This hike to the Boyana Waterfall is a must do when visiting Vitosha Nature Park. It’s a great day trip from Sofia into nature. You really don’t feel anymore that you’re only 20 minutes away from the capital city of Bulgaria.
DETAILS HIKE to Boyana Waterfall
Distance: The total distance for this hike is 6,34 kilometers (loop hike)
Elevation gain: The total incline was 517 meters
Moving time: According to Strava my moving time was 1 hour and 55 minutes (total time was 2 hours 33 minutes)
Difficulty: I would rate this as an intermediate/hard hike, most of the elevation gain is during the first 3 kilometers.
Address start: ul. “Boyanski Manastir”, 1616 Boyana, Sofia
Price: Free
Use the pinned location below so you can navigate straight to where the hike starts. When I visited there was plenty of parking in the surrounding area.
HOW TO GET TO THE starting point?
With the car from the center of Sofia it takes you around 20 minutes.
Another possibility is to use public transportation, there is a bus stop about 10 minutes walking from the trailhead. According to Google it would take about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get there. This depends of course where in Sofia you get on the public transportation.
HIKING MAP AND GPX-FILE
Generally speaking for all hikes, the easiest way is to download a GPX file that you can view on a gps device, a smartphone or smartwatch. It will tell you step-by-step how to walk. It also includes an elevation profile of the hike which can help you to decide if this hike is for you or not.
Download the GPX file right here: Hike-to-Boyana-waterfall.gpx
Boyana Church
If you would so desire, not far from the trail head that leads to the waterfall you can find the Boyana Church. Usually I don’t get that impressed from churches but the Boyana churche would’ve been different, I guess. This church, originally constructed in the 11th century, has frescoes on the walls dating back to the 13th century. On pictures it looks absolutely gorgeous. The church is kept at a constant temperature of around 17 degrees to preserve all this beautiful art.
If you would like to visit this masterpiece keep in mind that only groups of up to 8 people are allowed in and this for maximum 10 minutes.
Vitosha Nature Park
Vitosha Nature Park is is one of the first of its kind in Bulgaria and the Balkan Peninsula. In 1936 a small portion was declared protected area but later on the whole Vitosha mountain surface became part of the nature park. When walking on Vitosha Boulevard in the center of Sofia you can see the huge dome like mountain in the distance.
In my opinion the proximity of Vitosha Nature Park makes Sofia a great tourist destination. You could easily include some nature exploration into your city trip.
Perfect day trip from SOfia into nature
Usually when I travel I try to avoid the bigger cities because it’s just not really my thing. As this trip to Bulgaria marks the first country of my full time travels I thought I’d really take my time to explore the country and start with the capital city. Also I thought it could be a great opportunity to meet people to possible hang out with on the rest of my trip.
Now, in all honesty, after one full day in Sofia I already felt the need to get away from the city and explore some nature. Luckily this wasn’t that hard as Vitosha Nature Park is just 20 minutes from the center by car.
After conquering the Cherni Vrah or Black Peak, which is the highest peak of Vitosha Nature Park I thought it was the perfect time for another nature trip and this time to spot a waterfall!
Read my article on how to hike the black peak here: HIKE TO BLACK PEAK, THE HIGHEST IN VITOSHA NATURE PARK
MY EXPERIENCE HIKING to the Boyana waterfall
When I read about his hike and saw it was only 6 kilometers I honestly thought: “Oh, a 1h walk in the park.” Coming from a flat country sometimes I still forget what a huge impact elevation gain has on the completion time of a hike. Also it takes a lot more effort!
Because I thought this would be a quicky I decided to do this right before I drove to my next destination which was Bansko. In retrospect it was kind of a quick hike but it took a lot more effort than I initially anticipated!
This hike is actually a loop that you can do clock-wise or counter-clockwise like I did. However I read online people advising to do it clock-wise and return the same way. Upon my return I realized they were right. For me personally I don’t mind a bit of a challenging route but if you really just want to see the waterfalls in the easiest way possible I suggest you take the clock-wise route and then return on your steps. Clock-wise means starting off left and following the green signs. The red signs follow a slightly more challenging route.
What I noticed when hiking to the Boyana waterfalls is that lots of people seem to do this with sneakers. Now, each to their own but I would strongly advise to have some shoes with decent grip! Especially if you take the red counter-clockwise route and even more so if you’re going after rainfall or if there’s still some snow or ice. Thank me later!
When following the river upstream like I did I saw the first waterfall at about 1,8 km. Because I didn’t really know what to expect I thought this was the Boyana waterfall already. Oh boy I was wrong, this was just an appetizer to what was about to come! I took some photos there and continued the route.
Only a little further I saw another waterfall which, to me, was again quite impressive but apparently only a second course of a 3 course meal 😉
After climbing a quite steep section I finally reached the real Boyana waterfall, the main course. It had quite a large free fall which made it even more spectacular! The main course didn’t dissapoint at all but was there maybe a dessert? Well…
When you leave the final waterfall behind you at around 2,8 km there’s one more small climb before descending back towards the start of this hike to Boyana waterfall.
Previously I mentioned there might be a dessert, well the dessert came in the form of an incredible viewpoint over the capital city Sofia. It was cool to see the contrast of the city and the lush greenery. Possibly the vicinity of such a beautiful nature park makes Sofia one of the nicer European capital cities to visit. That’s just my opinion of course!
Let me know in the comments or through my Instagram if you enjoyed this hike!