Bulgaria tour

Hey Paul,
There are quite a number of reviews of "Best of Bulgaria" in the "Our Tours" section.
The sequence of "Our Tours/Eastern Europe/Best of Bulgaria/Reviews" will get you there.
As you can see, this is among the RS most highly rated tours. I checked just now....the first 24 reviewers gave this tour an overall rating of 5 Stars, and the 25th reviewer gave it "only" 4 because they felt uncomfortable with the included Roma home hosted visit - something that would interest me a great deal.
Stefan, the tour guide, is a charming man, and receives rave reviews.
I have visited Bulgaria on my own, and I must add......it is a fascinating place. Bulgarian cuisine is my absolute favorite.
If this serves as encouragement for your visit, my work is done.

I recently took a non Rick Steves tour that included Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania. While it was enjoyable it cannot be compared to surrounding countries for tourists.These countries have been thru a alot in their recent history. While it is admirable what has been accomplished it focusses on improving the day to day lives of its residents. There are roman ruins but crudely renovated. Therefore to me a visitor should be there for a purpose, not just tourism.

Fantastic tour, Frozen Paul! I took it in 2016, and just loved it. Every stop, including those just during the day, was excellent. More interactive activities with everyday people, who do not regularly work serving visitors, than any other tour I have taken in Europe. Bulgaria is a beautiful, friendly and low-cost country, with many fewer tourists than just about any country in Europe. The tour includes many diverse sites and experiences. Stefan is a really wonderful guide, knowledgeable, passionate, enthusiastic, caring. Of my 11 RS tours, many of which have been excellent, I always mention Bulgaria first!

I enjoyed every second of my stay there. It seems that the country changed a lot since the end of the soviet regime. In Bulgaria you can experience everything - touristic highlights, great nightlife, restaurants with awesome food, friendly people, etc. I would definetely come back.

Here's the direct link to the tour; scroll down and click "reviews" to read sections of people's reviews (unfortunately, the website no longer posts the whole reviews): https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/eastern-europe/bulgaria

However, people do make "scrapbooks," their own websites about their tours. Here is one about Rick Steves Bulgaria tour from 2016: http://pnethercot.com/Bulgaria/

Paul,
I did the Bulgaria tour in September 2017. It was fabulous. I had done all of the usual European “must see” places, and wanted to do something that none of my friends had done.
Stefan was a great guide who’s pride in his country was quite evident. I knew nothing about the country and he helped change that for me.
A very old country with great sites, people and food. Vegetarians should have no problems. We visited the mountains, the plains and the sea coast. How many opportunities do you have to spend a night in a 900 year old monastery?
We had numerous opportunities to interact with local people. We met with elementary teachers for 90 minutes to ask questions. An hour meeting with a village mayor was awesome. Twice, we had lunch in the homes of locals.
This was my 3rd RS trip. Taking my 5th this fall