Sofia Car Hire: Compare Cheap Rental Deals
Compare cars from local Sofia suppliers, book in a few minutes, pay at pickup.
210 cars from independent Sofia suppliers, from 12 EUR a day. Automatic and manual in every class, most with free cancellation, collected at the airport or in the city.
One scale, every car
Every bar is drawn to the same scale, so a longer bar always means a dearer car. Insurance and deposit terms are confirmed with the operator before you pay.
What a car actually costs in Sofia
These are the four bands the Sofia fleet really splits into, counted from the cars listed on this site rather than from a brochure. The middle column is what the cheapest car in that band costs per day; the one after it is the median, which is the more honest number to plan around, because the very cheapest car in any band is usually the oldest one and the first to go.
| Class | Cars listed | Cheapest per day | Median per day | Typical models |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economy and compact | 87 | from 12 EUR | 30 EUR | Kia Rio, Renault Clio, Opel Astra |
| Crossover and SUV | 25 | from 19 EUR | 54 EUR | Dacia Duster, Nissan Qashqai, VW Tiguan |
| Seven seats and up | 26 | from 41 EUR | 100 EUR | VW Touran, VW Sharan, Mercedes Vito |
| Premium and executive | 81 | from 47 EUR | 169 EUR | BMW X4, Audi Q5, Mercedes C-Class |
Two numbers worth knowing before you filter: 123 of the cars listed are automatic and 87 are manual, so unlike much of southern Europe you are not paying a scarcity premium for the second pedal here. And 153 come with unlimited kilometres, which matters more in Sofia than in a beach city, because the trips people actually take from here are 100 km and up.
Six roads that explain why people rent here
Sofia is not a city you need a car inside. The metro is quick and the centre is walkable. Almost everyone who books a car here books it to leave, and these are the six places they leave for.
Vitosha, Aleko
22 kmabout 40 minutes of switchbacks straight out of the southern suburbs. The closest real mountain road to any European capital.
Iskar Gorge
30 kmthe road north follows the river through limestone cliffs and half-abandoned rail halts. Slow, narrow, worth every minute.
Borovets
70 kmthe ski road up the Rila range. Cleared in winter, but the last 12 km climb hard.
Rila Monastery
120 kmthe single most visited place in Bulgaria and still a two-hour drive that no bus timetable makes pleasant.
Plovdiv
145 kmflat motorway east on the A1. Under two hours door to door, and the reason a lot of Sofia rentals are booked at all.
Bansko
160 kmsouth through the Struma valley. The long one, and the only route here where winter tyres are not optional.
Four things about driving here that catch people out
The vignette is already on the windscreen
Bulgaria charges for its national roads through an electronic vignette tied to the number plate, not a toll booth you stop at. Rental cars are supplied with a valid one, so there is nothing to buy and nothing to stick on. It is worth knowing only so you do not pull over at the first border-style gantry looking for somewhere to pay.
Winter tyres are the law, not a suggestion
From 15 November to 1 March every car on Bulgarian roads needs appropriate winter tyres. Suppliers here handle it as a matter of course, but if you are collecting in that window and heading for Borovets or Bansko, it is a reasonable thing to confirm at the desk rather than discover on a climb.
Headlights stay on all year
Dipped headlights are required at all times, in July at midday as much as in December. Most modern cars do it automatically. If yours has a manual switch, turn it before you leave the car park, because it is one of the few things here that is routinely enforced.
The centre is a paid parking zone
Central Sofia is divided into paid zones, charged by SMS or app during working hours and free in the evenings and on Sundays. If your hotel is inside the ring, ask whether it has its own space before you book, because street parking there is a daily cost rather than a one-off inconvenience.
What you are actually booking through
Sofia Car Hire Info is a comparison front end, not a rental company. The cars on this page come from independent operators based in and around Sofia, and the agreement you sign at pickup is with whichever of them you choose. We do not hold your money, we do not own a fleet, and we have no reason to push you towards one supplier over another.
That structure is the reason the prices look the way they do. An international brand at an airport counter is pricing a car it may never see again, through a franchise that has to fund the desk, the signage and the shuttle. A Sofia operator with sixty cars is pricing a car it will service itself next week. The second number is usually smaller, and the difference is largest on exactly the long bookings that a trip to Plovdiv or the Rila mountains implies.
The trade is that you are dealing with a smaller business. Read what each listing says about fuel policy, mileage and the excess before you commit, because those terms genuinely vary between suppliers here rather than being set centrally. Everything relevant is on the card before you book, and 139 of the cars listed can be cancelled free of charge if your plans move.
Pick your dates, see the real list
Prices and availability in Sofia move with the season and with how far ahead you are looking. The list above is live, so the fastest way to know what your week costs is to put the dates in.
Questions people ask before booking
Honestly, no. The metro reaches the airport and most of the centre, and the old town is small enough to walk. A car earns its place the moment you want to be somewhere the buses do not sensibly go, which in practice means the mountains, Rila, Plovdiv or the Iskar Gorge. A lot of visitors book from the second day rather than the first for exactly that reason.
No, and that is unusual for the region. Of the 210 cars listed for Sofia, 123 are automatic, so the choice is roughly even and you are not paying a scarcity premium. Automatics start at 14 EUR a day against 12 EUR for the cheapest manual.
A national licence in Latin script is accepted for short visits from the EU, the UK and most European countries. If your licence is in Cyrillic, Arabic or another non-Latin script, bring an International Driving Permit alongside it. Suppliers also want the passport of the main driver and a card in that same driver's name at pickup.
Sometimes, never automatically. Cross-border travel needs the supplier's written permission and usually a green card and an extra fee, and some operators refuse certain neighbours outright. Ask before you book rather than at the desk, because it is the one thing that cannot be arranged on the morning you leave.
The fleet is large enough that midweek in spring or autumn you can be casual. Ski season and the summer road-trip weeks are different: the cheap end of each class goes first, and what is left in August is not the 12 EUR car. If your dates are fixed, booking early costs nothing when the reservation is free to cancel.