ST5 Sultans Trail Section 5: Sofia-Rhodope-Edirne

Public transport

Fly. The fastest and most common way to get to Sofia is to fly to Sofia Airport (SOF), then continue into the city by metro, bus, or taxi. If you’re travelling overland, Sofia is reachable by international buses and some rail routes, but 95% of travellers choose air travel.

Airlines flying to Sofia are: Wizz Air (many European cities), Ryanair, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Bulgaria Air

Bus. Sofia is a major Balkan bus hub. All long‑distance buses arrive at the Central Bus Station. Buses are often faster than trains in the Balkans.

Train to Sofia (limited but possible). International rail to Sofia exists but is slow and infrequent. Current workable routes:

•  Belgrade → Sofia (seasonal / irregular; often replaced by bus)
•  Istanbul → Sofia (night train, popular)
•  Bucharest → Sofia (day train, slow but scenic)

 The national Bulgarian train system works quite well internally. 

Edirne

You can reach Edirne easily from Istanbul, Bulgaria, and Greece. The fastest and most reliable option is the intercity bus.

Martin Zinggl. Das ist kein Spaziergang. Auf dem Sultans Trail zu Fuß von Wien nach Istanbul. (München: Knesebeck Verlag, ISBN 978-3-95728-857-8)."Schneller als der Sultan – zu Fuß von Wien nach Istanbul.  Martin Zinggl sucht einen Ausweg aus der Krise – und macht sich zu Fuß auf den Weg von Wien nach Istanbul. 2400 Kilometer, acht Länder, alte Pfade, neue Begegnungen. Der Balkan empfängt ihn mit berührender Gastfreundschaft und skeptischen Blicken; die Straßen erzählen Geschichten von Flucht. Hoffnung und Alltag. Eine Reiseerzählung mit Tempo und Tiefgang – über das Gehen, das Staunen und das Fremdsein."

Ivo Andrić. The Bridge over the River Drina. (ISBN 978-1-860-46058-6). A sweeping historical novel tracing four centuries of life in the Bosnian town of Višegrad, centred on the iconic Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge. The novel uses the bridge as a powerful symbol—of connection, division, endurance, and the passage of time—while portraying the intertwined destinies of Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others living in the region.

Robert Dankoff & Sooyong Kim. An Ottoman Traveller. Selections from the Book of Travels of Evliya Çelebi. (ISBN 978-1906-07758-1). An Ottoman Traveller is a curated English-language selection from the Seyahatname, the vast ten‑volume travel narrative of Evliya Çelebi (1611–c.1685), the most celebrated traveller of the Ottoman Empire. Dankoff and Kim’s edition distils thousands of pages of lively, humorous, and richly detailed observations into an accessible volume that captures the spirit of a man who spent over forty years journeying across the empire and beyond.

Patrick Leigh Fermor trilogy. A Time of Gifts (ISBN 1-59017-165-9), Between the Woods and the Waters. (ISBN 0-14-009430-X). The Broken Road. From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos (ISBN 978-1-84854-754-4). Patrick Leigh Fermor’s trilogy is one of the great achievements of 20th‑century travel literature—a luminous reconstruction of the 18‑year‑old author’s 1933–34 walk across Europe toward Constantinople. Each volume captures a different stretch of the journey, blending youthful immediacy with the older Fermor’s erudition, humour, and reflective depth.