Along the Vladaya River 2025

The day on Vitosha today was very hot and very sunny, with a lot of humidity in the air - the summer is coming! For this week's hike we chose a light circular trail to Zlatnite mostove. 

We started from a point along the low altitude circuit on Vitosha, called The Quiet Place. The first part of the trail gradually brought us at the outskirts of the village of Vladaya.

The trail from Vladaya to Zlatnite mostove was definitely the most beautiful part of the hike, as it runs along the picturesque Vladaya river.

Hike info:

Date: 07 June 2025

Destination: Zlatnite Mostove

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 10.5 km

Elevation gain: 490 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 3 hours

Average difficulty: 3 / 10

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Burda cargo pants

I: lingerie, Burda raglan blouse, Burda colored jeans 6534

For our picnic this time we decided only to pass through Zlatnite mostove and to stop for a snack at a picnic place along the alternative trail back to the car. Despite the lack of panorama views and high peaks, our forest hike was very pleasant and energizing.

The Quiet Place, Vladaya, 2024

Although we've been living in Sofia for decades and hiking Vitosha for years, there are still places we haven't visited and trails we haven't explored. 

Today we continued with our experiments with another circular trail on Vitosha, that we concocted ourselves, based on the map. The trail included some tracks, that we've hiked before, as well as connecting parts, that were new to us, so the entire experience was that of exploration and adventure.

We started from a place, called the Quiet Place (Tihiya kut), where we left the car and took the trail to Vladaya. We've hiked the path from Vladaya to Zlatnite mostove and back several times, but driving to the village of Vladaya is a hassle in Sofia's traffic and we had been avoiding it for years. And it turned out we could drive some 20 min from home into the mountain, leave the car at the Quiet Place and reach Vladaya in only some 30-40 minuted along a path through Vitosha.

The entire trail from the Quiet Place, through Vladaya to Zlatnite mostove was fairy-tale beautiful, green and flowery.

Hike info:

Date: 25 May 2024

Destination: Zlatnite Mostove

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 10.8 km

Elevation gain: 490 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 3 hours

Average difficulty: 3 / 10

The trail from the village of Vladaya to Zlatnite is probably one of the most picturesque on Vitosha, as it runs along the beautiful Vladaya river. I couldn't stop taking pictures of the river all the way. The beauty of the place makes up for the altitude gain, which is not at all negligible - approx. 500 m over less than 5 km.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Shkatulka raglan blouse

I: lingerie, Sabrina Slims II, Burda Hoodie

One of my favourite places along the path - the so-called market place. There were information boards there with very interesting data about the history of this place, related to the Ottoman rule, gold mining and forest bandits / freedom fighters :)

We had our lunch on the meadow near Zlatnite mostove and headed back to our car along the alternative trail in the direction of  Knyazevo.

A rocky macaron :) along the way down

Frozen

For our, probably, last hike for the year we chose the quiet and fairly easy trail from the village of Vladaya to the Golden Bridges place on Vitosha. The day was windless and warm for winter, with temperatures just above zero (C). The place was empty, with just a couple of people beside us venturing a walk in the open on Christmas day. It hasn't snowed recently and the snow on the path was well-trodden. There were a few iced and frozen sections that were really impossibly slippery and difficult to pass, but as a whole a very easy and refreshing hike.

The Vladaya river was covered with ice and it was amazing to watch the water flow under its icy lid.

This is the low part of the mountain, the trees are mainly deciduous and without the leaves and the grass the place looked monochrome, it's hard to tell that these are actually color photographs :)

A patch of color - viburnum tree

The Golden Bridges - we had a quick snack in the open and headed back. I'm so glad we had this refreshing hike among all the holiday shopping, cooking and eating.

Vladaya Autumn 2015

Just a few pics from our Sunday hike on Vitosha in the area of the village of Vladaya. The weather was sunny and the forest was at its autumnal best. We decided to use the GPS and make our own circular track, making the hike interesting and a bit adventurous. Marvelous hike.