Hi everyone! I am trying to buy a ticket from Bucharest to Sofia (and also Sofia to Istanbul afterwards), both for me (with a Eurail global pass) and my son (who doesn’t have one). I’ve seen a couple of other people here trying to work out how to buy these tickets online, but they don’t seem to be available from the main national rail websites. Since we are on a fairly tight schedule, and need to book accomm. etc in advance (and not have any probs with full trains etc), we really want to try and book in advance. So the question is: did anyone manage to do this, and if so -- how? Any experiences or feedback gratefully recieved...the trip is for April (7-10) btw, and I would be happy to just book the tix without the Eurail pass if that’s easier. Thank you :)
Bucharest to Sofia (booking online)
Best answer by BrendanDB
The timetable seems the same for your journey, see the pdf on this page: https://www.bdz.bg/en/a/sofia-bucuresti-sofia. It involes a change in Ruse.
The man in seat 61 seems to state that you cannot book this journey in advance, you willl need to buy it at the international ticket office in Sofia. Availability shouldn’t be a problem. Easter also falls later in Bulgaria (Orthodox, on 16/04) if I’m not mistaken.
https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Sofia.htm
+7The timetable seems the same for your journey, see the pdf on this page: https://www.bdz.bg/en/a/sofia-bucuresti-sofia. It involes a change in Ruse.
The man in seat 61 seems to state that you cannot book this journey in advance, you willl need to buy it at the international ticket office in Sofia. Availability shouldn’t be a problem. Easter also falls later in Bulgaria (Orthodox, on 16/04) if I’m not mistaken.
https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Sofia.htm
This train is mostly empty (at least on the international part), so don’t worry that it will be fully booked. Except during summer a change in Ruse is involved as
And IN that extreme highly unlikely case you do find trains full-which you will in fact only actually note when you try to board and find you are too late to find a seat then there are still plenty of buses that lve later and arr much earlier as that train connection.
Also again: trains are not planes, even if it is full, then that does not mean you have to stand the full trip-at any stop people will get off (and vacate seats) and later on. There wil also noone to bar you from entry even in such a case-there are mutltiple doors and no pre-boarding checks.
Wow, thanks for the fast and informative replies everyone. I feel reassured. I’ll press on with the rest of the trip booking and just have faith it will fall into place when we are there. I’m guessing it’s a similar story with the Sofia-Istanbul journey? Many thanks once again.
Also note that if you're using a Eurail pass, you already have a ticket. A reservation is not necessary (edit: for Bucharest-Sofia that is).
+5Sofia to Istanbul is sleeper and couchette only and this train did get fully booked at weekends last year. Book this one as soon as you arrive in Sofia or get Discover by Rail to do it, they use local contacts at a price of course!
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