Why this ride
Sustained elevation change, linked bends and open summit views. It also links naturally to Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Shipka Pass
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 49 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 08
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Access context
Verify pass condition, surface quality and local closures. Specific flag: winter weather.
Seasonal context
May-Oct
Scenic road chapters
Bulgaria Shipka Pass Road
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 18 km this is Bulgaria Shipka Pass Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Rider note
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 18 km
- Named road
- Bulgaria Shipka Pass Road
- Pass
- Shipka Pass
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Gabrovo
Gabrovo is the town where the Balkan Mountains begin to rise in earnest, strung along the narrow valley of the Yantra River in central Bulgaria, and it is best known for a joke. The town has a reputation, among Bulgarians, for thrift, and the legends of its stinginess have produced a whole genre of humour. The House of Humour and Satire, a museum devoted to it, is one of the stranger attractions in the country, and the town holds a biennial carnival of humour. Locals take the whole thing with good grace, and a visitor who tells a thrift joke will probably be rewarded with a better one.
Read the complete Gabrovo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gabrovo sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Shipka.
2. Shipka
The village of Shipka sits at the foot of the Balkan range on the edge of the Rose Valley, and above it, on the slopes leading to the pass, the golden onion domes of a Russian church shine out of the forest like something from a fairy tale. The Shipka Memorial Church was built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to honour the Russian and Bulgarian soldiers who died in the battles for the pass during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 to 1878, and its bells were cast from the spent cartridges collected on the battlefield. It is one of the most striking buildings in Bulgaria.
Read the complete Near Shipka write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Shipka comes up 15 km in. Next is Kazanlak.
3. Kazanlak
In early June the air around Kazanlak smells faintly of roses, and it is no marketing trick. The town of about fifty-five thousand sits in a broad valley between the Balkan range to the north and the lower Sredna Gora to the south, and the fields here have for centuries been planted with the damask rose, whose petals are picked at dawn and distilled into oil that perfumers buy by the gram. The Rose Festival, held in the first weekend of June, fills the streets with parades and folk dancing and a general air of cheerful chaos.
Read the complete Kazanlak write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
49 km in you reach Kazanlak.