Burgas is located on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria , 385 kilometers from the capital Sofia. It is the cultural center of the country and one of its main resorts. The city was founded by the ancient Greeks at the very beginning of our era and was known on the shores of the Black Sea under the name Pyrgos . However, there are practically no data about that era in modern archaeological sources. The most recent mention of these places dates back to 1829, when during the Russian-Turkish war, this territory was occupied by the Turks, and the population was only five thousand people. Larger scale development of Burgasbegan in 1903, after the French company “Batinol” built a port here, seeing a considerable prospect of such an investment, in the geographical location of the city and mild climatic conditions. Since then, the resort of Burgas has developed rapidly, turning into one of the most promising destinations of the Bulgarian tourism industry.
Features of the Burgas resort
Now the image of modern Burgas is formed by modern hotels, glamorous entertainment centers, shopping complexes, elite restaurants, as well as traditional streets of the old town, low-rise houses and wooden taverns, made in a characteristic medieval style.
Climate
Located on the very shore of the Black Sea, Burgas is an ideal vacation spot in the period from May to the first half of September. The air temperature at this time of the year rarely exceeds +30 degrees and mostly varies in the range from +24 to +30. Due to the fact that a light breeze blows from the sea, even on the hottest days there is no stuffiness here.
How to get to the Burgas resort?
Burgas International Airport (Burgas Airport, IATA: BOJ) is located in Sarafovo district , which receives flights from all over Europe, including from Ukraine. In the summer high season, additional charter flights are organized from Kyiv and regions of Ukraine. Local air carriers operate domestic flights from Sofia. From the airport to the railway station of Burgas , take bus No. 15, the journey takes about 30 minutes, and the cost is 0.45 euros.
Transport in Burgas
Public transport in Burgas is represented by buses and shuttle taxis that operate from 5:45 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. The average fare is BGN 0.6. To independently explore the city, you can rent a car or a more ecological form of transport – a bicycle.
Beaches in the Burgas resort
The tourist infrastructure in Burgas is developed at a fairly high level. The wide sandy beaches of the coast are equipped with sunbeds, mattresses and umbrellas, which allows vacationers not to burden themselves with household problems. The urban sandy beach of Burgas is quite popular , its cleanliness is maintained, and thanks to the gentle entrance to the sea, even small children can swim. The city’s northern beach was awarded the Blue Flag for cleanliness.
Attractions
The most picturesque attraction of the resort is Primorsky Park , with historical monuments and sculptural works located on its territory. Its length along the coast is more than seven kilometers. Flower beds and tall green trees, framed by thick foliage, harmoniously fit into the surrounding landscape. Among the numerous sculptures, you can see busts of famous people of the past, among which there is a bust of the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz , in whose work there was also a place to mention a small Bulgarian town. In the park there is a Summer Open Theater , on the podium of which musical groups regularly perform and various festivals are held. In addition, there is a miniature zoo here, which is of particular interest to children, and a picturesque pedestrian alley, which leads to the central part of the city.
The most important cultural component of Burgas is the city Archaeological Museum , built at the beginning of the twentieth century. In its halls are presented interesting artifacts and collections of items from ancient times that have survived to our days since the Thracian era. Ceramic products, coins, dishes and household items, tombstones made of stone, as well as piercing and cutting military tools belonging to different cultures. From the exhibits of later times, gold objects made by the first representatives of European civilization stand out. Not far from the archaeological museum are the Renaissance Museum , with its unique works of art and sculpture, and the Navy Museum, which presents in its halls the entire history of the Bulgarian navy, including sketches of ships and exhibits made in the form of models, which tell about key battles in the waters of the Black Sea in different years.
The main religious sights of the resort are the Cathedral Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the Armenian Church . It is located in the immediate vicinity of the main hotel of the city – “Bulgaria”. This is one of the oldest buildings in the region and in 1970 the temple received the official status of a cultural monument of the country.
The main historical value of the Bulgarian resort is the majestic Pirg os fortress, located on the shores of Lake Mandren . Today, it is a majestic ruin of a once formidable fortress built by the ancient Greeks. Unfortunately, during the Russian-Turkish war, the fortress was seriously destroyed and has not been restored since then. However, the picturesque places and beautiful nature of this lake region still create a unique environment around the Pyrgos fortress and regularly attract a large army of foreign tourists.
Entertainment at the Burgas resort
Directly on the beach area there are water vehicle rental points, and for extreme lovers there are special price lists with a description of the attractions and their cost. Sports such as diving or water skiing always require the presence of an experienced instructor who, for a fee, will share his knowledge and experience with any beginner and teach how to use all the associated attributes of these activities. All hotels have convenient and functional transport links with the city center and its surroundings.
Bike rides
Travelers who like active pastimes and sports will find something to do thanks to the ecotourism promotion program implemented by the city authorities. A wide variety of routes are at your service. Traveling along them, you will discover the natural beauty and peculiarities of Bulgaria’s culture for yourself – for this purpose, there are short ones that introduce you to the outskirts of the city, taking up half a day, and long ones – complex and multi-day, intended for those who are not new to cycling . The length of the easiest route is twenty km, and the longest is more than two hundred and twenty.
No matter which route you take, any of them can boast panoramic views, introduce you to historical and cultural sights, and delight you with beautiful landscapes and corners of wild nature. You will visit national parks and other interesting towns. These tourist routes were specially developed in order to fully saturate the interest of visitors to the sights of the state. For example, using route number one, you will see the main sights in Burgas , then, leaving its borders, you will go to Lake Atanasovsk , you will reach the Thracian tombs. Every tourist, using a rented two-wheeled vehicle, can make such a trip and get pleasant memories as a reward thanks to getting to know the beauties of Bulgaria.
ATV safari
Most often, tour operators offer active entertainment – trips on ATVs to people coming from Ukraine in countries such as Egypt or Tunisia. However, recently, tour operators who organize active recreation in Bulgaria for visitors also began to offer such an interesting option for walks in nature. This is done by the company “PH Quads”. The natural landscapes located north of the city of Burgas are very suitable for trips on quad bikes: they are flat fields and small hills. The instruction lasts only fifteen minutes, no special skills are needed to drive this vehicle, and you can go on the road immediately after the training.
This pleasant feature is very popular with tourists, so this kind of entertainment is, accordingly, quite popular among them. It is better to book places for the next group in advance – especially if you are planning such an active vacation with a large company. The level of organization of trips is quite high, the company that runs this business provides tourists with a transfer to the skiing area, and takes a small fee for this. The cost of this entertainment is sixty levs, the trip lasts approximately one hour and fifteen minutes. During this small trip, tourists are given the opportunity to see local landscapes, enjoy the beauty of Bulgaria’s nature and experience bright positive emotions.
Kayaking
Nowadays, such entertainment as kayaking is gaining popularity among tourists coming to Burgas. It is organized by the Kayak Safaris company, which offers a wide program of water mini-cruises. They are held in the period from May to September, and the arena of this active entertainment is the Fakiyska River , which is located at a distance of fifty kilometers from the city. It has a shallow depth and a slow current, so it will not be particularly difficult for an ordinary vacationer to handle a kayak. Each tourist gets his own boat, and children under the age of eleven sit with one of the adults.
During such a trip, you will be able to observe representatives of the local aquatic fauna, birds, a large number of butterflies, and also enjoy the view of wonderful natural landscapes. You will become one with the natural world of Bulgaria, breathing in clean air and gaining unique impressions. To organize such entertainment, you should take care of booking a place in advance. Depending on what will be the agreement with the organizing company, you will either be provided with a transfer to a place convenient for you (for a small additional fee), or you will be waited for at the starting point of the water walk.
Features of rest in Burgas
If you are going to rest in Burgas , then we want to warn you right away that this city is not quite suitable for a beach holiday, even more correctly, it is not suitable at all. Despite the fact that there are many hotels and city beaches in Burgas , the sea in the resort area is quite dirty and you should not swim in it.
The reason for all this is a large seaport, and the location of the city, which is located on the shore of the Burgas Bay, excludes the possibility of seawater being renewed by means of currents. It turns out that all the pollution from the port, as well as all the garbage that can get into the sea in the area of the city limits, is delayed in the bay until the wind blows from the shore. For this reason, even city dwellers, when it comes to beach vacations, try to spend the weekend outside the city limits.
If you are satisfied with the prospect of living in Burgas , and going out of town every day on the beach, then please. But I don’t think it will be a good option. Around the city there are a large number of resorts where you can relax quite comfortably. Moreover, the conditions for recreation at these resorts are very diverse, from gregarious and noisy, such as Sunny Beach , to calm and secluded, such as Dune .
Maybe some people are attracted to Burgas as a big city, where you can find entertainment for every taste at any time of the day or night, but then you will have to sacrifice something. Or swimming in the sea, replacing it with a swimming pool, or the inconvenience associated with trips to country beaches.
As you can see, everything has its pros and cons, but it is worth admitting that there will be more cons in such a vacation. Naturally, with such a state of sea water, there is no need to talk about recreation with children. After all, the essence of the rest itself is to a greater extent in improving the state of health, and not in the risk of losing it. Therefore, you should not try your luck and choose safer resorts. Let them be not so civilized, but meet all sanitary standards.
On some sites, they write about the crystal clear water of the sea in the Burgas area, but this is more likely for the sake of advertising the sale of real estate in the city. It is clean, but not often. It is worth noting that the central city beach is also not well equipped and there are very few sunbeds with umbrellas. Of course, I don’t want the article to be of such a negative nature, but it is better for tourists to have an objective idea about one or another resort, than later to scold the author for providing inaccurate information. Agree that it is much more pleasant when it turns out better than what you expect, than when you are disappointed. We do not think that it is worth paying quite a lot of money for such a vacation.
When is the best time to rest in Burgas?
The first vacationers appear on the beaches of Burgas as early as May, but this does not mean that the summer season has already begun. Although the daytime temperature allows sunbathing, the water temperature in the sea is quite low and not everyone will have a great desire to swim. In reality, you can rest at this resort from mid-June to mid-September, so when planning your vacation, you should consider only these three months. I cannot say that the prices will differ significantly, depending on the period of entry into this period. If you are interested in a lower vacation price, then in this case you need to choose a time before or after the period that we have named. In May or the second half of September, you can really count on some discount on the price of a ticket or accommodation in the private sector.
The climate of the Black Sea coast in the Burgas area is quite mild and there are no exhausting high temperatures. Therefore, you can relax even in the hottest period, which lasts from mid-July to the end of August. As for temperature indicators, the sea from mid-June to mid-July can be within the range of + 21 + 25 degrees, usually in the case of this resort, which is located on the shore of the Burgas Bay, the water temperature is greatly influenced by the air temperature and the presence of sunny days, as a result of which the bay warms up. The daytime air temperature at this time is also quite high and often exceeds the thirty-degree mark. But it is worth noting that closer to the night it gets quite cool, and it will not work to take a walk or sit on the terrace after eight o’clock in the evening in light clothes. Therefore, when going for a walk or an open summer restaurant, it is worth grabbing something from the appropriate clothes.
From the second half of July, the hottest time begins, by August the water in the sea warms up to +27 degrees, and the daytime temperature often exceeds the thirty-five degree mark. But directly near the sea, this heat is not strongly felt. You can feel stuffiness only when you are in the city itself, where the coolness of the sea does not reach, and the heat comes from the surrounding asphalt and concrete, which are warmed by the sun’s rays. This weather will last for the entire month of August. The evenings become a little warmer, although the peculiarity of the local climate is that the difference in day and night temperatures is quite large and can reach fifteen to twenty degrees, which must also be taken into account.
The first half of September is quite suitable for a beach vacation, and although the air is quite warm, and the water in the sea has not yet dropped below +23 degrees, the end of the season is already felt, as some hotels begin to close, and the number of tourists noticeably decreases. There is no longer that liveliness and hustle and bustle, but it is a very suitable period for recreation with small children. Although, in our opinion, Burgas is not the best option for recreation, especially if there are children, since the cleanliness of the sea in the area of the city leaves much to be desired.
In the second half of September, tourists almost completely leave the beaches, and on those days when the weather still allows sunbathing and swimming in the sea, mostly local residents or those who did not want to come here for a beach holiday come.
Placing
You can stay in Burgas both in inexpensive 3* hotels and more comfortable 4-5* hotels. Local residents rent housing in private houses and apartments during the season, but there is no guarantee of quality service in this case.
Kitchen
Burgas has many restaurants and cafes with Bulgarian, international and more exotic types of cuisine . The national cuisine is quite simple, but tasty and satisfying, you should definitely try local dishes, and the small bill will pleasantly surprise you.
Restaurant “New Shanghai”
Already based on the name of this establishment, you can make a conclusion in advance about the dishes of which cuisine you will be offered here. Right from the entrance, the restaurant “New Shanghai” greets visitors with an oriental flavor, in the form of appropriate decoration – dragons, Chinese lanterns and other things in the same spirit. The establishment has a decent interior, the capacity of the restaurant is quite large. It is especially good to be in it when the weather is good outside. There is a menu in English, in which you can see Shanghai duck, pork in sweet and sour sauce, squid in batter, as well as other culinary masterpieces characteristic of the Chinese culinary tradition. Portion sizes are very solid, you can completely satisfy your hunger by ordering just one dish. Especially if you take vegetables or seaweed as a side dish.
Everyone who comes here constantly notes the high quality of the offered varieties of Chinese tea. In general, if you are a lover and admirer of Eastern gastronomic traditions, then you will definitely like it here: no matter how wonderful the local Bulgarian cuisine is, over time it can get boring. The cost of meals is not very high. The restaurant is conveniently located near Primorsky Park . You can park your car almost next to the establishment itself – this is a big plus for many visitors. In fact, this restaurant is the best such gastronomic institution in the whole city.
Restaurant “Happy Bar and Grill”
Probably, even a professional will find it very difficult to understand the culinary direction of this restaurant: here you are offered Japanese sushi, local traditional dishes, and ordinary European dishes… For example, you can see ” Amore Mio ” spaghetti with chicken and Parmesan cheese, and next to it – spaghetti ” Frut di mare » with shrimp and squid – like a fish cuisine dish; however, looking at the next page, we can see pork tenderloin with samurai sauce or veal fillet with onions … And on the other page, a huge variety of Japanese culinary masterpieces is presented to the visitors’ view … In general, you can visit here more than once, and try something new every time and an unusual dish for you.
That’s why this restaurant is so popular. And also because it is very conveniently located – on Oleksandrivska Street , which is one of the central streets. The working hours of this gastronomic establishment are from 10:00 to 24:00. Visitors mostly gather in the evening, so at that time there are quite a lot of people in the restaurant “Happy Bar and Grill”. This restaurant is also attractive due to its relatively low prices. The cost of lunch in this establishment is twenty to twenty-five percent lower than in most other local restaurants.
Restaurant “Pri Lipite”
The name of this establishment means “under the linden trees”, but it gained wide popularity not because of its name, and not even because it corresponds to the actual design of the establishment, whose tables are located under these trees, but because of the wide variety of dishes offered. Here you can try various innovations of Bulgarian cuisine – there are many options. There are no less than six types of soups here – such as spinach soup, exotic tripe soup or the unusual ” Veal tail soup”“. Many meat dishes, you can try chicken liver with prunes, pork tenderloin with dried herbs, stewed potatoes with dill and garlic, marinated goat cheese with greens… Here you can taste dishes from all over the country. Desserts are quite popular in this restaurant, including cakes prepared according to national recipes that have been preserved for many generations.
The interior of this establishment is very cozy, the owners made efforts to ensure that it corresponds to the main gastronomic direction – the design is selected in accordance with the traditions of Bulgarian architecture. Restaurant “Pri Lipite” is located in an old building, the age of which has recently passed the age limit. You won’t have to look for this establishment for a long time – it is located on Battenberg Street, near the Grand Hotel.
Shopping
Burgas has excellent opportunities for shopping, which is confirmed by many tourists who go here for shopping from neighboring resorts – Nessebar, Sunny Beach, etc. Summer clothes and shoes can be bought both in inexpensive shops and in shopping centers with world brands. It is worth paying attention to cosmetics and local products.
A mass of entertainment for every taste, a rich excursion program and a variety of restaurants with exquisite menus make Burgas one of the best resorts in Bulgaria.