You can easily zip around Sofia in a day, checking off most of the big ticket monuments.
We stayed at Hotel Favorit, just off the main strip – up near the bus and train station.
The location wasn’t bad with tram and metro connections close by, and a quick 15 minute walk into the centre of the city.
Distance: 6.5kilometres
Duration: 1.5 hours
Cost: Free
We set out after breakfast towards Bulevard Knyaginya Maria Luiza. 
It probably took us all of ten minutes to reach the Banya Bashi Mosque and the former Central Mineral Baths behind it.
The mosque is currently undergoing renovations but we managed to sneak in for a quick look.
It’s an Ottoman era building and remains the only functioning mosque in Sofia. The mosque was built over natural thermal spas – hence it’s name Many Baths. You can see steam rising from vents in the ground near the mosque walls.
A couple of minutes further down the road we came to the Statue of Saint Sofia. It’s worth a look but nothing special and all the overhead wires, signs and traffic lights make it hard to get a decent photo.
After the statue we took a left onto Pl. Nezavisimost and veered left around the National museum to Ulista Moskovska. To your left is the Amphitheater of Serdica and to your right the National Hisotry Museum. A little furth east along Moskovska and you’ll come to the Temple Sveta Sofia on your right. Ahead of you though is the jewel in Sofia’s crown – the grand Cathedral Saint Alexander Nevski.
With an area of more than 3000 square metres and a capacity of 10,000 people it’s one of the largest Eastern Orthadox Cathedrals in the world.
Behind the cathedral you’ll find the National Gallery for Foreign Art, The National Academy of Arts and the monument to Monument to Vasil Levski.
To the south of the Cathedral you’ll find the Monument to the Tsar Liberator – a statue erected in honour of Russian Emperor Alexander II who liberated Bulgaria of Ottoman rule during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.
From here we turned right, and made our way back past the Natural History Museum towards the Statue of Saint Sofia. On your way, the way you pass the petit, gold-domed Temple Sveti Nikolay which is worth a look.
Further along Bulevard Tsar Osvoboditel you’ll come across the National Archeological Museum. More or less opposite the museum is the easy to miss St George Rotunda – an early Christian red brick rotunda that is considered the oldest building in the city. It’s behind the a number of heavily guarded government offices but it’s easy enough to find if you’re looking for it.
The National Theatre is also in the neighbourhood, but wasn’t anything special, in my opinion.
Continuing onto Pl. Sveta Nedelya you come ot the cathedral bearing the same name as the Square. The Holy Sunday Church – a medieval building that has suffered destruction through the ages and has been reconstructed a number of times.
Two blocks further south and you come to the pedestrianised Vitosha – a long strip of shops, bars, cafes and restaurants packed with people seeing and being seen.
We continued south to the National Palace of Culture. It’s not half as big as I remember it from my trip to Bulgaria in 2005, but it’s nevertheless worth a look.
The convention centre is seemingly free to go inside, there are clean toilets in the basement, and although we’re not entirely sure we were supposed to be there – the deserted terrace on top of the building offers pretty impressive views of the park below and of sprawling Sofia.
The entire walking tour cost us a cup of coffee and lunch and while there are metro stations and bus and tram stops along the entire route, we probably only ambled around six kilometres and so managed it all easily on foot. It’s a very flat city.