Bulgaria is the surprising beach destination you need to discover

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Bulgaria may not come immediately to mind for a dream beach vacation. But it should.

Buff sand beaches and resorts stretch along the 378 km Bulgarian coast of the Black Sea, interrupted by picturesque cliffs and clay-roofed villages topped with ostrich nests.

Bulgaria’s coast occupies the west curve of the Black Sea, which it shares with Turkey to the south, Romania to the north and Ukraine, Russia and Georgia across the waves.

“Bulgaria?” my adult daughter questioned. “Isn’t that near Ukraine?”

But even though Bulgaria shares the Black Sea with Ukraine, its coast is as safe as Nova Scotia’s. The distance between Bulgaria and Ukraine is around 800 to 1,000 km, with Romania in between.

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The vast inland Black Sea is fed by both saline ocean water and the fresh waters of the Danube, Dnieper and Don rivers, leaving it less salty than an ocean but more saline than a lake.

Recently, Hyatt opened four new high-end, all-inclusive hotels on the Black Sea coast, so Bulgaria’s bargain beach vacations with a Balkan flavour are on the cusp of being discovered by North Americans. It’s a more reasonable holiday, for starters, Bulgaria doesn’t use the Euro, so prices for lodging and meals are cheaper. The country has the second lowest cost of living in Europe, after Romania.

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The beaches are clean and shallow, the sand is fine and golden and the water is calm and shimmeringly blue – unless occasional bad weather roils the waves and makes the sea look, well, black. In early June, for the first of our five days at the sea, a north wind brought a chill that made a sun umbrella unnecessary but wasn’t severe enough to prevent people from wading into the water.

Visitors to Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast can choose from dozens of beaches and hundreds of resort hotels: head to Sunny Beach for the nightlife, Albena for younger families and older couples, Golden Sands for students and active families. Nesebar has a nudist beach and Bolata offers an undeveloped beach in the Kaliakra Nature Reserve.

The beaches of Albena, where we stayed, are 6 km long and 150 m deep at the northern end of the Bulgarian shore. It’s one of the quieter locations and one of the first resort complexes on Bulgaria’s coast. In high summer months, expect lots of families drawn to the nearby Aquamania water park.

Of the more than 20 Albena resort hotels, many with wide private beaches set with rows of sun loungers, we chose the newest and, for the area, the most expensive and luxurious – the five-star Maritim Hotel Paradise Blue with its grand marble lobby, indoor pool and spa.

For a rate of $160 a night, we slept in a large, sleek modern room with coastal-themed decor. The balcony had its own private plunge pool and a view of treed gardens and the sea.

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There were plenty of sun loungers available at the pool and at the resort’s private beach but we were politely informed – this being the post-communist era in Bulgaria – that the first two rows of sun loungers at the beach were reserved for guests staying on the elite, higher floors of the hotel, although they were usually empty.

But even from the third row of loungers, with the umbrella adjusted for shade and the waves splashing, the sunny days passed too quickly into the cocktail hour. Jet streams streaked the sky from Turkey on the other side of the sea and in the far distance, huge cargo ships sailed along the horizon.

Before heading out to the beach, we enjoyed the hotel’s lavish buffet breakfast on the dining balcony, where we had to watch out for seagulls searching for leftovers. The array of cold cuts, cheeses and fruit was spectacular, along with salads, sardines, herring, smoked salmon and more. Dinners were just as satisfying.

One night, the buffet included whole fresh sea bass from the same waters we’d just been swimming in, its skin was crisp and flesh tender. On other nights we dined out at a family-owned restaurant nearby. We also explored the Balchik Botanical Gardens and Palace where Queen Marie of Romania spent her summers high above the sea. Far below, the waves lapped a sweet little beach and marina.

Don’t be fooled by Queen Marie’s hideaway being touted as a palace. It’s a big old house with some furniture. Frustratingly – and here the country’s communist past was much in evidence – you couldn’t buy the ticket for the gardens without buying the ticket for the “palace” and vice versa. And each ticket was sold at a separate place, although this was never divulged. And only Bulgarian currency (Levs) was acceptable as payment.

South of Albena, visitors will find two of the best-known and biggest resort areas on Bulgaria’s Black Sea: Sunny Beach and Golden Sands.

With a nightlife sometimes described as notorious, the centre of Sunny Beach is a kitschy tourist playground. Streets are lined with tacky souvenir shops and tourist trap restaurants. The party and nightlife reputation attracts the nubile and the naughty from all over the world, with most revellers descending from northern and eastern Europe and a notable contingent of young Brits.

But families also find their way to Sunny Beach, attracted by the massive Action Aquapark, the first water park in Bulgaria that touts its extreme slides. At the calmer end of Sunny Beach, Hyatt opened one adults-only and one family resort side-by-side earlier this year.

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The cultural side of Sunny Beach is the ancient city of Nesebar, a UNESCO heritage site settled more than 3,000 years ago, with Greek and Byzantine structures, towers and walls and, it seems, a church for every saint. It was an island before a road was constructed connecting it to the Sunny Beach mainland. Cars park in perimeter lots and the pedestrian cobbled streets and alleys are crowded with shops and restaurants. But even here in Nesebar, there’s a tiny beach. On the day we spotted it, calm waters tucked into a cove on the far side of the island had attracted a solitary sunseeker escaping the crowded alleyways.

About 70 km from Sunny Beach, the Golden Sands stretch of 3.5 km of beaches is close to Varna, the third largest city in Bulgaria, with a magnificent park and Roman ruins. Golden Sands has a reputation as a magnet for school groups and students celebrating graduation.

In the end, we were delighted with our Bulgarian beach vacation, and meeting the locals who stopped on the street to help us find our way and point us to the best restaurants in town.

One night, on the road between Albena and Balchik we pulled over for a meal at Steak House Silvia, a family-run restaurant. The sea bass was grilled to perfection and – out of nowhere – a plate piled high with delicate, crispy smelts arrived after we admired the dish on the next table.

“You have to eat the heads, too,” insisted our Bulgarian neighbour.

So we did, and head to tail, they were scrumptious.

IF YOU GO

• Fly to Bucharest in Romania or to Sofia in Bulgaria via Frankfurt and drive to Albena. Alternatively, take a regional flight from Sofia to Varna and a bus or taxi for the 28 km trip to Albena.
• In Albena, rooms at the Maritim Hotel Paradise Blue Albena start at $298 including the buffet breakfast in summer.