Bulgaria
Bulgaria is a small and picturesque country linking East and West. The country has a diverse climate with the landscape ranging from snow covered mountains to the Mediterranean influenced valleys and the mild and sunny Black Sea Coast. You have a choice with this destination of relaxing summer beach holidays and fun filled winter sports. Although Bulgaria has changed a lot over the years, you can still find the remote villages where locals carry out their daily lives unchanged by technologies!
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The Black Sea is three hours or less from most of Europe’s capitals, and its golden sands, warm shallow waters, hot summer sunshine and greatvalue prices have made it a favourite of holidaymakers since the late 1970s. Bulgaria is a Balkan nation, and offering fine hospitality is second nature here, alongside a love of street commerce, fine wine and simple but tasty food. To all intents and purposes Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast is made up of two enormous bays. Two distinct groups of resorts sit in each, satellites almost of two major cities on the coast: Varna in the north, and Bourgas in the south. In between, fishing villages 2,000 years old provide quiet respite from the party atmosphere of the larger resorts
Heading northwards from Varna, the bay arcs round, via the Golden Sands resort, to Cape Kaliakra. The contrast perfectly sums up the variety of the coast. Leave Golden Sands – a purpose-built temple to pleasure, chock-full of hotels, restaurants offering full English breakfasts and beach activities – then drive for one hour: you’ll find yourself on a remote, windy clifftop that seems to have changed little from the Middle Ages, from where you can occasionally spot dolphins in the sea far below.
When large numbers of foreign visitors first began arriving on Bulgaria’s beaches at the end of the 1970s, many could have been forgiven for thinking that life under communism wasn’t all that bad. Warm waters lapped the golden sands of the Black Sea shore, hot sunny weather, friendly locals, and gallons of cheap, excellent wine made holidays here memorable. Bulgaria’s communists, though harshly authoritarian, never managed to quell the Balkan instinct for trade and commerce, hospitality and making money. That is one reason that Bulgaria never suffered the shortages and deprivations that hit neighbouring Romania.
When the changes of 1989 swept the communists away, Bulgaria was already established as a favourite summer holiday destination. It has since become a popular holiday destination for Britons, who continue to snap up local property.
Bulgaria has embraced this foreign invasion and the tourism industry has responded with enthusiasm to visitors’ wishes and needs. While peaceful villages and quiet beaches await those who want to get away from it all, the larger resorts provide every home comfort, from British tea to tabloid newspapers. Local sensitivities have adapted to Western ways and every foreign taste – be it topless sunbathing or a fry-up – is catered for.
