Bulgaria eSIM for Sofia, the Black Sea coast, and Bansko

Bulgaria is a ski week in Bansko, a beach fortnight at Sunny Beach, or a city break in Sofia and Plovdiv, and all three start with a metro ticket bought on the phone at Sofia airport. The best eSIM for Bulgaria is the one that's working when you land, so the metro into the center and the transfer to the mountains or the coast are sorted before the bags arrive.

Below: how a Bulgaria plan works, how to set it up before you fly, what to expect in Sofia, Plovdiv, on the coast, and in the mountains, and why a Balkan route usually wants the Europe plan.

Most travel eSIMs make you start over for every country, which in Europe means a new QR code every few days. KnowRoaming doesn't. You add the KnowRoaming eSIM, called KR.One, to your phone once, and from then on each trip is a plan you add to it: Bulgaria now, Greece in the spring, the whole continent on a Europe plan when the itinerary gets ambitious. Nothing to scan again, nothing to delete when you get home.

The plan's days start when you turn it on and connect in Bulgaria, not at checkout. Buy it weeks ahead, add it at home, and a delayed flight costs you nothing. The full rule is in what plan validity means and when it starts.

Choose a fixed plan for a set amount of data at the lowest overall price, or an unlimited plan when you'd rather not count. Unlimited plans give you 5 GB a day at full speed, then a slower speed until the allowance resets the next day. If a fixed plan runs low, top up in the app and the extra data lands on the same eSIM.

See it in two minutes: Meet KR.One, iPhone setup with KR.One, or Samsung setup with KR.One.

Do this at home on Wi-Fi. It takes about a minute.

Before you leave

1. Get the KnowRoaming app (available on iOS and Android) and choose your Bulgaria plan.
2. Tap Add. First time on this phone? The app adds KR.One and your Bulgaria plan together. Already have KR.One? Only the plan is added, with nothing to scan.
3. Leave data roaming off on the KnowRoaming line until you land, and turn it off on your home line too so it doesn't run up charges in the background. Steps are in turning off roaming on your home line.

When you land

1. Turn the plan on in the app, then turn data roaming on for the KnowRoaming line. That setting lives in your phone, so the app can't flip it for you.
2. Give the phone a minute to find the network. If nothing happens, turn airplane mode on for 30 seconds and off again.

Prefer a QR code? The checkout page and your confirmation email both carry one; scan it from your phone's settings. Every tap, by device, is in adding your eSIM on iPhone, adding your eSIM on Android, and adding your eSIM on Samsung, or watch the iPhone QR walkthrough or the Samsung QR walkthrough. Still no signal after landing? Work through the no-signal checklist.

Sofia Airport has a metro station at Terminal 2 with trains into the center in about half an hour; the ticket machines take cards, and the metro app is easier still. Taxis from the rank are fine if the meter is running; the Yellow and OK taxi apps and Bolt all work over data with the number you already have.

Bulgaria adopted the euro at the start of 2026, so prices are in euros and cards are accepted in the cities, with cash still useful in the villages and at the monasteries. Sofia's center, from Alexander Nevsky to Vitosha Boulevard, is a walk; Vitosha mountain is a bus ride and a cable car.

Plovdiv, two hours east by train or bus, has the Roman theater and the old town on its hills and is the better base for the Thracian valleys. Rila Monastery, the country's great site, is a two-hour drive south of Sofia and a day trip for most. The Black Sea coast, from Varna to Burgas by way of Nessebar and Sozopol, is a five- or six-hour drive or a short flight in summer.

All of it has 4G at least, with 5G in the cities and the bigger resorts; the mountain monasteries and the coastal headlands are the thin spots.

Bansko is Bulgaria's ski capital, two and a half hours from Sofia by transfer, with a gondola from the town, lift passes sold online, and a resort app for the lifts and the snow report; Borovets and Pamporovo are the other two. The bases have 5G; the upper pistes and the backcountry drop out, on any network, so keep the piste map downloaded.

Bulgaria touches Greece, Turkey, Romania, Serbia, and North Macedonia, and every one of them is on the Europe plan, 49 countries on one plan, switching networks by itself at the border. Thessaloniki is four hours from Sofia, Istanbul six from Burgas, Bucharest a train ride from Ruse. A Bulgaria-only plan stops at the border, so for any trip that crosses one, the Europe plan is the better buy from the start. Read do I need a new plan for every country? for the detail.

Veliko Tarnovo, the medieval capital, is three hours from Sofia by train, with the Tsarevets fortress lit up at night; the Shipka Pass and its memorial church are a drive over the Balkan mountains from there, and the Valley of Roses around Kazanlak holds its Rose Festival in early June, when the fields are picked before dawn.

The towns have 4G, the pass and the ridge roads drop out, and the festival's timings are published week by week online, which is the phone's job that weekend.

Sofia and Plovdiv have become bases for people who work from a laptop, with fast 5G, low costs, and a growing café and coworking scene. For a stay of weeks, an unlimited plan, with 5 GB a day at full speed, covers calls and the hotspot for the days the apartment's Wi-Fi drops; fixed plans suit a ski or beach week. Both are on the plan selector at the top of this page.

Your plan connects to Vivacom or Yettel, with 5G in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, and the main resorts and 4G LTE across the rest of the country. Your phone picks the network automatically once the plan is on; there is nothing to choose by hand.

In the Rila, Pirin, and Rhodope mountains, above the resort bases and on the monastery roads, expect gaps on any network. Save what you need in town.

Most phones sold since 2019 support eSIM, including iPhone XS and later and most Android flagships from the same window. Check yours before you add a plan; it takes a few seconds. On iPhone, go to Settings, General, About and look for an EID or Available SIM. On Android, go to Settings, Network & Internet, SIMs and look for an option to add an eSIM. On Samsung, dial *#06# and look for an EID.

Your phone also needs to be carrier-unlocked. If you're not sure, carrier-locked vs unlocked: how to tell shows you where to look.

Adding a Bulgaria plan doesn't touch your regular SIM. Calls and texts on your usual number keep working exactly as before. The new plan handles data while you're there, and most phones run both at once without you doing anything else. Bank codes and two-factor texts still arrive on your home number, as long as that line stays switched on.

For a European trip the real competition isn't another eSIM. It's your home carrier's roaming add-on, priced for a weekend and throttled by midweek; the SIM counter in arrivals, after the flight, with a queue; and café Wi-Fi, in a country where even the bus ticket is in an app. A Bulgaria plan added at home beats all three: one price agreed before you fly, live the second you land, and a Europe plan waiting if the trip grows.

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