Greetings,

I am planning on travelling solo in Bulgaria for two weeks starting in mid-May.
My route is Sofia - Plovdiv - Veliko Turnova - Sozopol - Varna - Bucharest.
I'm currently booking accommodations but am having trouble finding advance online bus ticket bookings.
Am I just booking too early or is it just as easy to get tickets on the ground upon arrival?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks and Safe Journeys!

No locals would book so long ahead, if even!
Is Sozopol a must? AFAIK it's rather a beach destination.

To get from Plovdiv to Veliko Tarnova we booked a bus reservation 24 hours in advance. The bus turned out to be a mini bus with so little space between the seats that I had to sit as an angle to stretch into the narrow aisle. The bus stop in Veliko is in the middle of nowhere, but there are taxis waiting for the bus to take passengers to the middle of town. I am not sure that there is a bus service between Bulgaria and Romania. We took the train from a station close to Veliko to go to Bucharest.


Here's the trip report which includes our travels in Bulgaria.

Trip Report: Bulgaria, Romania, the Danube, Hungary, Spring 2016

For a better idea of what we saw, here's the photo album:

https://flic.kr/s/aHskxVhY8m

Thanks for this information.

There are buses and trains between Plovdiv and Veliko Tarnovo.
But I suppose the OP checked the bus timetables before posting.

In my opinion the route is very representative of the country. On the other hand, Bulgaria is the perfect place to travel a little more relaxed, without the need to reserve anything in advance (even accommodation).

At some point I will be driving from Romania into Bulgaria, looking to stop in or near Ivanovo. Do you think I can just show up somewhere? What if I am interested in a place that also serves meals? Might I need to alert them in advance?

Thanks!

In my experience it is not necessary to reserve. In fact, if you have internet, you can quickly search for somewhere to sleep on Booking and the hotel itself will be able to tell you where to eat something.