Hi, I need to get to SOFIA from France, Italy or Switzerland this autumn. What is the present situation please?
Despite my 86 years of age I am willing to go by the long route if necessary. I travel Interrail to avoid flying and have not done so for the past five years.
I saw the destruction of the train lines at the historic Belgrade main station a couple of years ago and I was and am shocked.
seat61.com will help you a lot, extremely useful website 
bahn.de is a reliable tool too
The easy route would be night train from Budapest to Bucharest and then daytime train to Sofia : https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Budapest.htm#Budapest-Sofia
Budapest is easily reachable, for example direct night train from Zurich
Thank you! Yes, thegoodmaninseat61. My main concern was to be sure of the updated situation. It will be interesting discovering Budapest and/or Bucharest.
PS bahn.de gives the following information about these trains::
runs 17. May until 27. Aug 2023
Border crossing: Curtici(Gr)
Is it possible to know the situation after 27 August? Seat61 makes no such statement!
Certainly possible but the timetable hasn't been published yet
Check in a month or so
That’s an encouraging answer. Thank you again!
I have just done Sofia to Bucharest and then on to Valea Lui Murai by Romanian nighttrain, and loved every minute of it. While us westerners think that 1 train per day is not very much, the good thing is that these trains wait for each other. The pace of travel is relaxing rather than the 100km/h western style.
Go do it and I hope I can still do it when I am 86!
Yes; I’m glad you have such pleasure travelling like this. The present project will be my fifth Interrail journey, allowing me to travel to far away places without flying, and I’m greatly looking forward to it.
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