3 Reasons to Visit Bulgaria as a Digital Nomad

The “new normal” of work has posed great dilemmas before the hordes of young, creative and often quite entrepreneurial online workers worldwide, namely… Where to?

While digital nomad hubs first sprung out like mushrooms after a summer shower in exotic places like Bali, Indonesia; Chiang Mai, Thailand; Buenos Aires, Argentina and Canary Islands, Spain. Few of those hot spots are within the European continent, let alone the European Union, with all its benefits and disadvantages of course. 

Bulgaria, situated at the very edge of Europe (AKA The civilised world) seems to quickly but silently be making its way up to the chart of top preferred places for digital nomads. Here are just three of the many reasons why this overlooked piece of paradise is a great place to put on your work and travel map.    

Awesome internet connection

Bulgaria is among the countries with the fastest, most reliable and accessible internet worldwide. Its network was extensively built during the new millennium and is maintained and upgraded to accommodate 5G even on mobile networks. There is a wide choice of small, more flexible local providers alongside the telecoms and you can have great mobile and fixed internet for as low as 12-13 Euro per month. Here is a reference to COCO Coworking Space’s internet speed test and mind you that this is the lowest pack this provider has. 

Safe and secure environment

Long past are the times when there were incidents of bad things happening to good people on the streets of larger cities in Bulgaria. Today the entire country is quite peaceful and is home to many expats from the UK, the US, France, Germany, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, India living here for various periods. The many groups for shared travel, hitch-hikers, wild campers and couchsurfers scouting the country looking for adventure are living proof that the country is safe to roam. This is not to say that if you are not careful in the high traffic places you may not get your wallet picked, but chances are you will find it in the dust bins nearby or in case someone finds it in the local police station or you may even get a call by a savyor (true story). 

High quality of life for reasonable living costs

The great thing about developing economies is that they usually have lower costs of living. Bulgaria is often classified as one of the poorest countries in the EU in terms of per capita income. It is another conversation whether this is the most important criterion to judge by, but it is a fact that in Bulgaria you can buy many things between two and ten times cheaper than in most Western European countries. Long-term rentals in the capital Sofia vary between 500 and 700 Euro per month, utilities easily fit within 50-80 Euro per person and prices in food shops are similar to most countries in the EU but are in BGN, which makes a difference. You can go cheap and find pretty good deals, but the quality you will get in local restaurants, small shops and farmer markets is definitely higher than the price you would pay.     

If you are still not convinced you can check out this video on The Best Places for Digital Nomads to Live, giving details on why Bulgaria ranks high among the preferred destinations worldwide.