I want to travel to Bulgaria and stay close to the Black Sea. I have time for one, maybe two cities in Bulgaria. What reccomendations do you all have for cities to visit here?
Quite an open question really.
Where are you travelling from?
There are only 3 tourist airports open during the summer months.. Sofia, Varna and Burgas. Plovdiv has flights all year round, but hardly any charters. It's mainly for the skiing season holidaymakers.
Sofia is (obviously) the busiest, with most international flights coming in/going out, but both Varna and Burgas have direct flights with many European budget airlines and a few overseas national carriers, as well as connections from Sofia. The flight time from Sofia to both of them, is around an hour. The train will take you around half a day and just isn't worth it.
If you've time to do one or two other cities besides Varna or Burgas (more on them later), then I would suggest either Plovdiv, Veliko Tarnovo (the old capital of Bulgaria, where the purest of Bulgarian is still spoken), or Ruse.
Sofia has it's moments, but it's a mad city, albeit quite a small capital - and if it's relaxing you're looking for, then forget it.
Plovdiv is big (Bulgaria's second largest city - just very slightly bigger than Varna) and has some lovely historical parts going back to Roman times, including an amphitheatre.
Ruse is up on the Danube and there are some excellent boat trips (very cheap) that leave on a daily basis. No need to book anything, just get off the train, into a taxi and ask for the boats.
Veliko Tarnovo is pretty much in the middle of the country and is becoming the 'Prague' of Bulgaria. In other words more non-coast tourists than anywhere else in Bulgaria.
As for the Black Sea resorts.. Burgas will offer you Sunny Beach, Bulgaria's largest beach resort by far and just across the bay is Nessebar - a truly beautiful little coastal town that dates back well over 1,000 years. It's very quiet and also a lot cheaper than Sunny Beach.
Varna (a very big city) is your airport for Sunny Day, White Laguna, Golden Sands and (my favourite resort of them all..) Albena. Golden Sands has everything that Sunny Beach has, only on a smaller scale. The hotels in Golden Sands and Albena tend to be cleaner and more efficient than the ones in Sunny Beach, I found.
Burgas has little to offer for night life compared to Varna.
All just an opinion here, but I don't think too many people would argue with my points as far as clean, efficient etc. are concerned.
If it's pure (and much cheaper) Bulgarian beaches you want (meaning - not choking with tourists), then check out Krapetz and Shabla in the North and Sozopol, Obzor and Irakli down towards the south. They all have facilities for the traveller who just wants to relax and you'll find excellent bars and restaurants with very good service and quality food and fine wines and beers, at a fraction of the cost that the big tourist areas charge.
In places like Irakli and Shabla, the amount of English speakers you find will be very limited - whereas in the big resorts you'll have no problem. However, most locals will fall over to help you and the language barrier will be the least of your worries.
Sorry
Ill be traveling by bus or train from romania
I'd suggest a train from Bucharest (Bucuresti) to Ruse (Pyc). Get off there, do the Danube trip, then from Ruse you can get to just about anywhere in BG by train or bus.
I took the train from Bucharest to Ruse and changed there, taking the train to Varna. Depends what you like though... if you're looking for the beaches then go to Varna, but Veliko Tarnovo (sp?!) in the centre of Bulgaria is a beautiful town surrounded by hills and has a lot of history. If you do take the train in to Bulgaria and end up having to change at Ruse, beware of the timetable - we had loads of Romanian ticket inspectors telling us there would be a connection in Ruse for us, which there was.........6 hours after our arrival. Getting to Ruse at midnight meant a campout at the station!
Veliko Tarnovo (sp?!)
(sp?!) ? ? Ne razbiram.
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