How do I plan a Morocco trip from Sofia, Bulgaria?

I get a lot of travellers asking me about Sofia, and the honest truth is there is no direct flight — and there never has been — so the whole trip hinges on picking a good hub. Nine times out of ten I steer people through Istanbul on Turkish Airlines, because the Sofia–Istanbul leg is barely an hour, the onward to Casablanca is frequent, and you stay inside one ticket if anything slips. When I priced a recent Sofia couple's trip, the Istanbul routing came in cheaper and an hour shorter than the Vienna alternative.

I always tell Bulgarian guests to treat the connection like part of the holiday rather than dead time. Istanbul's airport is enormous but well signed, and a three-hour layover is comfortable rather than stressful — long enough for a proper coffee, short enough that you are not pacing. Where I see people come unstuck is booking the Sofia leg and the Casablanca leg on separate tickets to save twenty euros; if the first flight is late, no one owes you the second, and I have had to rescue exactly that scenario.

On the ground, I land everyone in Casablanca and start the real trip in Marrakech — it is a quick hop or a pleasant train south, and Marrakech is simply a softer landing for a first morning than Casablanca's business sprawl. From there a week gives you the medina, a night or two in the Sahara, and the road over the Atlas; ten days lets you fold in Fes and the blue lanes of Chefchaouen without ever feeling rushed. I build the desert nights early so jet lag works in your favour under the stars.

The two things I beg Sofia travellers to double-check themselves: the exact flight times, because Turkish rejigs its Casablanca slots seasonally and a schedule that worked last spring may not this autumn, and your entry stamp situation, since rules shift and you want certainty, not my word from months ago. Sort those two and the rest — where to sleep in the medina, which Atlas pass to drive — is the fun part I handle for you.