Nobody who loves traveling will be able to cover all earth's roads and come to know all worlds... But anybody could make a journey to knowledge - without forgetting where he started from and without losing the way back... History has allotted Bulgaria a difficult and dramatic face. Much has perished, but even more has remained - a rich spiritual world which will show you with the colors, rhythms and melodious songs of living Bulgarian folklore, the unfading beauty of Bulgarian arts and crafts, the gaiety and vivacity of Bulgarian festivals and customs, the piquant taste of Bulgarian cuisine and the delicate fragrance of Bulgarian wines.

Hobby Tourism

Bulgaria is a country which offers interesting possibilities for enthusiasts of the "special interest holidays" formula. Combining your holiday with your favorite hobby could turn into the unforgettable experience of a lifetime. Bulgaria offers all the necessary conditions for an untraditional rural vacation: - old Bulgarian capitals - monasteries and museums towns - Thracian treasures and icon-painting - dozens of picturesque large and small settlements - fine old homes with an unspoiled rural environment and traditional lifestyle - adjoining yards with domestic animals and gardens - ecologically clean regions and pastoral landscape - well-organized welcome and services for guests with typical Bulgarian hospitality - traditional cuisine - and above all - a unique blend of natural scenery with history, folklore, national arts and crafts, colorful festivals and customs.

Arts and Crafts

The Bulgarian's aesthetic sense and conception of the world makes him create art out of any material - wood and clay, wool and copper, silk and silver. Applied crafts have gradually emerged from the narrow frame work of strictly domestic life to become an art which breeds art: Bulgarian embroidery with its intricate geometrical figures, Bulgarian rugs and carpets with their vibrant colors, exquisitely painted Bulgarian ceramics, finely ornamented Bulgarian fretwork and superbly fashioned Bulgarian jewelry.

Festivals and Customs

Full of beauty, gaiety and a healthy love of life, the Bulgarian festivals and customs date back to ancient times when mail tried to appease the natural elements and trembled before their power. One of the merriest and richest festivals in a ritual aspect are Christmas and the New Year, when the so called 'sourvakari' make the round of houses with wishes for health and prosperity. Other major festivals include "ladouvane" - a festive ritual for young girls on New Year's Day or Midsummer Day (24 June), Shrovetide and Mummers' Games which take their beginnings from the Dionysian festivals of the Thracians and mark the start of spring, 'lazarouvane' - an Orthodox festival dedicated to love and the family, Trifon Zarezan (Vinegrower's Day) and St. George's Day, linked with health and abundance. And among them, the widely popular and typically Bulgarian customs and festivals - 'martenitsas' and rose-picking. Every year on the 1st of March, the Bulgarians give each other 'martenitsas' - small figures made of white and red threads, a symbol of the awakening, of spring, health and happiness. In late May and early June every year, the rose-picking season starts in the Valley of Roses which stretches between the Balkan Range and the Sredna Gora Mountains.Rose-picking starts at dawn, before sunrise and before the rose fragrance has had a chance to disappear. The Bulgarian oleaginous rose yields 70 percent of the world's attar of roses used by every well known perfume company as an essential component of its products.

This is the time of the Festival of Roses, celebrated with carnivals, processions, folk songs and dances in Karlovo and Kazanluk on the first Sunday in June.

Folklore

Melodious tunes and beautiful voices, fiery dances and brightly colored costumes - Bulgarian folklore has to be seen, felt and experienced! The world has already discovered Ninth Symphony, its message to other civilizations traveling to the stars aboard the Voyager I and Voyager 2 spaceships also includes the recording of a Bulgarian Rhodope Mountain folk song. The world is discovering it again and again at major folklore and song contests in Italy , France , England and Ireland from which the Bulgarian music and dance ensembles invariably walk off with the first prizes. The world has started talking about the "Mystery of Bulgarian songs and dances"... If you attend one of the many picturesque folk fairs, singing contests and original folklore festivals in this Country, which gather thousands of singers, musicians and dancers, where several generations of Bulgarians sing, play and dance, you will perhaps yourself discover the key to this mystery, the key to the heart and soul of Bulgaria.

Cuisine

Gourmets have long since esteemed the merits of Bulgarian cuisine with the verdict that it is tasty, spicy and varied, appealing to one and all. Indeed, who would not like the abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits, juicy meat, grilled or served with piquant sauces, mouth-watering vegetarian dishes, simmered slowly on low heat, the banitsa ( cheese pie) which simply melts in your mouth, and famous Bulgarian yogurt? The Bulgarian "culinary" geography abounds in delicious specialties and exotic dishes: Bansko-style kapama (meat and vegetables stewed in an earthenware dish), Rhodope cheverme ( lamb roasted on a spit over an open fire), Thracian katmi ( a special type of pancake) and Dobroudjanska banitsa, Danube fish soup and Sozopol-style mussels.

The cosy, typically Bulgarian folk-style restaurants will tempt you with Shopska salad and chilled grape brandy, stuffed vine leaves or peppers, kavarma the Miller's Way, monastery-style hotchpotch, moussaka and kebab. The smell of oven-fresh bread rolls is mixed with the fragrance of savoury. Thinly sliced loukanka (flat dry sausage) from Smyadovo, pastarma, feta and yellow cheese are temptingly arranged on ceramic plates. The delicate white wines Dimyat, Misket and Riesling are followed by full reds such as Merlot, Cabernet and Gamza. Cups of steaming coffee are served with sweet jam, pancakes with honey and walnuts or baklava

Sea

Pontus euxinos - hospitable sea. This is how the ancient Greeks called the Black Sea , a sea that is indeed tempting and hospitable - clean and calm, without any tides or dangerous animals. The sandy sea bottom slopes gently, making bathing and swimming safe for even the youngest holidaymakers. The Black Sea is half as saline as the Mediterranean .

The Bulgarian coastal stretch faces east and extends over 378 km, dotted with vast beaches covered with fine golden sand. The majority of Bulgaria beaches have been awarded the EU Blue Flag for their environmental excellence.

Air temperatures in summer vary between 23°C and 27°C, water temperatures between 17°C and 25°C. There are more than 240 hours of sunshine in May and September, and more than 300 in July and August. The deep-cutting coves and rugged shores, wooded hills and romantic peninsulas, vineyards and orchards, fishing towns and secluded campsites lend a unique fascination to the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.

Holiday-makers have a huge selection of resorts and accommodation to choose from - depending on their budget and on the kind of holiday they are interested in. They can find anything from luxurious 4 to 5-star hotels, large holiday hotel complexes, private hotels, small guesthouses - to more seduled holiday villages, villas and B & B style rooms. The large major sea resorts in Varna area - Albena, Golden Sands, Riviera Holiday Club, Sunny Day Tourist Complex, St. Constantine, Elenite Holiday Village - tempt with luxury, innumerable sports facilities, entertainment and inland trips to noteworthy landmarks. Spa Bulgaria is an extremely attractive center for treatment, prophylactics, recreation and tourism with its numerous resorts, favourable climate, a 378 km long coastal strip with wonderful beaches, over 500 mineral springs of varying physico-chemical composition, temperature and indisputable curative properties, dozens of lagoon firth mud sources and curative peat deposits. All scientific studies agree that in the uniqueness, variety and abundance of hydrothermal, bioclimatic, mud treatment, sea cure, and other health resources, Bulgaria ranks among the first in Europe , Climato-balneological treatment traditions in the Bulgarian lands date back to times immemorial. In Thracian times, flourishing settlements sprang up around the hot mineral springs and many nymphaeums were built. In Roman times, spa centers were established, such as Augusta (present-day Hissarya), Dezudava (Sandanski), Pautalia (Kyustendil) and Serdica (Sofia), where even the Roman emperors Ulpius Trajanus, Septimius Severus, Maximilianus and Justinianus sought treatment for their ailments. The BULGAIAN MINERAL WATERS are known for their greatly varied chemical composition and, respectively, their mineralization and type of dissolved mineral salts, curative gases and biologically active microcomponents. In fact, every kind of known mineral water may be found in the country. The FIRTH MUD SOURCES, along the Black Sea coast, the CURATIVE PEAT, SPRING CURATIVE MUD and BENTONITE CLAYS possess a particularly great potential in the treatment of many different diseases. Bulgaria occupies one of the first places in the world with the exceptional diversity of MEDICINAL HERBS and the excellent curative properties of its APIAN PRODUCTS.  This enormous wealth of natural factors, combined with country's modern hotels and spa facilities, provide excellent possibilities for the year-round effective treatment of the most widespread diseases of our times and truly make Bulgaria a COUNTRY OF HEALTH.