Rakia museum — Attraction in Sofia City

As a person who has visited a lot of Museums in Europe and a few in US, I can say that the Museum needs a lot of additional work to make the experience of the visitor worthwhile. For instance, there was a big TV screen but no film or documentary of people making rakia. Moreover, pictures of people making rakia in big size and framed, specifiying the names of the regions in Bulgaria with a map and the type of rakia typical for that region. Also, adding an exhibition of small cups for rakia used in serving would be interesting (I saw one set and few cups at the bar but those were used for serving), and a čokanče (a special type of glass object with a special purpose for serving and drinking rakija.) Providing recipes for making of rakia in English, Spanish and other languages is a nice addition. I understand that there is no possibility to see in a real time the making of rakia, but the price of the ticket in the relation to the experience doesn't add up.

As for comparison, tickets for Heineken Beer museum in Amsterdam offers 1.5 hour guided tour with 2 beer tasting for 25 euro. Alkmar Cheese Museum is 6 euro. Pilsen Brewery Museum offers 1 hour with 1 beer experience for 6 euro. Alchemist Coffee Museum in Prague which is also a small in size and it serves as a cafeteria charges 3 euro guided tour. Prague Chocolate Museum with Workshop lasting 45 mins and tasting of 4-5 chocolates is 12 euro. And here in Rakia Museum we have 20 mins (maybe even less) guided tour and 3 tastings for 20 euro. That's EXPENSIVE. I understand if the owner values the rakia or if the production in the country is less than expected i.e. in scarcity therefore pricey. But at least the guided tour of 20 mins which was 7,5 euro (15 lv) to be "pay as you wish".

My advice for the owner (I hope they won't get this too personally :) is to search a bit for European Museums and make a choice: either invest more in the Museum or charge less. That would be fair toward visitors. However there are good sides of the whole experience, I liked the interior, the warm welcoming of the host. He was knowledgeable, answering all our questions. As a gratitude we bought a souvenir- Bulgarian rakia from their shop. Thank you for your...

Pros friendly staff warm welcome interesting to read the visuals enjoyed hearing about the process of making rakia staff member added a little humour to the tour and was able to answer some questions appreciated that the tour was available in English and Bulgarian loved the owners collection of interesting rakia and related spirits, the many cabinets including rare bottles were very impressive very relaxed in the nature of moving around the place the outdoor space was cool! appreciated the free wifi

Cons drinks were small… the cocktails although very tasty, were about 100ml or less. the traditional meze was literally three small circles of salami, two small bits of tomato, one olive, two small cubes of hard cheese and two small cubes of feta. With the cocktails were four small cubes of feta topped with honey. cost is therefore quite high for what it is…………… but understand it’s a tourist attraction wasn’t as much to see and hear, kind of expected...

This is absolutely something you should not miss during your stay in Sofia!

The man and the woman working in the museum were so kind and forthcoming.

The man guided us through the museum telling us about the proces of making rakia and showing us an example of how it would be done in the old days. We also got to see a really special collection of rakia kinds from around the world.

After the tour we got to sit outside were our rakia tasting would begin. We got the classical tasting with 3 glasses of real Bulgarian grape rakia and 3 glasses of fruit rakia. All the glasses were really nice and tasteful but we also got a nice surprise.

We got a glass of brandy to taste the difference between both short-aged and long-aged rakia. And at the end we got a really special glass of Rose rakia which was absolutely amazing!

You should really do this. For 15 euro you cannot go wrong and you have a really...