Bulgaria Tourist Scams: Restaurant Bills, Taxis and Cards

All prices are in euro: Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026. Taxi tariffs, authority phone numbers and our transfer price were checked on 27 October 2026. This guide is about scams; taxi fares and the airport run get one paragraph and a link to the guide that covers them in full.

Common scams in Bulgaria at a glance

Restaurant bills in Bulgaria: what to check before you pay

Most restaurant bills in Bulgaria are simple, fair and cheaper than at home. The problems cluster in very touristy spots, and almost always in the same three places.

Priced per 100 g: the question that saves the surprise

Some menus price steak, fish and seafood per 100 g, so the number looks small. In 2023 a diner in Varna ordered three steaks listed at 35 leva per 100 g and was charged 490 leva, about €250, for them. The head of the Commission for Consumer Protection told reporters at the time that per 100 g pricing is not acceptable except in unusual cases such as live fish, and that the price should be given for the exact weight of the portion. That is one case, not a rule you can rely on, and menus priced per 100 g still exist. In practice: before you order, ask what the portion on your plate will weigh and what it will cost in total, and ask the waiter to write the figure down.

Bread, dips and things you did not order

If a bread basket, olives or a bottle of water arrives unasked, just ask whether it is charged, and send it back if you do not want it. Also check your change: since 1 February 2026 the lev is no longer legal tender, so change handed back in leva notes is money you cannot spend anywhere.

A real receipt: what it looks like and how to check it

A fiscal receipt in Bulgaria comes from a registered till, carries a QR code and usually ends with the words ФИСКАЛЕН БОН. A handwritten note or a kitchen order slip is not a receipt. According to the National Revenue Agency, a customer who is not given a receipt may hold back payment until they get one, and the QR code can be scanned in the agency's NRA Mobile app to confirm the receipt is genuine. Without a receipt you also have nothing to complain with later.

And the tip?

Tipping is voluntary and usually not included, but glance at the bill for a service charge before adding one.

Bars and clubs at night: avoiding a padded bill

Most nights out in Sofia and the resorts end without any drama. The bad bills nearly always follow the same script: someone on the street invites you to "a better place", or women join your table and order drinks on your tab. The UK Foreign Office warns that tourists have been heavily overcharged in so-called gentlemen's clubs in Sofia, and sometimes threatened when they refused to pay. Three rules: do not follow street promoters, ask for a priced menu before the first round, and pay round by round instead of running a tab on your card. Planning a group weekend? Our stag do guide to Sofia has an evening plan with reserved tables.

Card and ATM fraud in Bulgaria

The US State Department lists ATM skimming and credit card fraud among the most common threats to US citizens in Bulgaria. A few habits close most of the gaps:

• Keep your card in sight. In a restaurant, ask for the terminal at the table, or walk to the till.
• Enter your PIN once. The UK Foreign Office advises caution if you are asked to re-enter it.
• Withdraw cash from a bank ATM, ideally inside a branch or a mall, in daylight, and cover the keypad. Do not accept "help" from a stranger at the machine.
• Switch on instant transaction alerts in your banking app, so an odd charge shows up the same evening, not on next month's statement.

When an ATM or card terminal offers to charge you in your home currency, decline and pay in euro: the conversion it offers is almost always worse than your bank's rate.

Taxis in Sofia: how to tell an inflated fare in a second

Fares, apps and every way from the airport into town are covered in our Sofia airport transfer guide. Here is just the quick check. Sofia's city council sets a maximum price per kilometre, and from 1 January 2026 it is €1.24 by day and €1.52 at night. The tariff is printed on a sticker in the taxi window; if it is higher, do not get in. Example: a 10 km daytime ride costs at most €12.40 for the distance at the cap, and about €9 at the tariff of OK Supertrans, one of the city's big companies (€1.50 flag fall plus €0.75 per km). A driver asking €40 for that ride is simply trying it on. The cap is indexed every January, so expect slightly higher figures in 2027.

There is no Uber in Bulgaria, and Bolt does not offer rides in Sofia. If you would rather skip the meter and the haggling after landing, you can book a private transfer from Sofia Airport to the city centre in advance, from €30 per car for up to 4 passengers, at a fixed price you know before you set off. It is not the cheapest option, a metered taxi costs less, but there are no surprises. You pay 20% online and the rest in cash to the driver at the end of the ride. Journey time and other details are on the airport to city centre transfer page.

A "police officer" wants a cash fine? How to check

It is not a common scenario in Bulgaria, but the trick is known from other European countries: someone in uniform, or in plain clothes flashing a badge, stops you and asks to inspect your wallet, or wants a fine paid in cash on the spot. Simple rules:

• Never hand your wallet, card or PIN to anyone on the street.
• Bulgarian traffic police collect on the spot fines by card, on a terminal in the patrol car, and you get a written document for them. A demand for cash in hand with no paperwork is a reason to stop and check.
• Ask for ID, and if anything feels off, offer to continue at the nearest police station.
• When in doubt, call 112. Bulgarian police also warn about people impersonating officers on the phone, and the rule is the same: never give money or bank details to someone you do not know, whoever they say they are.

Distraction thefts: cars, petrol stations and buses

The UK Foreign Office describes a few scripts that repeat in Bulgaria. On the road, someone punctures your tyre or flags you down, and while you get out to look, an accomplice takes a bag from the seat. At petrol stations, thefts from unattended cars while the driver goes in to pay have increased, as have thefts on the bus from Nessebar to Sunny Beach, and there are regular reports of robberies and threatening behaviour by taxi drivers in Sunny Beach. So: lock the car even for two minutes at the pump, keep bags off the seats, and only stop to check a tyre somewhere busy and well lit. On crowded transport keep your bag in front and your phone out of your back pocket. In Sunny Beach use an official taxi; more on the resort in our Sunny Beach guide. Hiring a car? The rental desk tricks, from the scratch that was never there to the deposit, are in our car rental guide for Bulgaria.

Booking a flat or hotel in Bulgaria without getting scammed

The most expensive scam sometimes happens before you even fly. Two scripts recur:

• A flat or guesthouse that does not exist: an advert on a classifieds site or social media, an unusually low price, photos lifted from another property, and a request for a deposit by bank transfer. A host who will not give the exact address and promises to "send the location later" is another red flag.
• A message inside a booking app, with your correct name and dates, asking you to "re-confirm your card details" or pay through a link. Sometimes it comes from a genuine hotel account that has been hijacked. Booking.com states on its safety page that it never asks for card details by email, phone, text or WhatsApp, and never asks for a bank transfer that differs from the payment policy in your confirmation.

What to do: pay only through the site you booked on, by the method in your confirmation. Never pay through a link in a message; open the app yourself instead. If in doubt, call the property on a number you found yourself, and confirm the address and booking the day before you arrive. It works the same way with us: when you book on our site you pay 20% of the price online and the rest in cash to the host after the service. The amount due to the host is shown before you pay and again in the confirmation email, and under our terms no separate payment or booking is arranged outside the platform.

Scammed in Bulgaria? What to do and who to call

First, on the spot: do not get into a shouting match, and never leave your passport as a "guarantee". Ask for an itemised bill and a receipt, photograph the menu, the bill and the taxi's tariff sticker, and keep every message. Then call according to what happened:

After a theft, ask the police for a copy of your report, because your travel insurer will not pay without it. Lost passport, a doctor, a cancelled flight: the next steps are in our guide to what to do when something goes wrong in Bulgaria.