TRAVEL TO RILA MONASTERY AND PLOVDIV - The experience has been very good, excellent behavior of our Guide. A little long journey but worth it We will repeat

Day trip with Ognyan - We had a great day with Ognyan exploring the Rila monastery and the town of Plovdiv. Would highly recommend to anyone staying in Sofia and looking to visit other sites outside the city. Our guide was friendly and well informed and the trip was well worth the money.

Amazing - Both tours were great, just one thing about the toilets in the monastery- NO toilet papers. Amazing monastery church though NO electricity @ the time of visit so it was very dark!

Wonderful Tour - I had a wonderful day with my tour guide visiting great places of interest. My Guide was friendly, kind and knowledgeable. This tour combines historic and beautiful Rila Monastery and Provdiv in one day, ideal if you have only a short time in Sofia. I would definitely recommend this tour.

Enjoyable packed tour of Bulgaria and its gems - The tour covers a lot of Bulgaria for one day, If you are in rush and want to see a lot, but are short of time, then this is for you. You will be seating in a car for long, but that could be a plus if you have good companions and tour guide and then could enjoy the chat and nice scenery of Bulgaria. Recommend it.

Very nice day - We planed to spend one more day in sophia but we took the advice to see the country side and we are glad that we did. It was a lovely day. The monstry is beautiful, realy we didnt axpected to what was sudenely appeared to us after climbing in a rainy day with the car on a rainy cludy day. Tony the driver is realy nice, though driving a litle bit fast but he knows every stone on the roads I guess. Flovidiv was a surprise. We arrived exactly when the tour began and Adi the guide was wonderful. A place to come again. I didnt care about the long drive, because I used it to sleep part of the way. it was worth driving a lot to see 2 places we didnt have a chance to see in a weekend trip to Bulgaria.

Trustworthy and reliable! - Prompt and friendly replies. An easy-going, nice driver, arriving exactly at time. To make things clear, it is more of a transportation we are talking about, covering two attractions in one day. In Plovdiv, u will be joining a free walking tour with volunteers. After paying this company for the tour I was not at all willing to pay even to the guide(s) of the free walking tour. I sincerely hope that Smart Trans does sponsor them. Otherwise, it would be unfair. To summarize, if you are on time-management, Smart Trans is indeed a reliable and trustworthy choice. Provided they contribute towards the free walking tour. Both Rila Monastery and Plovdiv are beautiful and ought not be missed if you are in Sofia.

Beautiful sites worth visiting from Sofia, but this tour was not entirely as described on the site - Both locations were beautiful, interesting, and worth visiting from Sofia. However, the description on the website is not quite what we received. First, we were not picked up from our hotel like described. Nor did the van have WIFI despite the description saying its included. Neither were dealbreakers; the meetup location wasn't far from our hotel and the van was comfortable overall. We started by going to Plovdiv and had done our research about the distances/times from Sofia, so no issues there. However, once we got there, instead of being taken on a small, 6 person tour, we were delivered to the Free Walking Tours of Plovdiv. The free guide was great for the 2.5 hour tour, but it was a large group and not what we were expecting. We returned to the meetup location, picked up 2 more guests, and went to Rila Monastery. Again, no surprises for the distances/times, though the return to Sofia definitely added unnecessary time to the already driving-heavy tour overall. Upon arrival to the monastery, we were given about 3 sentences of information about the site then sent on our own to explore for 45 minutes. Any information learned was from Googling it ourselves or paying extra for the small museum. Overall, the fees went to gas and transportation, which would've been fine if we understood what we were getting in the first place. I believe there are cheaper shuttles for both locations available from other companies.

Very disappointed - we weren't satisfied with the tour since the driver was running like crazy and we didn't feel safe at a certain point. The program was supposed to be a 1h visit at Rila, instead we had barely 20 minutes. No lunch break whatsover. In Plovdiv, we were rushed to join a free tour. The visit to the town was supposed to ast 2.30h but it ended after 1.30h. The driver was nice enough to allow us necessary breaks (wc and a hot drink in plovdiv) . The locations themselves are simply beautiful and definitely worth a visit but i would recommend a whole day in Plovdiv since there are so many beautiful things to see and a separate visit to the gorgeous Rila Monastery.

Rila monastery and Plovdiv - It's impossible to see both places in one day, not recommend. The driver vas driving to fast for my taste , no lunch brake to. 30 minutes in the monastery and 45min. In Plovdiv isn't close to enough... very disappointed.