Devil’s Throat Cave and Trigrad Gorge from Plovdiv

Updated: October 29, 2026

Devil’s Throat Cave is in the Trigrad Gorge in the Western Rhodopes, about 150 km from Plovdiv and roughly 3 hours each way by car on narrow mountain roads. The tour lasts about 30 minutes and ends with almost 300 steps up beside an underground waterfall. Leave Plovdiv by 07:30 to add the gorge and Yagodina Cave and be back by evening.

A long day: is it worth it?

Six hours of driving is a lot, and much of it is on winding roads through Devin and the gorge. But the landscape is the reason to go: the drive itself passes reservoirs, forested ridges and villages that see few foreign visitors. If you can, staying a night in Trigrad or Devin makes the trip more relaxed.

Fact	Detail
Location	About 1.3 km north of Trigrad, in the Trigrad Gorge
Tour length	About 30 minutes
Steps	Almost 300, climbing out by the natural exit
Temperature	About 8 °C inside
Walk back to the car park	About 700 m from the exit
Hours in 2025	May to September 10:00 to 17:00; October to April 10:00 to 16:00

The facts above are from Showcaves.com. Hours change; check with the cave operator or the Borino municipality before your trip.

Use the booking form above to send your route and date. Trigrad is pre-filled; if you plan to stay overnight, book a return for the next day in the same form.

Inside the cave

You enter through a 150 m tunnel cut into the rock and come out into a huge chamber, one of the largest in Bulgaria. The Trigrad river falls into the cave as an underground waterfall more than 40 m high, and the noise fills the hall. The river then disappears into a siphon. The final part of the tour climbs steep, wet steps beside the waterfall to the natural exit.

The steps are steep and damp. Wear closed shoes with grip and a jacket, and think twice if you have knee or heart problems.

Sample day

Time	Plan
07:30	Pick-up in Plovdiv
10:30	Trigrad Gorge: stop between the cliffs, which rise up to around 300 m
11:00 to 11:45	Devil’s Throat Cave tour
12:00 to 13:00	Lunch in Trigrad, trout is the local speciality
13:30 to 14:45	Yagodina Cave, a show cave with formations, about 20 min away (check tour times)
15:00 to 18:00	Drive back to Plovdiv via Devin

Trigrad village and the gorge

Trigrad is a small village near the Greek border, with a mixed Bulgarian Christian and Muslim population and a quiet, rural feel. The gorge just north of it is barely wider than the river and the road in places, and its sheer marble walls are popular with climbers. A short stop at one of the pull-ins is enough to take it in; there are also marked trails above the village for those staying longer.

Roads and seasons

• The road narrows to one and a half lanes in the gorge; drivers go slowly and stop for oncoming traffic.
• Winter is possible, but snow and ice on the passes can add an hour or more.
• Spring snowmelt makes the underground waterfall at its most powerful.
• Weekends in summer are busy; tours can have queues.

Other Rhodope days

If three hours each way is too much, Shiroka Laka and the Wonderful Bridges are about two hours from Plovdiv. For a short half-day, Hisarya is under an hour away. North of Plovdiv, the Rose Valley gives a completely different day.