Bulgarian Souvenirs Worth Buying, and Where to Find Them in Sofia

Bulgaria is known for its rose oil, and the other Bulgarian souvenirs worth buying are made in the country too: folk crafts, herbs, rakia and wine. This guide covers the souvenirs I think are worth the suitcase space, what real rose oil looks like and costs, the handmade crafts, the food and drink to bring home, the souvenirs to skip, and where to buy each one in Sofia.

Bulgarian souvenirs at a glance

Bulgarian rose oil and rose products

Bulgaria is the world's largest producer of rose oil, and most of it is distilled from roses grown in the Rose Valley near Kazanlak.

Pure rose oil is expensive, but a single 1 ml vial lasts a long time. If you are in Bulgaria in early June, Kazanlak holds its rose festival on the first weekend of the month, one of the festivals in Bulgaria built around a harvest.

Rose water is the by-product of distilling the oil, and it costs a fraction of the price. Rose jam, rose syrup and rose liqueur are the versions you eat and drink, and Bulgarian cosmetics brands put rose oil into creams, soaps and lotions.

Bulgaria is also one of the world's biggest lavender producers, with fields between Karlovo and Kazanlak, and lavender oil, lavender soap and little lavender sachets are the souvenirs that come from them.

The wooden rose oil bottle

The carved wooden bottle painted with a rose is the rose souvenir you will see in souvenir shops all over Sofia.

Inside is a tiny glass vial, often of rose perfume made with Rose Valley oil. It makes a cheap, pretty gift. I'd buy it as exactly that.

Handmade Bulgarian crafts

Carved wooden toys and kitchen utensils, filigree silver jewelry and sheepskin bags and belts are all worth a look, but these five are the crafts I'd put first.

Troyan pottery

Troyan pottery is the classic Bulgarian ceramic. The red clay pieces are decorated with glazes that run and drip into each other in browns, yellows, greens and blues. The bigger pieces were made for cooking traditional dishes, and the plates, bowls, jugs and little rakia cups come in every size.

You will find smaller pieces made for visitors in souvenir shops all over Sofia, and the Ethnographic Museum shop carries Troyan pottery too. Troyan pottery is one of several Bulgarian crafts still made by hand, along with embroidery and weaving.

Embroidery and lace

Bulgarian embroidery is stitched by hand in vivid reds, on tablecloths, table mats and blouses.

Real hand embroidery is not cheap. I think it is one of the most honest souvenirs you can buy. The older women at the linen stalls beside Alexander Nevsky Cathedral sell hand-crafted lace, embroidered tablecloths and hand-knitted wool socks at reasonable prices.

Chiprovtsi rugs

The colorful woven kilims from the Chiprovtsi region are the traditional Bulgarian carpets to look for. They are woven by hand on vertical looms in bold geometric and floral patterns, and the Chiprovtsi carpet tradition has been on the UNESCO list of intangible heritage since 2014.

A full-size rug is a serious purchase, and a heavy one. A small runner is the easier buy. Specialist carpet shops in Sofia also take custom orders, ready in about two months.

Hand-painted icons

The price of a hand-painted icon depends mostly on gold: the icons that use real gold leaf cost much more than those painted in colors alone.

The racks at the antiques market at Alexander Nevsky are the easiest place in Sofia to compare icons and prices, and haggling is normal there. Icon gallery shops in Sofia sell them too, at fixed prices.

Martenitsa

A martenitsa is a small charm of twisted red and white thread that Bulgarians give each other on Baba Marta Day, the first of March. You wear it until you see the first stork or a blossoming tree, then tie it to a branch.

They come as simple bracelets, tassels or little red and white dolls. A martenitsa is the one souvenir on this list that comes with a ritual attached. I'd pick one for a child.

Food and drink to bring home from Bulgaria

Most of what is below is light, cheap and sold in Sofia's supermarkets. Lukanka, the flat-pressed dried sausage of pork and veal that Karlovo is known for, comes vacuum packed there for the trip home.

Rakia

Rakia is Bulgaria's fruit brandy, made from grapes, plums, apricots and even roses, and it is the national spirit. Peshterska and Karnobatska are two of the big grape rakia names, and Troyan is known for its plum rakia.

A craft 500 ml bottle costs about €10 to €26, and the wine and spirit shops around Zhenski Pazar carry a wider range than the supermarkets. Buy sealed bottles with the excise strip, and pass on homemade rakia offered by strangers. Rakia is drunk slowly from a small glass, and a set of rakia glasses is a fun extra souvenir.

Bulgarian wine

Bulgarian wine is rarely exported, which makes it a souvenir you cannot easily buy at home. Look for Mavrud, the local red. The Thracian Valley and the area around Melnik make some of the best bottles.

It sells at very reasonable prices in Sofia's shops and supermarkets, and Bulgarian wine comes in red, white and rosé, plus some sparkling wines.

Lokum

Lokum is the Bulgarian version of Turkish delight, soft cubes of sugar and starch dusted in powdered sugar. Rose is the classic flavor, and there are nut versions too.

Some of the local brands still sell lokum in retro boxes that look straight out of the communist years, which makes them a souvenir and a sweet at once.

Chubritsa and sharena sol

Chubritsa is summer savory, a herb with a strong taste that goes into Bulgarian cooking. Sharena sol, "colorful salt", mixes salt, paprika and chubritsa, and it comes to the table with bread for dipping.

Both weigh almost nothing and cost very little, and a bag of sharena sol with a loaf of bread is the simplest way to put Bulgarian food on the table back home.

Bulgarian souvenirs I'd skip

These four fill a lot of souvenir shelves in Sofia, and I'd leave them there:

• Matryoshka dolls. The nesting dolls are Russian, and the ones on sale in Sofia are made for tourists.
• Soviet memorabilia. Bulgaria was never part of the Soviet Union or Yugoslavia, so the hammer-and-sickle pieces are someone else's history.
• Most fridge magnets. They are rarely made in Bulgaria, and they look the same in every country.
• Cheap "rose oil" from tourist stalls. At a few euros it is perfume or rose water, so pay for the real thing or buy rose water as rose water.

If the communist era interests you, look for real Bulgarian medals, coins and banknotes at the antiques market instead.

Where to buy Bulgarian souvenirs in Sofia

The souvenir shops on Vitosha Boulevard and Rakovski Street sell real Bulgarian rose products next to imported magnets, so read the labels. The rest of shopping in Sofia is easy on foot, with Pirotska, Alexander Nevsky and Tsar Shishman all in the old center.

If your trip takes you to Veliko Tarnovo, that is the town to buy silver filigree jewelry, and I'd ask the seller who made each piece.

Packing Bulgarian souvenirs for the flight

Most of the best Bulgarian souvenirs are small and light: a vial of rose oil, a bag of chubritsa, a martenitsa or a box of lokum fit in any bag. The fragile ones need more care.

Pottery should be wrapped piece by piece, with the handles padded, and it goes in the middle of your suitcase between clothes. Keep spices sealed in their original packets.