Sozopol is a city reachable after a long train ride from Varna (4 hours to travel 114 km) and, worst, a chaotic bus trip that lasts about 40 minutes during which you’ll feel you are risking your life every few minutes. If you don’t suffer from motion-sickness, the trip entirely doable by bus … if you can stomach the way Bulgarians drive !
We arrived, tired from our journey, at the bus terminal located on the edge of the old town. Not the best first impression, especially with the sweeping view of soulless modern hotels that were built in the more recent part of town.
Our host finally picked us up from the terminal and lead us in the small cobbled alleys of the old town. It’s only when we reached our room that we discovered the true beauty of this city located on a peninsula bordered by the Black Sea.
The beautiful view boosted our spirits and we were excited to explore the city by foot. We discovered the fortress by the sea, the beach and the old wooden houses in the town. Happy with what we had found, we decided to stay four days in this sea-side town to rest and enjoy all that it has to offer.
We spent four wonderful days eating fresh fruit, tasting the best kebab ever, enjoying the beach, dancing to neo-folk music in the night clubs of the modern part of the town. Sozopol is a town popular with tourists but not in the same way that Golden Sands or Sunny Beach can be with their massive resorts. The city was able to conserve its charm due to the fact that accommodations in the old city are only guest houses or rooms to rent. This keeps big crowds away from this city.
The rates per night of accommodations in Sozopol are very cheap (20-25€ /night double room with bathroom) but prices in restaurants and bars are higher that what we experienced in other parts of Bulgaria. Still, each euro spent goes much farther than it can in Western Europe.
Sozopol was founded a few centuries before our era, and the city highlights its history with an archaeological museum. I loved discovering artefacts from all the civilisation that influenced life in this part of the world: Thracian, Greek, Byzantine, Bulgarian and Ottoman. Some objects date back to the 6th millennium before our era, impressive ! The visit cost only a few Euros but it’s worth much more!
In the city of Sozopol, you will find a few churches to visit but the main attraction is the Black Sea. Close by, there is the city-museum of Nessebar which is became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983 but we unfortunately did not go.
Sozopol
- Yo-Ho Guesthouse : Guest house located at 25 Apolonia
- Very clean and offers a nice view
- To go there : Take a train form Sophia or Varna to Burgas and then a bus to Sozopol. Some buses also run from Varna to Sozopol.
- Yo-Ho Guesthouse : Guest house located at 25 Apolonia
- Don’t forget : Always keep a few coins in your pockets to pay for toilets, they are not free!
This post was first published in French on February 11th, 2013
