The Samokov municipality is located in South-West Bulgaria in Sofia District. The Municipality consists of town of Samokov and 28 villages. Samokov is the third largest municipality in the Republic of Bulgaria. The territory of the municipality is serviced by automobile transport only. Road II-82 ensures connections to Sofia and South Bulgaria and is of significant importance for servicing the Borovets Ski Resort. Road II-62 ensures connections to Southwest Bulgaria and corridors No. 4 and No. 8. Samokov is located 38 km from Dupnitsa, 36 km from Ihtiman, 35 km from Kostenets and 55 km from Sofia (see absolute distances to Samokov). With the construction of the Sofia -Samokov highway, south bypass of the city of Sofia, a direct connection will be established between the "Trakia" and "Strouma" highways. The municipality features quite favorable natural conditions for developing tourism and is among the few municipalities categorized to have potential for winter tourism of international scale. Borovets is the largest international mountain resort in Bulgaria, located on the northern slopes of Rila Mountain, 10 km from Samokov and 73 km from Sofia. There are also conditions to develop balneology tourism in the municipality. The thermal water of Balchin Spa and Baths are suitable for the treatment of various diseases and for use as potable water. The Shtarkelovo Gnezdo (Stork`s Nest) locality near the Iskar artificial lake is a traditional recreation place with potential to develop camping and fishing tourism and water sports. There are plans to establish a tourist settlement Samokov-Borovets-Beli Iskar, a tourist localization Iskrovete with capacity to accommodate 20 000 people. There is also an idea to establish a recreation zone in Northern Rila.
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The Samokov municipality is located in 
