Bulgaria by campervan: costs and prices

Practical costs in Bulgaria: currency, cards, cash, fuel, groceries and budgeting for a campervan trip. What to know before you go.

Published 18 September 2026Last checked 19 September 2026

Currency
Euro
EUR. Adopted 1 January 2026 at the fixed rate of 1.95583 leva
Language
Bulgarian
Written in Cyrillic, which Bulgaria invented
Driving
Right
Motorway 140 km/h, 100 km/h from 3.5 to 7.5 tonnes
Power
230V, type F
The round two-pin Schuko socket
Road toll
E-vignette
€64.50 a year, €10 a week, prices from 1 August 2026
Emergency
112
Mountain rescue through 112. The old 1470 line closed in August 2026

Money

Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026 and the lev is no longer the currency. The EU abrogated Bulgaria's derogation with effect from that date and fixed the irrevocable rate at 1 euro to 1.95583 leva. That is not a market rate and it does not move. If a guide still tells you to change money into leva at the border, it was written before the changeover.

Euro banknotes, coins and a bunch of keys on a wooden tray with small model houses — Euro since January 2026. The single most common wrong assumption about this country

Practical prices for camper travel

Diesel, 1 litre: €1.856
Campsite or camper area, 1 night: €34.23
Inexpensive restaurant meal: €10.22
White bread, 500 g: €1.00
Bottled water, 1.5 litres: €0.63

Paying for things

Cards are normal in towns. Supermarkets, fuel stations, chains and city restaurants take contactless, and so does the e-vignette portal.
Carry cash for village shops, markets, roadside producers, monasteries and mountain huts.

What a trip can be priced on

Annual e-vignette €64.50, one week €10, one weekend €6.60, one day €5.30, on the tariff in force from 1 August 2026.
Diesel €1.856 a litre and petrol 95 €1.620 in the week of 14 September 2026, against EU averages of €2.159 and €2.063 the same week.

Old leva turn up in change stories rather than in tills. A lev price list on a wall, a menu that has not been reprinted, a market trader quoting in leva out of habit: divide by 1.95583 and you have the euro price, and that division is exact. The reverse mistake is the expensive one, so check whether a big number is a lev figure that nobody updated before you hand over the equivalent in euro.