Pancharevo Lake Sofia

The watery neighbour

Simo from Sofia

""Pancharevo Lake" in Sofia is just 10km outside the city. You can rent your own kayak, boat, or pedalo there. In any case, it's perfect for a nice weekend!"

A thing you may haven't thought of about Sofia is it's quite an 'aqueous' city. There are a few rivers crossing through, lots of underground waters, and as much as 75 mineral springs around the region.

And having that said, now you expect a city beach. Well, you are rather wrong. Although there are a few lakes in the suburbs, e.g. Lake Druzhba, Lake Kazichane, they are certainly not suitable for swimming.

Nevertheless, you can enjoy various other activities, especially at Lake Pancharevo. It is located out of town, but it's only some 10km away and there's public transportation (buses 3, 4). The bus has about 5 stops by the lake shore, and where to get off depends on what you feel like doing.

Pancharevo lake is oblong and surrounded by wooded hills, and while its western side is rather urbanized, the eastern one offers a wonderful walking path, stretching along the north-to-southernmost lake ends. It's a 40-something-minute walk and has a panoramic view point.

Other than that, you can rent (or bring your own) kayak, boat or pedalo at the Rowing base /'Grebna baza' stop/. Looking for something more relaxing? Here you get the Korali swimming pool with warm mineral water /'Banyata' stop/. Or you could just go for a barbecue at the lawns on the South bank /'Plazha' stop/. There are also quite a few restaurants in Pancharevo village which are in fact not bad at all.

Just go and have a nice weekend by the Lake Pancharevo!

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Sofia Spotter Simo

About me So here's a brief guide of what we need to mix up: 1. piston - from the motorcycle roar burning through my veins; 2. capacitor - take it from my microelectronics engineer degree; 3. turf - should be on the soles of my football boots; 4. vodka bottle cap - rolling somewhere on the floor of the disco we went to last night; 5. pine needle - plenty of them if you take a walk at Vitosha mountain; 6. sand - in my pockets still full from Sozopol's beach; 7. guitar string - from the hardcore bands that I headbang to; 8. piece of paper - fe...

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Dec 11, 2025

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