In short
Mount Vitosha, two thousand two hundred and ninety metres, is reached from the centre on city transport. You walk it in summer and ski it in winter, without administratively leaving the city.
Sofia has changed status a great deal in a short time: full entry into Schengen in 2025, adoption of the euro on 1 January 2026. Travelling here and settling here has become as simple as anywhere else in the Union.
What it really costs
It is one of the cheapest capitals in the eurozone, and now with no currency to change. Housing in the centre costs less than in most mid-sized French cities.
Internet speeds are among the best in Europe and subscription prices among the lowest, which explains the population of remote workers settled here.
What nobody tells you
Dual pricing survives the switch to the euro, and old lev prices still circulate. Reading the label before paying avoids unpleasant surprises in small shops.
The Cyrillic alphabet remains the practical obstacle: street and stop names are not always transliterated. Learning to decipher twenty letters changes your independence completely.
Nodding is reversed here: up and down often means no. It is disorienting and entirely real.