Plovdiv Transportation

The trainstation is at Bovev blvd and is well organized. In Bulgarian the trains departures are on a big computerscreen and in the underpass. Platforms are not numbered. Tickets are sold upstairs (local trains) Trains to Sofia: duration 2 and a half hour (there are 3 expresses each day, costing 7 lv) or slow (there are 8 slow trains costing 5 lv). Trains to Karlovo durartion 2 hours (only 6 slow a day, costing 4 lv). Trains to Veliko Tarnovo (5 slow trains with a duration of 4 hours, costing 9 lv)

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Plovdiv's Central Railway Station is on the main Hristo Botev thoroughfare in the city centre, about a kilometre from the Old Town. It is particularly well-connected to Sofia with 16 trains per day in both directions and is on the mainline between Sofia and Bourgas. From Sofia the express trains take about 2 hours with the slower trains up to 3 and a half.

The station itself is an attractive Neo-Baroque building in the National Revival style and has all the services expected of a major city rail terminus. The only caveat is that the signage from the platforms isn't very obvious and so when arriving by train you'll only recognise it because it is the first proper covered station building you'll encounter after leaving Sofia!

There are plans to renovate the station over the next couple of years and a local architectural studio, Arkont-A, was awarded the tender in July 2008 - so maybe they'll factor in a couple more signs into their planning.

For any travelling by long-distance bus:

Write the name of the place that you want to go to on a piece of paper in Cyrillic letters.
If you give that to either the information booth clerks and/or the ticket sales people there is no problem.

I found that everyone was more than willing to be helpful - even to the extent of taking me by the arm and escorting me to the correct place to wait for the bus. That was a special!

More usually they would point to the number of the correct platform on the ticket and then point in the general direction of that platform. Really easy to find with all the willing helpers around :)

Plovdiv's main train station is located on ul. H. Botev, not far from the centre. Trains from and to Sofia are frequent, about every hour. Other trains travel East to Burgas and less often to Varna.
There are 3 bus station in Plovdiv: Avtogara Yug on ul. Botev (a bit East of the train station) for buses to/from Sofia and a couple of other towns.
Avtogara Rhodopi (South of the train station) for buses to/from towns in the Rhodopi area e.g. Smolyan.
Avtogara Sever (near the Filipovo station) for buses to/from towns in the North, e.g. Veliko Tarnovo.

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From the bus station or the train station find Ivan Vasov avenue go up till you reach a big square square after about 10-15 minutes, you are already in the city center now. There is a big Information center there, get a free map (the main sites are highlighted on it) and start exploring the city. The old town is just 5’ walk from there, just follow the main pedestrian street.

Walk
The city center is compact so you can see everything easily, just walk around, high temperatures and the hills will get you tired of course (the old town is up on one of the hills of the city) so don’t forget to do small breaks, get into some of the museums or stop for a coffee

Local bus/taxi
You wont need any but if so the ticket for the local buses is 1lev(about half euro), there is an inspector in every bus that comes to you and you get the ticket from her (not from the driver!). Local buses run from about 5.30am till about 23.00. We noticed also some mini buses.
We used some local buses to reach the suburbs but we didn’t use any taxi. If you need one don’t forget to check always the rate per km which is always written on the side window.

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Plovdiv is located on the banks of Maritsa river, about 152km SE of Sofia.

By train
We used train from/to Sofia. Return ticket costs 15leva (about 8euro) and the train ride was 2,5 hours.
There are many different platforms, hopefully there were screens with information about arrivals/departures showing the platforms too.
The station seems very old but it’s very nice, in neo baroque style, not much English spoken (it’s always helpful to have your destination written on a paper in Cyrillic to be sure).
There is an area with luggage lockers (2lv for 24 hours!)

By bus
There are numerous buses connecting Sofia with Plovdiv in about 2 hours, most of the buses run every hour but on peak moments there are buses on half an hour. You can just buy your ticket at the bus station (about 14 leva one way)
Plovdiv is also connected with numerous small towns around, depending on the destination you have to go to one of the 3 bus terminals
Avtogara Yug(South) opposite the central train station is the one for Sofia
Avtogara Rhodopi station is behind the central station, very useful for many small towns in Rhodope mountains, we took a bus to Bachkovo from here, for a 35’ ride the ticket was 4 leva one way. We bought the ticket at the station and we went to the sector that they told us and just got into the small bus. The bus station is modern, there were some café to wait and a clean WC (they charge 0,50lev)
Avtogara Sever (North) is a bit out of town (bus 21 will get you there), we didn’t use this but I guess it serves the cities to the north.

By plane
Plovdiv Airport is located 12km SE of the city (near Krumovo village on the route Plovdiv–Assenovgrad) with a shuttle bus connecting the airport with a railway station which is 3km away.
I guess most of the people come to Plovdiv from other Bulgarian town by train/bus/car but there are some low cost companies that serve the Plovdiv airport from some European countries.

There are 3 busstations. The main one is the Yug station, opposed to the train station. You can go to Sofia (duration 2 and a half hour, leaves hourly, costs: 7 lv), Varna (6 hours duration, leaves three times a day, cost 12 lv) Veliko Tarnovo (duration four hours, leaves three imes daily, costs 9 lv) and Karlovo (for Koprivshita: leaves hourly, duration is two hours and costs 3 lv). From Rodopi bus station (accessible trough the underpass at the train station) there are Busses to Karlovo (4 busses each day) and Bachkovo. At the sever bus station (accessible best by taxi, its in the suburbs) a bus at 4.30 p, goes to Koprivshtitsa. Finally, there is The “Express Transport” Private Association at Botev Blvd 45 which is specialized in express bus transport services to and from Sofia. To Istanbul you pay 40 lv for the bus at the Yug Station

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Plovdiv has three separate bus stations each handling buses to and from different parts of the country.

The main central bus terminus is the "Avtogara Yug" (South) which is across the road from the central railway station. This is where services to and from Sofia and the south of the country arrive and depart. The buses depart from well-signposted bays and you can get one of the cheapest coffees in town (50c) from the cafe here. The ticket office is adjacent to the departure area where you can buy tickets for all destinations and companies.

The other main bus station is the "Avtogara Sever" (North). This is a bit out of town, across the river, and can be reached by either local bus #21 or by taxi. I found this one a bit confusing as the bus station itself is set back from the main road and isn't particularly well signposted - it's through the building marked "APTEKA" (Pharmacy!). At the front of this there is what appears to be a bus station but this is just a parking and setting down area. Once you realise where it is it's once again organisedly laid out with the ticket office next to the departure lounge and the buses depart from clearly marked bays.

The third terminus is the "Avtogara Rhodopi" which is behind the main railway station and accessible from it (and the main Hristo Botev Blvd) through the pedestrian underpass. This deals with buses from the Rhodope Mountains and other smaller destinations. I haven't used this one but it too seems well-organised.