Varna is a working city as well as a resort, and for long-stay residents has something to offer that the beach resorts lack. There is a range of properties available, including older 1960s blocks on the edge of town, newer blocks in the centre and even older houses of real architectural charm and character.
When going to Varna you will have plenty of places to visit and a lot of attractions to enjoy. There is a restored Roman spa built in the 2nd century, during the reign of Antony Pii, and a Roman bath dating back to the 3rd century in the centre of Varna. The Holy Virgin Cathedral, […]
Things get much more interesting around cities like Varna (population 454,000). It is here-rather than in the resorts-that you will see and experience the real Bulgaria. When Channel 4’s A Place in the Sun team came to Bulgaria in 2001, they scoured the coast before deciding that Varna and
Dorich is a quiet inland town with a population of around 100,000. The rural areas around are well worth a visit and may be of interest to people who seek to combine rural tranquillity with access to the coast. The town is situated inland from Albena in the Dobrudzha Plateau.
The two resorts of Albena and Golden Sands are just a few kilometres from each other, along the coast road, north of Varna.
Albena has a late 1960s feel, with a swinging collection of pyramid-shaped hotel rooms and all the facilities needed to spend your whole holiday on site.
This northerly seaside village is about 40km north of Varna, and has become a highly favoured destination for property-hunters. By reputation it is a location beloved by artists and, as one of the breeziest parts of the Black Sea, is a favoured haunt of sailors. The new harbour development is now under way, with moorings and seafront apartments.
The dramatic cliffs of Cape Kaliakra provide one of the Black Sea’s prettiest and most remote beach resorts. This region is less developed than Sunny Beach and Golden Sands to the south, but it attracts nature-lovers to the Kaliakra National Park, the only coastal national park in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria does not have such a strong regional tradition as England or Ireland. The Ottoman Empire divided the country into areas (vilyets) based around regional governors, and to some extent these remain the regional divisions today. The official regions are geographical and administrative rather than culturally different.
If you just stick to one area you may miss out on something which you would! have preferred if you had taken the time to visit it sooner. There are Brits who live in remote regions in Bulgaria who wonder why they did not buy a similar property just a few kilometres away in a less isolated location.
Prices vary widely across Bulgaria, and in the current market they are subjec to great change: quarterly increases were between 9 and 16 per cent for the first quarter of 2007.