Veliko Turnovo Transportation

If you arrive by bus just be aware that there are two bus stations, Avtogara Yug (Southern bus station) which serves the line Sofia - Black Sea, and Avtogara Zapad (Western bus station) where you will arrive if you come from the southern parts of Bulgaria. (Confusing name giving in my opinion.)
The best way to get into town in any case is to take a taxi - it will not cost you more than 5 Lv (= 2,50 Euro) as of autumn 2011.

There is a bus departing from Veliko Tarnovo (South Bus station) to Istanbul (Turkey) everyday at 2100. the price is about 27Euro / one way. It's good idea to book your place 1-2 day before your departure date. The carrier is "OZ BATU".

From: Veliko Turnovo to Sofia

This is a long trip, 3+ hours.
I recommend using one of the private bus companies for this trip.
They are a bit more expensive, but definitely worth it because they are comfortable and air conditioned.

I used the Grup Plus bus. Office/station is in the center of town. Very convenient.
There were three morning buses, at 0900, 10.15 and 1100

The staff were also caring for a street cat with kittens :)

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Veliko Turnovo has a busy little railway station on the main North/South line which bisects Bulgaria from Ruse to Podkova, passing through the main junction at nearby Gorna Orjahovitsa and heading South via the city of Stara Zagora. The station is located in an industrial area (where the brewery is) about three kilometres out of the city centre and seems to be best accessed by taxi - there may be a bus service but I saw no signs of any when I was there. Taxis though are cheap enough and should cost about 3 leva.

If arriving from the North or South there are direct trains from Ruse and Stara Zagora. If arriving from East or West (ie Sofia or Varna) you'll usually have to change at Gorna Orjahovitsa, from which V Turnovo is another 20 minutes journey. As the average connection time is about 30 minutes you'll find it easier to just get a ticket to Gorna and then continue by taxi into Veliko, it's only about 7 kilometres and the fare will be about 6 leva.

For an interesting day out by train from V Turnovo the mountain town of Tryavna is well worth a visit. Trains are frequent, with the journey through the mountains taking less than hour, and a return fare is about 6 leva.

There is also a station at Trapezitsa which is within walking distance of the bottom end of the city but as I discovered it's not a particularly easy walk as you have to find the appropriate bridge to get across the river - more on that under "Warnings and Dangers".

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There are over 30 buses every day from Sofia's Central Bus Station to Veliko Turnovo which makes it a very easy place to get to. There are about six different companies running the route, mostly as a main stop on cross-country routes, and whilst it is pretty competitive there''s not that much difference between the fares (varying between 15 and 17 leva) nor the time (about three and a half hours).

If you want to arrive in V Turnovo's city centre the best option is the Etap-Adres service whose drop-off is at the Etar Hotel, which is about as central as you can get. The other services use the city's Yug (South) bus station which is a couple of kilometres out.

The Etap buses are modern and comfortable and the ticket office staff at the bus station are friendly and multi-lingual. Once you've bought your ticket you just board the bus and one of the staff does a head count just before departure to make sure they've got the right numbers. The tickets include a seat reservation and you'll find the seat number on a panel at the bottom of the seat (not the most obvious place to put it!). Any luggage bulkier than a handbag needs to be put in the external luggage compartment and the driver will ask your destination and give you a numbered luggage tag, a copy of which gets attached to your bag.

This becomes a really spectacular journey when the bus reaches the mountains and there are some impressive valley-spanning viaducts on the way. Unfortunately it was snowing when I did this last time and I couldn't get any decent pics through the window but it certainly was scenic.

First website below is for the Sofia Central Bus Station which has a full timetable, second is for the Etap services - both have "English" options.

Veliko Turnovo has two main bus stations, the Avtogari Yug (South) which is about two miles out of the city centre on the main Hristo Botev Str, and the smaller Avtogari Zapad (West) on N Gabrovski Str. In the city centre there is also the bus terminus for the Etap buses which stop here en route between Sofia and Varna. (V Turnovo being about midway this is where the driver has a half-hour rest break)

I arrived from Plovdiv using the Hebros bus service which terminates at the Yug station with a journey time of about 4 hours. Hebros is one of Bulgaria's largest domestic operators and the 1st website below has all their timetables (in Cyrillic).

Leaving I got the Etap bus from the city centre on to Varna which has a journey time of about 3 and a half hours. The bus leaves from in front of the Etar Hotel on Ivailo Str and there is a ticket office at the bus stop. The Etap group are a smaller company than Hebros with modern air-conditioned vehicles mostly covering the long-distance domestic and International routes. 2nd website has their timetables and the link is for the English version.

There is only one direct night train to Istanbul from Veliko Turnovo per day. It leaves at 1806 and arrives the next morning just after 0800. The journey time is about 14 hours. Check bahn.de for up to date times (using stations Veliko Tarnovo and Istanbul Sirkeci as your station locations). Although I paid for a shared cabin I was the only person in mine. The train was very comfortable, but the border formalities are carried out in the middle of the night. You need to get out of the train and complete these in the station (leaving your luggage in your cabin on the train).

Public transportation (bus) is difficult.
Stops may be sign posted, or they may not.

Lots of buses to centre from Tsaravets for instance, but no buses at all to other places.

There is no city bus to the main intercity bus station!