This fairly easy and accessible hike to the 7 Rila lakes is for most people one the highlights of their visit to Bulgaria. GPX file is included so getting lost is not an option!
DETAILS of the HIKE TO 7 Rila Lakes
Distance: The total distance for this hike is 9 kilometers (loop hike)
Elevation gain: The total incline was 583 meters
Moving time: According to Strava my moving time was 2 hours and 20 minutes (total time was 3 hours 30 minutes)
Difficulty: I would rate this as an easy/intermediate hike.
Address start: Seven Rila Lakes Lift – Bottom Station
Price: a return ticket for the lifts cost 25 BGN which is roughly 12.5 EUR per person. Keep in mind that the lifts are not open all year round, check the official website to have an idea of opening times.
Use the pinned location below so you can navigate straight to where the hike starts.
HOW TO GET TO THE STARTING POINT?
The easiest way is to use your own (rental) car. It would take about 1 hour and 30 minutes from the capital Sofia to get there. I drove to the the 7 rila lakes from Borovets which took me about 1 hour.
As this is a very popular destination there’s a good bus connection from Sofia as well. There’s a bus called Traventuria 48 that leaves at the Sofia Alexander Nevski Cathedral and drives straight to the 7 Rila chairlifts in about 2 hours.
If you’re staying in Sofia this hike could be interesting as well: HIKE TO BLACK PEAK, THE HIGHEST IN VITOSHA NATURE PARK
HIKING MAP AND GPX-FILE
Generally speaking for all hikes, the easiest way is to download a GPX file that you can view on a gps device, a smartphone or smartwatch. It will tell you step-by-step how to walk. It also includes an elevation profile of the hike which can help you to decide if this hike is for you or not.
Click through to Strava to see all the details:
Download the GPX file right here: 7-Rila-lakes-Bulgaria.gpx
Rila National Park
Rila National Park has been declared as such in February 1992 in order to preserve and protect this 107,92 ha sized area. It has a total of 120 glacial lakes and the park’s altitude varies from around 800 m to 2925 meter at Musala peak which is the highest peak in Bulgaria and of the whole Balkan Peninsula.
One of the main tourist attractions in the park is the hike to the Seven Rila Lakes.
List of the 7 Rila lakes
- Dolnoto Ezero (Lower lake)
- Ribnoto Ezero (Fish lake)
- Babreka (Kidney lake)
- Okoto (Eye)
- Salzata (Tear)
- Bliznaka (Twin)
- Trilistnika (Trefoil)
MY EXPERIENCE HIKING TO THE 7-Rila lakes
As I knew the hike to the 7 Rila Lakes was one of the most popular hikes in Bulgaria I was almost going to skip it. I generally tend to avoid super touristy places. In this case I went anyway and I must say the views did not dissapoint at all. It is for a reason that this is such a popular attraction.
Right before going I checked the weather and it looked like it would be an awful day up there at the 7-Rila lakes. I decided to drive down there and see how the conditions are. My planning was pretty full so this was pretty much the only day I could embark on this small adventure.
In about 1 hour driving from Borovets, which is a little ski-town next to the Rila National Park, I made my way to the bottom gondola station. I asked if the weather was alright up there and the man said: “yes yes don’t worry”. I bought my 25 BGN return ticket and took place in the ski lift. During the 20 minute ride from about 1600 m to 2100 m above sea level I experienced 3 seasons. First it was sunny and hot, barely and clouds, 10 minutes later it started to drizzle lightly and then 5 minutes lates this turned into a mix of hard rain and hail. Luckily I packed my rain jacket. Immediately upon my arrival I sheltered at the Rila Chalet and had a tea to warm myself up again.
One black tea with honey and about 25 minutes later the rain seemed to have stopped more or less so I decided to go for it. The hike to the 7-Rila lakes had officially begun.
There are different ways of approaching this hike and I decided to take the most popular route but make it circular on the way back. I noticed most people seemed to go back the same way, I usually try to avoid that. If you use my GPX track you will notice that I took a few wrong turns so there’s no need to repeat my mistakes as well 😉
The hike starts of by keeping right and following the trail uphill, from what I heard some people experienced this already as being pretty hard. I saw lots of people with white sneakers who were clearly not used to hiking so I can imagine why they think this is hard. If you have a good basic fitness level this hike shouldn’t scare you.
Pretty quickly after the first ascent, about 1 kilometer after the start, you will have a nice view over the 2 lakes: Dolnoto Ezero (Lower lake) and Ribnoto Ezero (Fish lake). There’s even a nice wooden selfie platform to increase your chances of a good photo.
The hike continues pretty easy and even downhill towards the next lake which is called Babreka (Kidney lake), you can imagine why it has this name.
It is now that the hike becomes slightly more challenging, you have to make your way from around 2300m to 2500m above sealevel. It is over a fairly short distance so pretty steep but nothing extreme. Some people skip this part and return on their steps from here or just continue the circular walk. In all honesty I would really recommend to climb all the way to the top. While climbing to the peak there are 2 more lakes, first Okoto (Eye) and then Salzata (Tear).
The real treat comes when you reach the lake peak, there’s a beautiful view over 5 lakes. When I did this hike the closer I came to the peak the more it started being foggy and rainy again. When reaching the peak, the view wasn’t super clear but still very beautiful and a must see!
As the weather was getting worse I decided to make my way back down the sometimes slippery trail and continued the circular hike.
Just around the corner the Bliznaka (Twin) lake becomes visible. As the name suggests it’s a lake that consits of 2 parts, you will walk right next to it.
At a total of around 6 kilometers hiking you will see the Trilistnika (Trefoil) lake. This is where I took the first wrong turn but found a nice spot to have lunch as a reward. If you’re using my GPX you can ignore this section.
Only a few hundred meters further I had reached the last 2 lakes which were actually the first 2 lakes you saw when starting this hike. Dolnoto Ezero (Lower lake) and Ribnoto Ezero (Fish lake).
A little over a kilometer later you can see the Rila chalet again and voila you reached the end of the hike to the 7 Rila lakes. Congratulations!
Let me know in the comments or through my Instagram if you enjoyed this hike!
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