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Budget-friendly Bulgaria’s Golden boom beckons Brits

Monday, Jun 16, 2008

VICKY ANDERSON checks out the growing popularity of Bulgaria at the enormous Golden Sands resort
EVERY year, Bulgaria is becoming a more and more popular destination for curious Brits.
Affordable, welcoming and varied in the scale of activities on offer for beach bums, skiers and all types in between, it is attracting holiday-makers and investors by the plane-load.
There is a booming market for holiday flats and apartments and — in the area we visited — a burgeoning golf scene.
The resort of Golden Sands was our home for the duration of the trip, although our activities were based around the north east city of Varna . . . the third largest in the country.
Golden Sands is a gigantic beachside resort complex comprising dozens of hotels of varying budget and style.
We settled in at the four-star Kempinski Grand Hermitage Hotel . . . a large, luxurious base and certainly one of the most attractive on the strip.
With the beach right on the doorstep, it is a perfect location for a sunny summer break and is filled with holiday-makers from all over Europe.
Golden Sands and Varna — about half an hour’s drive away — are located on what is known as the Black Coast.
On our second day, we took a boat trip to fully explore the changing coastline, with several clusters of established resorts and apartment complexes and golf courses springing up everywhere.
But Golden Sands is so big, with so many nooks and crannies, that it’s impossible to get very far or get your bearings while on foot.
One night, we were driven to a hideously garish casino in the complex for dinner, only to be taken through to a hidden culinary gem in a designer restaurant fully decorated in Philippe Starck designs.
The Silver Gourmet offered gorgeous food and fine wine in the most stylish surroundings, and at prices so ludicrously cheap I actually felt guilty.
It was the same after a successful night’s wine tasting in Varna proper.
Expecting to get stung after finding out that tasty red we’d been glugging was some kind of rare vintage, we ended up spending less than the cost of your average bottle of Blossom Hill on some gorgeous local vino.
Wherever you go along the coast, fresh fish is available in abundance, in more shapes, sizes and species than a cod- reared Brit could dream of.
Having been starved of beach holidays throughout my adulthood, a return to them was timely and enjoyable.
From this base, it was worth a drive out to the Kaliakra nature reserve.
An historic site littered with medieval ruins and steeped in legend, the views from the cape and across the ocean are worth the trip alone.
Like any proper tourist trap, there’s the promise of dolphin sightings, but I was out of luck on my visit.
On our way back, we passed through the high-comedy town of Kavarna where, in between the Communist-era apartment blocks and locals travelling by pony and trap, giant murals of legends of rock such as David Coverdale, Jimmy Page and Billy Idol, adorn the buildings.
It transpires that the popular mayor is a devoted metal-head and, as a result, some of the biggest names in the genre love to play there.
A trip to Varna itself revealed an intriguing city that is a mix of ancient and modern. Grand museums and the beautiful Bulgarian Orthodox Theotokos Cathedral are interspersed with international chain stores and offices flogging apartments to foreigners.
I’d never ventured into Eastern Europe before, so this may not be such an unusual observation, but often our party’s eyes would be drawn to stalls full of historic tat alongside the usual postcards and keyring malarkey, only to find an array of authentic Nazi memorabilia for sale. Pretty odd in itself . . . but especially so when one of the stalls is selling the stuff outside a cathedral!
We wondered why anyone would want to try and smuggle an SS death’s head ring through customs and politely moved on, but these curious stalls were to be found everywhere. Despite that, Varna does have real a charm. It’s a modest size and has an array of cultural must-sees.
While we wandered, I caught sight of a poster promoting the city’s bid for Capital of Culture status in 2019 and smiled to myself . . . I hope they have Lady Luck on their side.
5 things to do
1. THE Sea Garden at Varna is a favourite, with its amphitheatre, observatory, planetarium, zoo, playgrounds, and water features.
2. VISIT the medieval Aladzha rock monastery, a few kilometres south of Golden Sands. It has brightly coloured wall paintings and is dug out of the rock on two levels.
3. THE summer palace and beautiful Botanic Garden of Balchik is about 31km away and worth a visit.
4. FOR a change of beach, go to neighbouring Kranevo, a smaller, less developed resort.
5. AT St Konstantin and Elena, you can visit the Evksinograd government residence.

Source: Sunday Sun