Places to Visit in Varna - Bulgaria Tour

Our Bulgaria tour's second stop: Varna, Bulgaria's third largest city..

For almost the last 50 years it's been the first and only holiday destination for young people from Bulgarian high society. Most of the young people go to Varna's bars and nightclubs. Of course we shouldn't limit it to the young: people of all ages can join the activities here and find something of their own..

The oldest gold treasure in the world (estimated to be 6 thousand years old) is displayed in the city's archaeological museum. If that's not enough, you can see fantastic natural rock formations and walk in a real desert. You can also take a journey into communism, and if you go in summer you can spend some very hot days.

As people coming to Bulgaria from Istanbul, we can say we got our fill of parks. We started our Varna trip with parks too..

Sea Garden

We took a morning stroll in this endless park. The morning people were in the parks with us too. Rollerblading, skateboarding, out running, pedalling on bikes: we love parks as the places where a city is lived.

Up ahead a father and son are playing badminton; when we've gone almost all the way round the park and come back, their sweet smiles have grown even bigger and they're still playing. We take a break at a table tennis table in a corner, with bats and balls ready and waiting. A morning this lovely is a sign today will be lovely too!

This huge park, the Sea Garden, running along the seashore in the city centre, is a national monument of landscape architecture. You can spend a whole day in this park. The park stretches 10-12 km along the shoreline; this side of it is one huge beach, and the upper part is a city park. The park has many activity areas, such as an open-air theatre, an aquarium, a planetarium and a national science museum. Providing the public with such a varied area right in the centre of the city is an undeniable success in terms of urban planning.

As you walk, you see the statue of Yuri Gagarin: Gagarin opened part of this garden in 1961 in front of a big crowd.

As a couple who love both nature and cities, seeing the two together is a great pleasure! Maybe we'll come to this park we love so much one summer and spend time on its beach, right, dear Varna :) Now it's time for a nice breakfast! Across Bulgaria, hotels bring breakfast individually, chosen from a menu.

We stayed at a wonderful boutique hotel in Varna. It's 3-4 km outside the centre but right on the sea, a small boutique hotel concept.. Ventura Boutique Hotel: we paid €40 a night for 2 people.

Aladzha Monastery

Just beyond Varna's northern suburbs, part of a protected natural area on the coast, there's an astonishing Orthodox cave monastery complex.

At first it makes you wonder whether these caves are man-made. They're carved into the face of a 25-metre karst cliff. Since walking is hard on part of the site, you should be careful as you walk. Inside the monastery you can see very well preserved mosaics and partly lost medieval frescoes.

Varna Cathedral

The shining copper domes of this magnificent church make up one of the city's postcard scenes. Bulgarian churches really are different. The new look of the Bulgarian Church in Balat had surprised us a lot too.

The cathedral was built in a short time at the end of the 19th century with the Ottomans' permission, and while being built it was modelled on the church at the Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg.

The more than 50 icons you can see inside the church were donated by the Russian Tsar Nicholas II at the start of the 20th century, and most of the other decorations you can see inside were added later because of the war. For example, the big stained-glass windows were installed after the 1960s.

Battle of Varna Park Museum

This museum marks one of the most important moments in European medieval history. In 1444 at Varna, the Ottomans routed the Hungarian-Polish Christian army, and from then until the late 19th century the Ottomans kept their rule in the region with a moderate approach.

The museum in this park west of Varna displays the weapons and armour used in the battle I mentioned above. We recommend setting aside some time to explore the rest of the park. Because it's a park with Thracian trees, the city's Mausoleum.

Retro Museum

I'd like to say right away that the Retro Museum, which takes us on a little journey into a past that isn't actually very far from us, is really enjoyable. The museum is in the city's shopping centre. They've taken care so you can observe every aspect of daily life from the 20th century.

There are Bulgarian cigarettes, kitchenware, vacuum cleaners and cosmetics. Besides these, wax figures of the best-known public figures are on display, like the singer Emil Dimitrov and Todor Zhivkov, head of state during this period.

There's also a small exhibition of 50 cars. Škoda, Trabant, Volga and the Chaika limousine..

Barit Complex

This unusual place helps both tourists and Varna residents connect with Bulgaria's old ways. We can describe it as an open-air museum you can stay in.

There are five traditional houses here and a restaurant built from locally sourced stone and wood. You can see the region's typical crafts and costumes in the ethnography museum. You can also watch performances of traditional dance, songs and various rituals based on Bulgarian folklore.

University Botanic Garden

Imagine a park of 360 hectares, that is, 3600 decares! Spending time in the peaceful surroundings of this huge arboretum on a simple stroll, or picnicking in a spot you find in the shade, wouldn't be bad at all, would it?!

The University Botanic Garden opened in 1977 and holds 300 kinds of plants and shrubs.

If you come at the start of spring, a lovely view of 250 kinds of iris (the iris smells wonderful) and 30 kinds of blooming roses will be waiting for you.

Euxinograd

This château, once a monastery, was turned into what it is by the architects of the time when Prince Ferdinand of France wanted a French-looking château. Plant species like the Atlas cedar were imported for the château's garden grounds, and greenhouses were even built so they wouldn't suffer in winter.

In the cellar of the building, turned from a monastery into a château, there's a small bottling plant, and a winery was even built next to it.

Today the château is used as a summer residence for the President of Bulgaria. But the château is open to visitors, and the gardens and most of the palace's outbuildings can be visited.

Next cities: Veliko Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Kazanlak and Sofia..