Bulgaria Guide
The Black Sea Coast
The Bulgarian Black Sea coast is one of the fastest developing tourist destinations in Europe. Blessed with blissfully long stretches of white-sand beach, Bulgaria's coast was intensively developed during the Communist period, when its purpose-built holiday complexes served as the summer playground of the entire eastern bloc. Despite a slump in the 1990s, the Bulgarian seaside is currently undergoing a dramatic construction boom, driven by rising visitor numbers and the real-estate dreams of outsiders eager to take advantage of Bulgaria's (so far relatively cheap) property prices.
While still a holiday paradise in some senses, rapid growth has also turned the Bulgarian Black Sea into a potential ecological nightmare. Parts of the coast can seem like an endless procession of high-rise hotels and dusty building sites. Once you get away from the big resorts, however, there is still much to be discovered, with plenty of not-quite-crowded sandy beaches, exhilarating rocky seascapes in both the far north and the far south, and lush virgin forests in the coast's immediate hinterland. For the hedonistically inclined, Bulgaria's beach-bar scene provides some magnificent opportunities for unrestrained partying.
The tourist season runs from late May to late September, and is at its height in August, when transport and accommodation are overburdened. From October to April the coast can be freezing cold, and a number of hotels close down entirely. Outside Varna and Burgas, many museums and tourist attractions open only during the summer, and hours become erratic as tourist numbers begin to slacken off in September.
Highlights
1 Varna Archeological Museum One of Europe's finest collections of Thracian artefacts, and Bulgaria's largest array of Roman-era funerary sculpture.
2 The Palace of Queen Marie, Balchik The queen of Romania's former summer residence, surrounded by lush botanical gardens.
3 The medieval churches of Nesebar A unique assemblage of medieval churches, influenced by both Bulgarian and Byzantine cultures.
4 Sozopol The old town features charming cobbled streets, a wealth of wooden houses and tiny chapels.
5 Lozenets DJ-driven beach bars turn this unassuming fishing village into the Black Sea's party capital during the peak season.
6 The southern coast Beautiful white sand beaches – most dazzling at Sinemorets – and some great beach bars.