The Rhodope foothills are not convenient in every way. And it is better to say so directly.
There is almost no mains sewerage anywhere. Roads are poor in many places, and infrastructure often lags behind construction. There are unpaved streets, dust, construction machinery and traffic at certain hours.
And yet people keep wanting to live here.
The reason is that in exchange for these drawbacks you get more space, nature, quiet and a way of life the city can hardly offer. There are shops, schools, kindergartens, restaurants and services, so the area has long since stopped being merely ‘out of town’.
For the same budget you can often get considerably more property than in Plovdiv.
Markovo comes closest to feeling like a natural extension of Plovdiv — plenty of new construction, complexes and easy access to the city.
Belashtitsa wins with its terrain, its panorama and a stronger sense of nature.
Parvenets is quieter and often more affordable, with more scope for larger plots.
The Rhodope foothills have their drawbacks. But they also have something hard to measure — that quiet in the evening, the air, the city lights in the distance, and the feeling that when you get back, you are truly home.