Moving to Bulgaria

Hi Andy! I don't know that specific village so can't help. We visited Veliko Tarnovo and a few of the nearby villages several times, but ended up in Dobrich province. Veliko Tarnovo is a fascinating city, the villages in the region can vary from wonderful to best-avoided.

I do suggest you update your post if you can to put the village name in the title as it will have more chance of getting seem by those forum members who do know the area.

@thylacalinestripe

Like @janemulberry, I don't know this specific village. But VT province is a popular area with many expats, especially Brits. We have friends who are living very happily in one of these small villages north of VT city.

I'm not sure it's so easy to get recommendations on specific villages. You probably have to trust your own judgement based on visiting the place (or maybe using Google Street View) and also factoring in how nice / how much of a bargain the property you're considering is.

I'd also consider the location relative to civilization. For your daily needs you probably need the stores in Polski Trambesh, but for a big supermarket shop you'll need VT. Personally, I'd prefer to be much closer to a city (we're 10km from Kazanlak's LIdl), but some folks are very happy to be out in the countryside (and maybe you want to be closer to the Danube). VT is a lovely city, but if it's an hour away it's not something you could enjoy every day... while Polski Trambesh is pretty small (has a swimming pool though, that's an unexpected bonus).

Often, this type of question arises here when someone has spotted a pay-monthly house on Ebay/RightMove. There's a couple of companies (Mowlem and BulgariaDirect) who specialize in village houses for Brits. Both companies have good feedback and plenty of members of this forum who are happy customers. These two have been around for years and have a pretty good idea of what Brits are looking for... and they don't offer houses in bad villages. So if this is what you're considering, then I'd relax about the village, and be more focused on the house itself and the location (relative to stores and attractions/activities). Another good agent is Ideal Homes VT (our friends purchased via them), but this a traditional agent with outright cash purchase and agent commission. They specialize in VT and offer many houses in these villages, and, again, I'd be pretty confident that they wouldn't offer something in a horrible village.

@janemulberry purchased a pay-monthly and has kindly shared some of her experiences with us. It's a great way to grab a property fairly inexpensively, and for very little money up-front. However, village houses are a challenge, and you probably have to be ready for a fair amount of DIY. And maybe an inclination towards a more rustic lifestyle with a animals and growing your own fruit and veg. :-)

I'm old and lazy, and completely repulsed by DIY and gardening. :-) But I do appreciate that a lot of Bulgarian village houses have a nice plot of land with a perimeter wall. It's great having such a private garden and Bulgaria is very relaxed about what you do behind your own walls. We have wonderful Bulgarian neighbours (and many of us expats here do), and they are absolute demons on the DIY and gardening side. One has recently installed gas central heating (buried tank), solar panels and solar hot water. He has less than 1,000 m2 of land, but he grows an astonishing bounty of fruit, nuts and vegetables... and rears hens and rabbits. Pretty much every m2 is utilized.

Good luck with the adventure!

Polski trambesh nice town, 4 or 5 small supermarkets, cafes and 5 hardware stores(that I know of).

Train station linking Ruse further north to Gorna Oryahovista near VT.

We prefer main shopping in Gorna, kaufland and lidl stores there.

Plenty expats go to Polski Trambesh on market day every Wednesday.

Never been to Strahilovo but think there are some expats living around there.