My sister and I like to take holidays in places we have never been before. This year we tried Bulgaria. We booked with Jet2.com and we had to fly from Stansted Airport. The flight was on time and was comfortable enough. A transfer was included. We were staying at the Ivana Palace in Sunny Beach and had an issue with our room as my sister, who has mobility problems, could not manage the shower over the bath tub. The staff were very helpful and agreed we could move to a room with a walk in shower the next day. As I said, the staff were extremely friendly and helpful and initially the hotel seemed lovely but the rooms were a bit dated and they had this weird arrangement where the bar was literally in the centre of the foyer so, as you entered your first impression was of a noisy rowdy bar! (For some reason there did seem to be a lot of noisy people in this hotel who were in the bar from about 11am onwards). So we never sat in the bar area. Luckily Sunny Beach is a very lively area so there were lots of alternative places to get a drink. The pool area was very nice with plenty of sun loungers available and lots of floatable flamingos and lilos for the guests to use. There is a bar outside as well but we did not see this open at any time during our stay.
On our first day we headed off to find the beach. It is only a short walk from the hotel but the road was very uneven (not great for my sister!) The beach at Sunny Beach is beautiful, a great long stretch of sand and beside it runs a street with lots of shops, bars, restaurants, a casino and even a ferris wheel! (Which we did go on and it gave great views of Sunny Beach at night). It is a bit like an American boardwalk and we walked a long way along it only to find that the further away we got the tattier it got. The restaurants and nicer bars turned into karaoke places and bingo places at the far end.
The next day we popped into a tourist shop near our hotel called SEE MORE. The owner, Nikolai, who spoke perfect English, helped us decide on some excursions and also gave us some information about the area. We spent the rest of the day on the beach (you do have to pay for sun loungers and umbrella’s here but it isn’t expensive). It was my first time swimming in the Black Sea and it was beautiful, easy to get into with a sloping beach and it was a pleasant temperature.
The first trip we did was to Nesebar. Nikolai had told us we could get a public bus there but there was also an open top bus that we wanted to go on. However, we waited ages for that and it never arrived (it seems that because it was near the end of their season, the open top bus was not running as regularly and we did never managed to get a ride on it!) So the public bus took us there. Nesebar is what they call “The Pride of the Black Sea Coast”. It has Byzantine ruins and it is a small rocky island 37 kilometres from Borgas. We spent the day there. There was a nice port to wander around, quality souvenir shops and restaurants with scenic views. It was a lovely place despite the cobbled streets which weren’t easy for my sister. We even went back another day and had dinner at a cliffside restaurant and watched the sun go down. When we got back from Nesebar we went to a restaurant across the road from the hotel called Friends. It really was very friendly and did great pizzas!
Another day we went on a tour to Sozapol and Borgas. (Our friendly neighbourhood tour booker, Nikolai even came to the pick up point to make sure we had found it OK which we thought was very sweet). We were on a tour bus with a guide who had to say everything in 5 languages! (There seemed to be a lot of Russians in Bulgaria which surprised us as they do have a war going on at the moment! Nikolai told us it was only the wealthy Russians that were going there at the moment). We visited St George’s Monastery and then had a tour of Sozapol. A lovely little town and for lunch we found the Riviera Restaurant with amazing views of the sea and cliffs. We were then taken to Ropotamo Nature Reserve and we took a nice leisurely ride down the river to where it joins the Black Sea. We saw cormorants, herons, egrets and even kingfishers. On the way back to the Hotel we stopped for some free time in Borgas which is the 4th largest city in Bulgaria. It was very built up and not the most exciting place we have been. The other trip we booked was a VIP Catamaran Cruise. We got picked up by a red london bus (making me feel very at home!) and we were taken to the port in Nesebar. We were the last group to board the catamaran and all the sunloungers on top deck were occupied but we found two comfortable seats in the sun on the lower deck. I am not sure why this was called a VIP cruise. Nikolai had said we would have prosecco (we didn’t), snacks (only apples!), beautiful wine (it actually had to be mixed with soda to be drinkable) and a gourmet lunch (it was actually a type of ratatouille for us vegetarians and you had to be quick to get some!) But it was lovely to be out on the water and I got to snorkel in the sea (amid a load of jelly fish it turned out! Luckily they weren’t poisonous!) We also saw dolphins on the way back which was the highlight of the day!
So my impressions of Bulgaria? We had lovely weather with only one day of rain. The young Bulgarians were lovely and friendly, the older generation were brusque and unfriendly. And everyone seems to smoke!!! You can smoke anywhere, in restaurants, bars and our hotel room had 3 ashtrays in it for some reason! We didn’t like that at all as we would settle down for a drink or a meal and inevitably someone would light up beside us. A good thing is that is is very cheap to eat out. I would have liked to see more of Bulgaria, especially the capital Sofie but it was too far away. (It is actually easier to do a day trip to Istanbul than one to Sofia!) We did really enjoy our time there and for a cheap, not sophisticated break, I would recommend it but watch out for those cobbled streets!
