Occasionally when you are travelling you stumble upon a hostel that just has everything perfect. Sometimes it can be a hit and miss game that’s true. Some hostels look great but then turn out to be ruined by obnoxious idiots drinking their way around the world. Then others sell themselves short, but once you arrive they leave such a lasting impression on your time in a place you wonder why anyone would ever in their right mind consider not staying in a hostel. Moreto and Caffeto was just such a place. The amount it added to our stay in Sofia is immeasurable, the people we became friends with, the adventures we had together, the nights of wonderful and interesting conversation and just the fun and comfortable environment that their thoughtfulness provided us was unforgettable.
To make things even sweeter when staying at
Book Your Accommodation
Booking.com
Over the course of the last 10+ years of travelling, we’ve used Booking.com to book probably around 90% of our accommodation. These days you can book anything from a luxury resort to budget hotels and even hostels and rentals similar to Airbnb.
Plus, if you make an account, you get access to their ‘Genius’ loyalty program… and DISCOUNTS. Everything is laid out super easy so you know what you’re getting, and honestly, I’m just a really big fan of the platform over other major providers.
To make things even sweeter when staying at Moreto and Caffeto…the holders of the “most pointless hostel name 2015” award according to their jestful hostel world description, even upgraded us to a private room for the first couple of nights as they were free! Now, when you stay in such a lovely room as this, surrounded by such great and interesting people and with that privacy many of us what I wonder why anyone would choose a hotel over this!
Making friends
The real test of a hostel is the company in which you discover there. A hostel can be the most stunning and unique place to stay but really it is all about people! Here you are not only surrounded by like minded adventurous, intelligent and interesting guests but the staff fit that description perfectly too.
How many hotels can you say you have sat down and chatted to owners, been out in their car and ended up genuine friends with? And sometimes with hostels where the owners are present you feel a bit of an atmosphere, still rules need to be stuck to or are the staff trying a little hard to impress. But here it’s the opposite, Alina and Igor are so down to earth and fun!
Adventures
One of the things that really makes this hostel stand out from the rest is the “tours” they put on. I’ve put that in inverted commas because they are not really tours in the traditional sense, which is awesome because we hate tours. Instead you all pile into their car and head out together more like a group of friends on an amazing adventure. They always do them for as cheap as they can too and if the car is full they will always reduce the price, and in the end you always end up stopping somewhere else on the journey to have a look. We took 2 amazing trips, the first to the stunning Rila monestary, a must do in Bulgaria, not only did we see this breathtaking place but we stopped in an amazing mountain pass for lunch (sandwiches that Alina had made and were included in the price) before hiking to the Stob Earth pyramids on the way back as we just fancied it!!
Then they organised a 450km round trip to the Buzludzha monument, somewhere that was a bit of an urbex bucket list dream for us and that we had been chatting to Alina about only the day before. She went out of her way to explain public transport from either Sofia or Plovdiv to get there before telling us later that they had decided to put a tour on for us! Usually these cost about 110 euros, they did it for 18, including lunch and a stop off at the impressive Shipka monument and church! They really go out of their way to make sure their guests have the most amazing time in Bulgaria!
Features
Not only is the atmosphere amazing and the staff unbeatable the hostel itself is really well thought out. The kitchen had free tea and coffee all day, it is also fully stocked with spices and herbs so you can make that same bland pasta dish a gourmet meal! They even have a basket full of chocolate for just 1 lev each and a fridge full of all kinds of drinks for pretty much what you would pay in the shops. All you do is drop your money in the piggy bank!
The living room is spacious and have comfy sofas and tables to eat food, socialise, watch TV or share stories over. There is even a football so you have kickabout on the quiet road outside the front door, or even take it to the nearby park!
The hostel is also in a really nice location, walking distance to city centre Sofia and yet in a quiet leafy neighbourhood that gives you a taste of local life and a chilled out place to come back to. They have some amazing private rooms, some even have balconies. But the dorms are also great with big lockers, curtains on the beds, plugs by each one and the most useful feature, a router on each floor to ensure amazing wifi wherever you are!
Overall
We really didn’t want to leave this place. We extended our stay 3 times and ended up here in Sofia over a week! We got the opportunity here to meet some amazing people in a really unique and cool place. But also to have some unforgettable adventures all over Bulgaria and in turn really fall in love with the country!
Book Your Accommodation
Booking.com
Over the course of the last 10+ years of travelling, we’ve used Booking.com to book probably around 90% of our accommodation. These days you can book anything from a luxury resort to budget hotels and even hostels and rentals similar to Airbnb.
Plus, if you make an account, you get access to their ‘Genius’ loyalty program… and DISCOUNTS. Everything is laid out super easy so you know what you’re getting, and honestly, I’m just a really big fan of the platform over other major providers.
What we loved about this amazing hostel in Sofia
Amazing staff
Great atmosphere and crowd
Quiet location
Fully stocked kitchen and good prices snacks and drinks!
Curtain and plugs on beds
Good and secure lockers
Balconies
Hotel quality privates
Amazing adventure tours
The decoration! Octopus for the win!
Sofia is also an amazing city!
What could have been better
That we had to move on
Missing out on more adventure tours when we left!!
What was your favourite hostel?
Disclaimer: This post was in partnership with Moreto and Cafetto. As always, all opinions are our own! But honestly, we are actually really good mates with these guys now!
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Yo, I’m Nic (they/them), one-half of The Roaming Renegades.
I’m an adventure (and halloumi) obsessed traveller with a passion for hiking mountains, exploring cities, watching Arsenal win, moshing out to Rammstein in random European fields and getting hopelessly lost on a motorbike somewhere in Asia! I am also a proud member of the LGBT+ community.
I’ve explored 80 countries, lived in Australia and New Zealand, and spent months wandering Southeast Asia, South America and Eastern Europe, all while trying to avoid growing up!
Did it work? I dunno, but my back hurts, and I still collect Pokémon cards! Who wants in?!
Well. Now we know where to stay next time we will go to Sofia. Thanks for sharing.
Ahh, say hi to them for us, we really had so much fun there!!
Great to read about your adventures in Bulgaria and all the things you managed to see!
Yeah it’s a really awesome place and the hostel really helped us too.
The Roaming Rengades makes me want to go on another adventure. Thank you for sharing!
Ahh. Thanks! 🙂
So great to hear that you had a great time in Bulgaria and visited all these beautiful places! Buzludzha is on my bucket list for so long but I’m waiting for the winter to go there since I’ve seen amazing snowy shots from there. As a local I don’t need to stay in a hostel but seeing this post makes me want to go there for a night, haha.
Yeah they were so helpful in organising stuff for us. I’ve heard it’s great then too. Maybe we should return!!
This looks like a great hostel and I love that they arrange tours on the cheap for guests to go on together.
Yeah that is one of the best things about it. We got to see so much because of them!