Bulgaria by campervan: sleeping and camping
Where you may legally sleep in a campervan in Bulgaria: parking, camping, campsites, stopovers and possible fines. 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
Sleeping
Sleeping
Bulgarian law splits this question in two, and the split runs along the coast. Inland, the road act never asks whether you are asleep. Закон за движението по пътищата contains no word for sleeping, tent, camper or caravan: it regulates where a vehicle may stand. The binding rule forbids parking on the carriageway outside a built-up area altogether. Stop off the carriageway and you are parked, and nothing in the act touches what you do inside.
Still parked
- Sleeping, cooking and eating inside
- Off the carriageway, which the road traffic act requires outside a town
- Wheels down and nothing else touching the ground
- Curtains or blinds up, roof vent open
- Arriving late and leaving in the morning
Now camping or bivouacking
- Chairs, a table or a mat outside
- Awning rolled out
- A tent pitched beside the van
- Any fire at all in a national or nature park outside a designated place
- Grey water emptied on the ground
The four acts that decide
- Закон за движението по пътищата. The road traffic act never mentions sleeping. It defines standing and parking, forbids parking on the carriageway outside a built-up area, and lists the places where standing is banned anywhere. Improper parking is €25.56.
- Закон за устройството на Черноморското крайбрежие. The coastal act bans vehicles on the beach, bans them on the dunes, and creates a category of designated places where tents, campers and caravans may be put instead.
Who decides, and what to look at
- The state sets the framework through those four acts, and the coastal one applies only inside zones A and B.
- Park administrations designate the places where a bivouac or a fire is allowed inside their park. Off-road driving is not banned by the protected areas act itself. It is set by each park's declaration order and management plan instead.
Where to sleep, and what to check first
| Option | What you get | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Car park off a road, inland | Legal and usually free. The workhorse option away from the coast. | That you are off the carriageway, and whether the land sits inside a park boundary |
| Къмпинг | A categorised campsite. Закон за туризма defines one as a guarded site with pitches for a tent or caravan, car parking and services, rated one to three stars. | Many are coastal and seasonal, and shut outside roughly May to September |
| Mehana, guesthouse or monastery car park | A spot with permission, which is what makes it legal, and usually a meal attached. | Ask inside rather than assume. Monasteries often have large yards and their own rules |
| Trailhead and ski resort car parks | Big, flat and built for the traffic. Empty out of season in Bansko, Borovets and Pamporovo. | Whether the trailhead sits inside a national park, where a bivouac and a fire are banned outside designated places |
| Coastal resort car parks | The legal way to be near the sea in high season. | That you are not on the beach or the dunes, which is the €511.29 offence, and the posted overnight rules |
What the statutes allow, converted from leva at the official rate
The coastal camper fine takes effect on 1 October 2026. The coastal act penalises pitching a tent or parking a camper or caravan on someone else's unregulated plot inside zone A or zone B, outside a designated place, at €255.65 to €511.29 and double that on a repeat. It was written to come into force one year after the ordinance that creates designated places, and that ordinance entered into force on 1 October 2025. The beach and dune bans are a different matter and have applied since July 2019.
The coast now has a legal way to camp, if a municipality uses it. A 2025 ordinance, in force since 1 October 2025, lets a mayor designate places in zone A or zone B, outside beaches, dunes and categorised campsites, for the temporary placing of tents, campers and caravans. The order runs for up to three years and the season is 1 May to 30 September. The rules set three metres between neighbouring units, a minimum access strip of 3.5 metres, one portable chemical toilet per thirty people, and a posted price. The governing principle is written into the ordinance in as many words: не оставяй следа, leave no trace. No register of designated places was reachable when this page was written, so treat a place as designated only if it says so.