Bulgaria or Romania? When each is busy and when it is quiet

TL;DR

In 2025, Bulgaria's busiest month was August (22.3% of its tourist nights) and Romania's was August (17.2%). The quietest were November (3.6%) and March (5.3%). Bulgaria's two busiest months carried 43.4% of its year, against 32.3% for Romania, so Bulgaria's year was more concentrated.

Bulgaria and Romania, month by month

Each chart shows what share of the place's 2025 tourist nights fell in each month, on the same scale; the two busiest months are highlighted.1

Bulgaria

JFMAMJJA22.3%SOND

Romania

JFMAMJJA17.2%SOND

Share of the year, every month

Bulgaria had the smaller share of its own year in eight months (January, February, March, April, May, October, November and December), and Romania in four. A smaller share means a quieter month for that country, not fewer visitors than the other.1

Bulgaria and Romania: share of 2025 tourist nights by month
MonthBulgariaRomania
January3.9%5.5%
February4.0%5.3%
March3.9%5.3%
April3.7%5.8%
May5.3%7.6%
June13.3%9.6%
July21.2%15.0%
August22.3%17.2%
September11.0%9.1%
October4.1%7.6%
November3.6%6.2%
December3.8%5.8%

The key facts side by side

Bulgaria and Romania: key facts
BulgariaRomania
Busiest monthAugust, 22.3%August, 17.2%
Quietest monthNovember, 3.6%March, 5.3%
Two busiest months43.4% of the year32.3% of the year
Busiest vs quietest6.2 times as busy3.3 times as busy
From abroadIn 2025, guests living abroad spent 55.8% of Bulgaria's tourist nights. Source pageIn 2025, guests living abroad spent 17.9% of Romania's tourist nights. Source page
Length of stay–Guests stayed an average of 2.1 nights each time they checked in at tourist accommodation in Romania in 2025. Source page
How seasonalJuly and August together carried 43.4% of the year, making Bulgaria the second most seasonal of 35 European countries we measured. Source pageJuly and August together carried 32.3% of the year, making Romania the twelfth most seasonal of 35 European countries we measured. Source page
Public holidaysIn Bulgaria, public holidays fall on 15 days in 2026 and 14 in 2027. Source pageIn Romania, public holidays fall on 16 days in 2026 and 17 in 2027. Source page

Each sentence is copied from the page it links to, where its source is cited.

Weather: Sofia and Bucharest

Averages for 1991–2020 at the weather station each page uses: Sofia for Sofia and BucurestiBaneasa for Bucharest.2

Average high and rain by month, Sofia and Bucharest, 1991 to 2020
MonthHigh, SofiaHigh, BucharestRain, SofiaRain, Bucharest
January3.5 °C3.0 °C35 mm40 mm
February6.5 °C6.3 °C36 mm33 mm
March11.4 °C12.3 °C45 mm42 mm
April16.7 °C18.5 °C52 mm50 mm
May21.4 °C24.1 °C73 mm70 mm
June25.2 °C28.1 °C79 mm83 mm
July27.8 °C30.4 °C64 mm69 mm
August28.3 °C30.6 °C55 mm49 mm
September23.3 °C25.0 °C53 mm60 mm
October17.6 °C18.0 °C54 mm61 mm
November10.7 °C10.5 °C38 mm44 mm
December4.6 °C4.2 °C40 mm47 mm

One station per place; weather varies within every country. Not a forecast.

What this comparison cannot tell you

  • A share of each place's own year, not a crowd count. A low share means that month was quiet for that place. It does not mean the place had fewer visitors than somewhere else, and a small country's busy month can still be far quieter than a big country's quiet one.
  • Nights, not queues. A national or prefecture total cannot show crowding at one sight, beach or old town. Day trips do not count at all, because nobody stays the night.
  • One year. These are 2025 figures. Another year can differ, for example when Easter moves between March and April.
  • We have not been to these places and make no judgement about which is better to visit.

Want a different pair? Open these two in Compare and add or swap places.

Key takeaways

  • Busiest in 2025: Bulgaria in August, Romania in August.
  • Quietest: Bulgaria in November, Romania in March.
  • Two busiest months: 43.4% of Bulgaria's year, 32.3% of Romania's.
  • What we would skip: picking one over the other on these figures alone. They show when each is busy, not which you would enjoy more.

Sources

The tourism figures come from Eurostat and the weather from the World Meteorological Organization's 1991–2020 normals, published by NOAA. We copied every figure from the two places' own pages, where each source is cited in full. See how we research.

  1. Source: Eurostat, Nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments – monthly data, doi:10.2908/TOUR_OCC_NIM, accessed 25 September 2026. Dataset last updated by Eurostat on 22 September 2026. Extract: number of nights, NACE codes I55.1–I55.3, all guests and split by guests resident in the country and abroad, January–December 2025.
  2. Weather: WMO Member Nations (2023). WMO Climatological Standard Normals for 1991-2020 (NCEI Accession 0253808), the station named for each country in the table (the same station its country page uses), mean daily maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation and number of days with at least 1 mm of precipitation, normals computed from at least 24 years; also station MilanoLinate (station ID 00016080); also station BariPalese (station ID 00016270), from the same files, downloaded 24 September 2026. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. doi:10.25921/800j-vn07. Accessed 22 September 2026. Released by NOAA under CC0.

Modified data. The monthly shares, orderings and comparisons are our own calculations from Eurostat's counts and the Japan Tourism Agency's figures (「宿泊旅行統計調査」(観光庁)を加工して作成). Percentages are rounded to one decimal place. Neither body is responsible for these calculations or for how the figures are presented here.