Rilski Manastir Sports & Outdoors

As for hiking, the Rila mountains are steep, but offer spectacular views, flora and fauna. Snow can rest until summer at certain altitudes so you better have good hiking/mountain boots. Mountain huts (hizhas) are basic and costs about 10 lv per person. Many of them serve meals, but it is a good thing to bring your own food, for I heard that a lot of hizhas only have soup. A sleeping bag is not necessarily, for the most hizha have sheets. The best hikes are into the area in the north of the Rila monastery, around the mt. Maliovitsa. You can visit there the famous ?seven lakes? and end up in the village of Maliovitsa. Lets say you take a hike to the seven lakes: from these lakes it?s a one hour hike to the Hizha Skakavitsa, where there is a waterfall. You can stay here for one night and explore the area. To reach this hizha from the Rila monastery, it is a six hours hike. The hizha is at 2000 meters above sea-level. It is also possible to visit the seven lakes from Hizha Pionerska, which can be reached from Sapareva Banya (accessible via a bus from Dupnitsa, so it is not really in the direct region of the monastery, but yet an interesting alternative to get to the seven lakes). From Sapareva Banya walk some 10 km up the road and from the hizha it?s a 2 hours hike to the lakes.

Equipment: hiking boots