10. 1 Skapto Tripadvisor regulars call it flatly 'the best place for burgers in Sofia', and the queues agree. Juicy hand-formed patties, punchy house sauces, proper fries and Bulgarian craft beer across several relaxed branches around the centre. A full burger-and-beer run lands around €8–12 — the definitive casual dinner after a long walking day. 2 Franco's Pizza Elite Neapolitan discipline: blistered, leopard-spotted crusts out of a roaring oven, San Marzano tomato, milky mozzarella and a short menu that changes nothing it doesn't have to. Pizzas run about €8–11 and disappear fast — at peak hours expect a short wait, which is exactly the sign you want. 3 Olio d'Oliva The other pillar of Sofia's Neapolitan pizza scene — soft-centred pies with a puffed, airy cornicione, good olive oil used like it matters, and honest Italian staples alongside. Count on ~€9–13 for a pizza and a glass of wine in a warm, family-toned room. Try both Franco's and Olio d'Oliva and pick your side; the city is split. 4 Raketa Rakia Bar Your true local, facing Zaimov Park: socialist-era kitsch on every shelf, a hundred-plus rakias behind the bar (4.5★ on Google) and Bulgarian classics done with a wink — shopska, meatballs, tripe soup for the brave. Dinner with a rakia flight runs about €15–20 a head. Book on weekends; it is deservedly packed. 5 Fabrika Daga Sofia's rainbow-hued third-wave pioneer and repeat winner of the city's best-brunch titles — proper flat whites, mekitsi with white cheese and jam, homemade cakes and lemonades in a light-filled room on Veslets street. Breakfast or brunch lands around €8–14. Two metro stops from Hadzhi Dimitar and worth every one. 6 Shtastlivetsa A Vitosha Boulevard institution with maximalist, storybook interiors and one of the most reliable Bulgarian menus in town — katuk, shopska done right, clay-pot classics — plus a surprisingly serious Italian side (the risottos have a following). Mains €12–20; ask for a window table over the boulevard and settle in. 7 Made in Home The restaurant that taught Sofia to love slow food: mismatched vintage chairs, hand-written menus and Mediterranean-meets-Bulgarian plates — silky hummus, roast vegetables, generous local cheeses. It feels like dinner at your most talented friend's house. Around €15–25 a person; reserve ahead, the little rooms fill nightly. 8 SkaraBar 'Skara' means grill, and this buzzing spot treats it as religion: kebapche, kyufte, pork neck and peppers over real charcoal, backed by Bulgarian craft beer and zero pretension. Locals recommend it to visitors as the honest taste of a Bulgarian evening. A full grill feast with a beer comes to about €10–16 a head. 9 Manastirska Magernitsa A creaking house with a vine-shaded garden serving recipes gathered from Bulgarian monasteries — slow stews, banitsa variations, trout, and salads that taste of somebody's village childhood. It is the classic first-night-in-Bulgaria restaurant for good reason. Expect €12–20 per person with wine; the garden tables go first in summer. 10 Hadjidraganov's Cellars Full-theatre Bulgaria: costumed staff, live folk musicians most evenings, bread with honey and salt at the door and platters of grilled meat that could feed a wedding. Touristy? Cheerfully. Also genuinely delicious, and the rakia list is deep. Budget €15–25 a head and come hungry — portions are from another century. 11 MoMa Bulgarian Food & Wine Traditional Bulgarian cooking in a bright contemporary room — sach platters, slow lamb, and an all-Bulgarian wine list that makes a persuasive case for Melnik and Mavrud grapes. The polished middle ground between tavern folklore and fine dining, at €15–25 a person. A favourite with returning visitors for a reason. 12 Izbata Tavern A snug cellar tavern doing the homestyle canon: bean soup, clay-pot gyuveche bubbling under cheese, stuffed peppers and daily stews like a Bulgarian grandmother on her best behaviour. Prices stay friendly at €10–18 per person, which keeps the room full of locals as much as travellers — always the sign to trust. 13 Sense Rooftop Restaurant A glass box floating directly opposite Alexander Nevsky's gold domes — at sunset the view alone justifies the bill. Sharp Mediterranean-leaning plates and Sofia's most cinematic cocktails; dinner runs €25–45 a person. Reserve a window table for golden hour and let the cathedral do the entertaining. 14 Hamachi Sofia's benchmark for Japanese — glassy-fresh nigiri, beef gyoza with a cult following and exquisite plating on Rakovski street. When you need a night off Balkan flavours, this is the graceful answer. A generous sushi dinner lands around €20–35 per person; the counter seats are the best show in the house. 1 Ivan Vazov National Theatre Bulgaria's national stage and the prettiest façade in Sofia — a Viennese confection of columns, gilded muses and a chariot-topped pediment, opened in 1907 to designs by the famed theatre architects Helmer & Fellner. The fountain garden in front is the city's favourite meeting point, full of chess players and photographers at golden hour. Even without Bulgarian, a ballet or concert night here is superb value at ~€10–25 a seat. 2 National Palace of Culture (NDK) A colossal 1981 monument of marble, concrete and space-age chandeliers, built for Bulgaria's 1300th anniversary and still the largest congress centre in Southeast Europe. Love it or not, the building is peak late-socialist ambition, and the long park in front — fountains, skaters, pop-up bars — is Sofia's people-watching headquarters. Climb the steps at sunset for the classic view straight down the water mirror towards Vitosha. 3 Boyana Church A tiny medieval church in the forest at Vitosha's feet, UNESCO-listed for frescoes painted in 1259 — portraits so lifelike and individual that art historians call them a Renaissance a full century before Italy's. Visits run in small timed groups of about ten minutes, which only sharpens the effect: you stand centimetres from 750-year-old faces that look back. Book ahead, pay ~€5, and pair it with the National History Museum next door. 4 Zaimov Park Your green front yard, two blocks from the door — morning joggers, chess tables, ping-pong, playgrounds and the glass cube of Theatre Sofia at its heart. This is where Oborishte lives its everyday life, and where you should take your first coffee walk to feel like a local rather than a visitor. Raketa Rakia Bar sits right on its edge, so the day can end here too. 5 Borisova Gradina Sofia's oldest and grandest park, laid out from 1884 by three generations of gardeners into kilometres of chestnut alleys, rose gardens and forest paths. Rowing boats and skates take turns on Ariana Lake by season, the lily pond is pure Monet in summer, and the old television tower pokes through the trees. It connects almost seamlessly to Doctors' Garden and the university quarter, making a beautiful long walk home to Cherkovna. 6 Regional History Museum (Central Baths) Sofia grew around hot springs, and this Vienna-Secession palace of striped stone and majolica — the Central Mineral Baths of 1913 — is their monument. Today it houses the Museum of Sofia (~€3): royal carriages, the tsar's throne, street signs and photographs tracing eight thousand years of city life. Outside, the public fountains still pour warm mineral water day and night; join the locals filling bottles — it is free and drinkable. 7 Sofia Synagogue The largest Sephardic synagogue in Europe, consecrated in 1909 — a Moorish-Revival jewel of horseshoe arches, star-patterned domes and a colossal brass chandelier said to be the biggest in Bulgaria. It anchors Sofia's famous 'square of tolerance', where synagogue, mosque, Catholic cathedral and Orthodox church stand within a few hundred metres of each other. A small entry donation (~€2–3) supports the community; the quiet interior is worth every cent. 8 Sveta Nedelya Church A church has stood on this spot for a thousand years, and the present domed cathedral carries the city's heaviest history: in 1925 a bomb attack during a state funeral destroyed the roof and killed more than a hundred people — one of the darkest days of modern Bulgaria. Rebuilt with a vast gilded iconostasis and glowing murals, it now sits serenely at Sofia's central crossroads, candle-lit and open to all. 9 Rotunda of St. George The oldest building in Sofia — a red-brick Roman rotunda from the 4th century, hiding in the courtyard between the Presidency and a luxury hotel. Inside, five layers of frescoes from the 10th to 14th centuries peel back like geological strata; outside, more Roman street stones spill around its base. Entry is free, and if you time it on the hour you can catch the plumed presidential guard changing a few steps away. 10 Vitosha Mountain Peaks Vitosha is the 2,290-metre wall at the end of every boulevard and the reason Sofians never quite feel landlocked. Declared the Balkans' first nature park in 1934, it offers everything from gentle forest strolls above Boyana to the open ridge walk from Aleko hut up Cherni Vrah, where a stone shelter serves hot tea to hikers. The famous 'stone rivers' — glacial moraines cascading through the woods — are unlike anything else near a European capital. 11 Pancharevo Lake A long, calm reservoir on the Iskar river at the very edge of the city — Sofia's summer waterfront. The national rowing base trains here, pedal boats rent for a few € an hour, and the lakeside path is lined with fish restaurants and willow shade. Just beyond, open-air pools fed by warm mineral springs let you soak with a mountain view. Twenty minutes by car or bus, and a completely different rhythm from the centre. 12 The Bells Monument (Kambanite) One of Sofia's strangest and most charming Cold-War relics: a 37-metre concrete pylon ringed by more than a hundred bells, sent by nations of the world for the 1979 'Banner of Peace' children's assembly. The bells still hang in the open meadow above the Business Park — and yes, you are allowed to ring them. Come at sunset with the mountain behind and the whole plain of Sofia below; entry is free and crowds are rare. CAN'T DECIDE?
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