Belitsa Voyage Tips and guide

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Belitsa (Bulgarian: Белица) is small town in South-Western Bulgaria, and the gateway to the nearby small mountain resort Semkovo on the slopes of the Rila mountains. A bear sanctuary was established there in 2000 for "dancing bears" from Bulgaria and other Balkan countries after the practice was outlawed.

Not far from the Bansko international ski resort, Belitsa has a population of about 3000 people (2021) and it's the administrative centre of a municipality within Blagoevgrad Province.

Belitsa is not far from National Road 84, the main road that connects Pazardzhik in the north to Razlog and Bansko. Access to Belitsa is provided by the tertiary Road 8406, which splits off Road 84 near the village of Gradishte ('Градище'), and then rejoins it by the village of Banya ('Баня'). By road, Belitsa is about 21 km (13 mi) from Razlog and Bansko, and 60 km (37 mi) from Velingrad further north Road 84.

Belitsa is one of the stops on the Rhodopes narrow gauge railway. About 35-40 min from Bansko, 30 min from Razlog, 130 min from Velingrad, almost 4 hr from the start of the line at Septemvri. The main disadvantage is that the station is about 4 km (2.5 mi) from the village centre.

• 41.91766523.5794821 Railway Station. Old-fashioned building. Four trains daily, one of them "fast". If for some reason you decide to hike to Belitsa, your choices are a dirt road that starts from the station, or crossing the tracks to get on Road 84 (see above), and then Road 8406 splits off towards Belitsa about 500 metres (550 yd) north of the station. Timetables and a virtual arrival/departures board can be found on BDZ's webiste, but note that BDZ lists the station name as Belica! (updated Mar 2025)

• Bear Sanctuary Belitsa, Address: Andrianov Chark Area, Belitsa 2780, Bulgaria, ☏ + 359 88 244 1377, [email protected]. was built by the animal welfare organisation Four Paws in 2000 and is located in Rila Mountain at about 180 km south of Sofia, 12 km from town Belitsa and about 35km from Bansko. The whole area of the sanctuary comprises 120.000 m². The park can be visited only in frame of a guided tour from 1st of April until 1st of December. These guided tours offer visitors comprehensive information about the sad conditions in which the bears suffered before they were rescued, as well as to raise awareness about the main natural requirements of brown bear species and its conservation. 
• History Museum