Driving from Greece into Bulgaria today is as easy as driving to the supermarket but it wasn’t always like this.
In this video I’ll go over my experiences of driving into Bulgaria for the first time in 2006, how it’s changed over the years and what it is like today in April 2025.
Where is the border?
Greece and Bulgaria are located at the foot of the Balkan peninsula and are sandwiched between Turkey & the Adriatic sea and Italy.
The border between Bulgaria and Greece is roughly formed by the Rhodope mountains and the border crossing I’m talking about today is the Promachonas-Kulata crossing. There are others but this is the only one I have used.
Bit of History
Greece joined the EC in 1981 and the Schengen area in 2000, Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007 but only became part of Schengen in January 2025.
My First Time
The first time I crossed the border was in the depths of winter 2006 to go skiing in Bansko. We left Thessaloniki very early and the sun was only just starting to rise as we got to end of the dual carriageway around Sidirokastro. From here it was a two lane “national road”, nothing remarkable but then we got to Loutra, the quality of the road took a major turn for the worse.
Driving up the battered valley on the disintegrating road towards to the border it felt we had already left Greece. That we had entered a region governments had forgotten about, that we were driving to the end of the world. We’d occasionally see a car.
Eventually we we got to the border and the waiting started.
I don’t remember how long we were there waiting at the Greek border but I want to say easily an hour. It was all new to me so I wasn’t complaining. And after passing the Greek border we had to immediately queue again for the Bulgarian border and I want to say we were there for another hour or two. It was a major bureaucratic process.
Waiting to cross the Bulgarian border meant we were about to leave to the EU for a previously communist country, we were entering a country that used to be behind the Iron Curtain, a legit Warsaw Pact member. I couldn’t wait to get in to see if the stereotypes were true.
Border Paperwork
But before that there was paperwork to be done.
I’d driven up to the border in the Primera I’d driven from Britain (not on the same day). When I left Britain for Greece I had no intention of going to Bulgaria, I didn’t even know Bulgaria shared a border with Greece until a few days before we went. So no research or preparation. We just rolled up.
I can’t claim I was the international man of mystery and that I knew what was happening. I’d gone up with friends and one of them dealt with all the technicals. He’d leave the car to speak to the Bulgarian border officer and come back now and again to ask me questions. With what seemed like tens of other people doing the same thing. There was as many people walking around the cars as cars. A bit of confusion with what was needed but a bit of back and forth and we got through.
Passing the Iron Curtain
And as we entered Bulgaria proper at Kulata it was exactly what I imagined an eastern block country would be. Like stepping back in time thirty years. The road was absolutely tiny for thee main international land border between Greece and Bulgaria, like a farm track made from crumbling asphalt and the first thing you had to do was drive through the small village of Kulata. Some houses had windows, some didn’t. Double glazing was nowhere to be seen. It was bleak. And it stayed that way until we got to Bansko.
Next Years
When Bulgaria joined the EU things improved, it was no longer the adventure it had been. The biggest change was only having to wait at the Greek border. Sure you still had to speak to a Greek border guard and a Bulgarian border guard but they were sat next to each other, no need to queue for both.
When you drove across the no man’s land between the two countries there was no queue anymore. When you came up to the old Bulgarian border point there were still border guards there. Occasionally they would stop you to check the vehicle, look inside the car, open the boot etc but most of the time you would just drive through.
For a few years you’d still have to take that hard right into Kulata on the Bulgarian side but eventually the motorway opened and this part of the adventure was also lost, although you can still drive the same route today if you want.
Still Queues
That’s not to say there weren’t queues with checks just on the Greek side.
Rolling up at first light was the way to go. If I could get there before sun up there’d only be a car or two in front of me. Arriving at 10am or later there could be a dozen and that meant you could be there for thirty minutes or more.
Trucks
I can’t say things improved much for the trucks after Bulgaria joined for the EU. It was still common to see two or three kilometers of trucks queuing for the border on both sides. The worst I’d seen was a year when the Greek farmers were protesting. Bulgaria closed their border completely in protest of the Greek police not doing anything to keep the border clear (at least that’s my recollection of the situation). The border had been closed for trucks, I think for a couple of days by the time I went. The queue of trucks went for over twenty kilometers. Super impressive to see it, not so if you were in it. Obviously.
Returning
During this time 2007-2024, coming back into Greece was the same deal as leaving.
Except when I’d be returning it was late morning. A thirty minute or hour queue in the winter. In the summer on a Friday, I might have been there for two hours or more. I don’t recall the border ever having more than two lanes open and even then you had to force the issue to get that second lane open.
Bus Lane
I’d rock up and there would be one long long lane of cars. And the lane for buses would be empty. Many times I’d be the first one to attempt to bypass the queue, getting ahead for twenty or thirty cars. I’d head towards the empty lane for buses “only”. I’d do this very slowly hoping that some cars would follow me down. It would be harder for the idle border guards to tell me to go back into the queue if there was another 5 cars coming behind me. I think most of the time it worked. Some times it didn’t.
You can imagine how much sympathy there was for me at the front of the queue after I’d just tried to be the smartest guy in the room and bypass the whole thing…..
So even with Bulgaria in the EU, the border was still something that could take time, something you had to set aside an hour or two of waiting for. Another plus was paperwork, Bulgaria was covered under EU insurance policies then and a UK driving license was less of a problem.
Today
And then we come on to today. On the first of January 2025 there is apparently no more checks at the border. This is the first I come through the border with no checks so we can see what it’s like together.