Rila Monastery Nature Park Management Plan - part - usaid

February 2004
Hiking and mountain climbing
Hiking is the most common form of high-mountain tourism in Rila Monastery Nature
Park. The Monastery itself is a preferred starting point or final destination for
individual and group outings as well as longer (several days-long) treks across Rila
Mountain. Organized high-mountain treks across the Park territory are offered by
Bulgarian tour operators as part of the standard tourist packages. Typically, groups
number 12 to 20 members; the preferred season is May through July. The number of
such groups has declined since the Kosovo crisis, rarely exceeding five annually.
Since 1990, the territory of today’s Nature Park has been used as a destination by
various organized groups, mostly foreigners, of practitioners of different forms of
alternative or specialized tourism: bird and butterfly watchers, botanical routes, etc.
Such groups are usually made up of 12-14 members each, and their total number
rarely exceeds 10 per year. The trips are organized by private tour operators, both
Bulgarian and foreign (Odyssey Inn, Explorer 2000, Neophron PLC, and others).
Such trips, which are usually highly specialized, are led by highly trained,
multilingual tour guides with in-depth knowledge of the subject-matter of the trip.
Specialized tourist groups use preferably the valley of the Rilska River, mostly the
section between Rila Monastery and Tiha Rila. (Possible specialized tourism routes
are described in Appendix 30.)
The territory of RMNP has traditionally been used for sports events and mountainclimbing
practices. Before 2001, individual climbers used the vertical rock face and
cliffs northwest of Kirilova Poluyana (Zliya Zab); in recent years, this practice has
stopped.
Special events
Once a year, in the simmer, the territory of RMNP becomes the venue for a vintagecar
race involving between 15 and 20 automobiles. Participants arrive with their cars
from Sofia, spend the night at Kirilova Polyana and return to Sofia on the next day
following the same route.
There is an initiative for carrying out an annual summer bikers’ festival in the
Gorchim locality, which has taken place two years in a row.
Tourism services
Tourist trails/routes
Listed below are the main tourist routes established in the territory of Rila Monastery
Nature Park:
1. Rila Monastery-via Kalugerski Dol-Boucher-Ivan Vazov Chalet;
2. Rila Monastery-Kirilova Polyana- Dry Lake - Kobilino Branishte;
3. Kirilova Polyana-Tiha Rila-Ribni Ezera Chalet;
4. Ribni Ezera Chalet-Granchar Chalet;
5. Ribni Ezera Chalet- Macedonia Chalet (E-4);
6. Ribni Ezera Chalet-Marinkovitza-Kobilino Branishte-Malyovitza Chalet;
7. Brichebor-via Radovichka River-Macedonia Chalet;
8. Pastra village-Kalin Dam;
9. Tiha Rila-Stinky Lake-Ribni Ezera Chalet.
Rila Monastery Nature Park
Management Plan - draft
2004 - 2013
101