Illustrated travel guide to Bulgarian Black Sea coast
Bulgarian black sea coast is a premier summer destination for beach aficionados from around the world. The warm weather and sand beaches offer great resort experience.
Varna is the largest of Bulgarian cities located on the Black Sea coast and a gateway to numerous resort towns further north and south along the coastline.
It also has numerous attractions such as architecture, museums, archaeological sites, parks and recreation areas.
The Dormition of the Theotokos Dormition of the Theotokosis the largest and most famous Bulgarian Orthodox cathedral in the Bulgarian Black Sea port city of Varna and one of the symbols of Varna.
The Stoyan Bachvarov Dramatic Theatre is a theatre in Varna, Bulgaria, founded in 1921 as the Municipal Professional Theatre. It occupies a historic building in the centre of the city designed by Nikola Lazarov It is named after the prominent theatre actor Stoyan Bachvarov.The theatre has a main auditorium, a branch stage and a small auditorium. It has a monthly audience of around 3,500 and features 14 plays at every moment, 6 of which premiere.
There are also remains of ancient roman baths
The main recreation Areas is the Sea Garden which is the oldest and perhaps largest park in town containing an open-air theatre (venue of the International Ballet Competition, opera performances and concerts), an aquarium (opened 1912), a dolphinarium (opened 1984), the Nicolaus Copernicus Observatory and Planetarium, the Museum of Natural History, a terrarium, a zoo, an alpineum, a children's amusement park, and other attractions. There is also a Naval Museum nearby with open air exhibitions of various vessels
If you go north you find Golden Sands, Kranevo, Albena and Balchik. It is easy to get there by local bus from Varna or by taxi.
Golden Sands and Albena are modern world class resorts with high rise hotels with all sort of amenities and night life entertainment such as Dobrudja Hotel.
Kranevo is more quiet family oriented village with small budget hotels. Although it is being rapidly developed into a resort.
Picture below shows an overhead view of Kranevo and Albena. Albena high rises can be seen in top right corner.
The wide long sandy beach is excellent for relaxing under the warm sun. There are also full set of bech activities available. Beach volleyball, parasailing, jet skiing, horseback riding.
There are also more exotic activities available such a sea trip on soviet era amphibian vehicle.
For those travelers who are interested in history and culture numerous sightseeing opportunities exist in the area.
One of them is the Aladja Monastery. It is one of the cave monasteries that existed in 13-14 centuries. Christian monks were hiding in caves carved in sandstone in mountain areas.
There are some wall paintings that survived until present time.
The site is well developed, there is charge to get in. There is a museum and gift store and website
It is located near Golden Sands, you can get there by local bus from Varna to Albena, just tell the driver that you going to Aladja and he will drop you off at intersection were you just need to walk half mile up the road.
Balchik is seaside city north from Varna and Albena. It climbs from seaside up the hills with its narrow winding streets.
The main attraction there is Quiet Nest Palace and Botanical Gardens. It is a former residence of Queen Marie of Romania. It was constructed between 1926 and 1937. The palace complex consists of a number of residential villas, a smoking hall, a wine cellar, a power station, a monastery, a holy spring, a chapel and many other buildings.
Marie of Edinburgh, the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania, visited Balchik in 1921 and liked the location of the summer residence, ordering the vineyards, gardens and water mills of local citizens to be bought so a palace could be constructed at their place. Balkan and Oriental motives were used in the construction of the palace that was carried out by Italian architects Augustino and Americo, while a florist was hired from Switzerland to arrange the park.
The Palace “Quiet Nest” is a modest building constructed upon three terraces combines elements of the Moor style, the Mediterranean architecture and the typical Bulgarian house. The extravagant minaret renders a touch of oriental opulence to the building.
Today many of the former royal villas and other buildings of the complex are reorganized inside and used to accommodate tourists. Some of the older Bulgarian water mills have also been preserved and reconstructed as restaurants or tourist villas.
The Romanian Queen chose a secluded corner to be her eternal rest – a humble stone grave dominated by a cross, brought over from Bessarabia with a short inscription on it, narrating a life history.
The park which is now a botanical garden has waterfalls, stone compositions and numerous ponds with water lilies which was Queen's favorite flower
There is an official website for Palace where more information can be found. There is a charge to visit the place. You need to buy two tickets, one for Palacae, one for the Botanical Gardens
