Trakia motorway near Nova Zagora, a wide dual carriageway through fields with a slip road to the right. — Trakia, near Nova Zagora. The plain is flat, and this is the main summer road toward Burgas.Trakia motorway near Nova Zagora. Photo: Bikerboy-93, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized and compressed.

tolbg · Sofia

Roads in Bulgaria, one corridor at a time.

Notes for a car, a motorcycle or a heavy vehicle. Planning material only: not a permit, a payment page or a public notice.

Six motorways. Not all of them are finished.

An A number is a name, not a promise of continuous asphalt. The network guide has the gaps.

A1TrakiaSofia to Burgas, about 360 km, in service since 2013. The busy summer road to the coast. A2HemusSofia toward Varna. Still interrupted. Part of the trip uses ordinary national roads. A3StrumaSofia toward Kulata and Greece. The Kresna gorge is the slow section. A4MaritsaFrom Trakia to Kapitan Andreevo and Türkiye, about 117 km, open since 2015. A5Cherno MoreThe planned Black Sea motorway. The Varna–Burgas trip is still mostly road I-9. A6EuropeKalotina to Sofia, about 63 km, reported in service in September 2025. The border queue is a separate wait.

The library

Every page, with dates

Motorway networkWhere Trakia, Hemus, Struma, Maritsa, the Black Sea road and Europe actually run. Vignette or distance tollThe dividing line is 3.5 tonnes. A car and a lorry are not in the same system. Driving a carRight-hand traffic, documents, and the habit of keeping right. Motorcycle roadsLower default limits, mountain roads, and the vignette question. Freight corridorsTürkiye, Greece, Serbia, Romania, and the Sofia ring. Winter and passes15 November to 1 March, and the passes that close earlier than the date. Speed and signs50, 90, 120, 140 for a category B car. Other vehicles are lower. The sign wins. Border crossingsKapitan Andreevo, Kalotina, Kulata, and the Danube bridges.

Struma motorway curving through hills north of Sofia, with snow on the ridge beyond. — Struma north of Sofia. The photograph is from 2009; the gorge farther south is still the piece people notice.Struma motorway north of Sofia, photographed in 2009. Photo: Apostoloff, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized and compressed.

Start with the vehicle, then the road

A passenger car up to 3.5 tonnes pays a time-based electronic vignette to use the paid national network. A motorcycle is treated differently in the public toll rules. A goods vehicle over 3.5 tonnes pays a distance toll, with an on-board unit or a route pass. Mixing those systems up is how drivers collect a fine on a road they thought they had already paid for.

After the payment rule, look at continuity. Sofia to Burgas can be motorway the whole way. Sofia to Varna cannot. Sofia to Kulata is motorway until the gorge. The car guide, the motorcycle guide and the freight guide start from that split.

Posted signs override every default in these pages. A work zone, a slip road and a mountain village do not inherit the motorway number painted on a map.

The plate, not a sticker

The vignette is an electronic record tied to the registration number and the country of registration. Trailers are their own product. Check an end date on bgtoll.bg, the toll administration’s site.

50, 90, 120, 140

Town, open road, express road, motorway. Those are the usual defaults for a category B car. Motorcycles and trucks are lower. The sign guide has the table.

15 Nov – 1 Mar

Through that window a car needs winter tyres, or tyres with at least 4 mm of tread. Passes can close earlier. Read winter roads if the route crosses the Balkan range.

A long concrete viaduct of the Hemus motorway on tall piers. — Hemus viaduct, Stolnik–Eleshnitsa.Hemus viaduct between Stolnik and Eleshnitsa. Photo: Vassia Atanassova - Spiritia, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized and compressed.

A two-lane road cut into the rock wall of Kresna Gorge. — Kresna gorge, where Struma is not yet a motorway.The road through Kresna Gorge. Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized and compressed.

New asphalt on the Europe motorway with overhead signs for Kalotina and Slivnitsa. — A6 Europe, signs for Kalotina and Slivnitsa. Photograph from 2020.A6 Europe motorway between Dragoman and Slivnitsa, photographed in 2020. Photo: Road Infrastructure Agency (АПИ), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized and compressed.

tolbg, in Sofia

The publication is based at 106 Pop Gruyu Street, Levski G, 1836 Sofia. You can write to [email protected] or call +359 895 715 885. That number is the desk, not the emergency line. For a crash or a road emergency, call 112.

We compile public rules and geography so a driver can ask better questions of the Road Infrastructure Agency, the toll administration and the border post in front of them. We do not inspect every kilometre for each revision, and a photograph is dated when the year matters. The about page says what the desk does, and the editorial policy says how a correction is handled. Library revised through 2 October 2026.