Bulgaria has a very settled
climate, with long, hot, dry summers and in the interior very
cold winters. July and August can be unbearably hot in the
major cities, and more than a little crowded on the Black
Sea coast which is one of the most popular holiday areas in
Bulgaria for holidaymakers. Elsewhere in Bulgaria, you won't
have to worry too much about being crowded by other tourists
as it is still relatively un-spoilt and undisturbed. Using
public transport is fairly easy for most of the year, but
bear in mind that the highest cross-mountain routes will be
closed during the coldest months due to ice and snow.
Bulgaria's capital city is Sofia, and the second biggest city
is Plovdiv. Due to its rich historical background it boasts
examples of various architectural styles that existed in the
Balkans during the centuries. Both cities are becoming increasingly
cosmopolitan places, offering a range of street cafés
and nightlife, holiday accommodation can be found fairly easily
with studio apartments, holiday homes all readily available
both in the cities and on the outskirts. They are both considered
as important cultural centers, and have numerous museums and
galleries, and are good bases from which to visit the rest
of the country. The countryside rather than the cities is
where you will find the real rewards of inland travel. You'll
come across some of Europe's finest highland scenery in the
Rila, Pirin, Stara planina, Sredna Gora and Rhodope mountain
ranges, and in whose valleys you will discover the kind of
villages that have all but disappeared in the rest of Western
Europe. Many of them are hard to reach due to the relief of
the area, but if traditional architecture and original cobbled
alleys appeal, then the travel time will be rewarded. While
the towns of Koprivshtitsa and Panagyurishte which are a living
memorial to the 1876 April Rising, and the tiniest Bulgarian
town Melnik famous for its wine cellar, have good tourist
facilities, more rustic out-of-the-way villages such as Brashlyan,
Kovachevitsa and Zheravna are also well worth visiting.
The highland regions display Bulgaria's rich spiritual traditions
in the shape of its many monasteries. Rila, Bachkovo, Rozhen
and Dryanovo are the most visited, although any number of
smaller foundations are well worth a visit. Also in the mountains,
which is a growing winter tourist industry and is taking shape
in resorts such as Bansko, Borovets and Pamporovo , although
the latter two are purpose-built package resorts which lack
the charm of Bansko. Snow is thick on the ground from late
November right the way through to mid-March, and in summer
the mountain resorts are taken over by climbers, ramblers
and hikers. Most foreign visitors do still head for the Black
Sea as this is the main tourist area of Bulgaria. Formerly
it was the summer playground most of all of the entire Eastern
bloc and after 1989 it was widely opened up to the whole of
Europe and the rest of the world. Big purpose-built resorts
like Sunny Beach and Golden Sands tend to be getting overcrowded,
so if you want to stay at a quiet and peaceful place it's
better to steer clear of them once you arrive in Bulgaria.
The main resort-city of Varna is the liveliest place along
the entire coast, while small peninsula destinations like
Nesebâr and Sozopol , even though crowded in August
with both local and foreign holiday makers, provide traditional
fishing-village atmosphere as well as enticing stretches of
sandy beaches. There is a predominance of fine sandy beaches
which in a lot of cases are magnificent.
Private enterprise is becoming much more developed here than
anywhere else in the country, ensuring a plentiful supply
of rooms and good restaurants. Although the climate remains
mild for most of the year Bulgaria enjoys hot summers and
cold dry winters. The Black Sea becomes quieter outside the
main tourist season (May-Sept), when some tourist attractions
and hotels close, so be aware of this when planning your holiday
to Bulgaria. Elsewhere in the country few places are geared
up to cater for Western-style tourism, the rugged highlands
that cut across the centre of the Bulgaria are among the best
places to explore the heartland of Bulgaria’s history
and culture. The crafts towns and monasteries of the central
Balkan Range are the places where traditional Bulgarian culture
made its recovery during the nineteenth-century, and are easily
explored from the town of Veliko Tarnovo , medieval capital
of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom. Shumen , main town of the
northwest, is not as interesting in comparison, but allows
easy access to the remains of the Bulgarian state's first
two capitals, Pliska and Preslav . Between the Balkan Range
and the Sredna Gora , which has many reminders of Bulgaria's
nineteenth-century struggles against Turkish oppression, lies
the Valley of the Roses , lined by a string of historic market
towns and home to Bulgaria's renowned rose harvest in late
May.
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