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The Bulgarian Black Sea coast has quietened down a bit since its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, when it served as the playground for the entire Eastern bloc, but it is still a magnet for hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians and foreign visitors. The vast tourist complexes built to attract West European package tourists still do good business, Bulgarians are taking more holidays here than ever before, and the Russians, Poles, Germans and Czechs who descended on Bulgaria's seaside towns in the Communist era are returning in large numbers. Private enterprise has taken off here quicker than anywhere else in Bulgaria, and the wealth of bars, restaurants and seaside landladies offering rooms lends the area a vibrant quality that much of inland Bulgaria lacks. Many continue to think of the Bulgarian coast in terms of its big package-oriented complexes, the largest of which have discouragingly ersatz names like Sunny Beach and Golden Sands and are correspondingly characterless once you arrive. Newer resorts like Albena have a more varied range of hotels and activities, and the most recent "holiday villages" such as Elenite compare favourably with villa settlements in the Mediterranean. Holidays in such places are cheap and beaches are clean, but none of these purpose-built resorts reveals much of what the Black Sea is really about - and they are sited sufficiently far away from centres of population to prevent you from finding out for yourself. Independent travellers should stick to the main seaside towns, where private rooms are plentiful, family-run guesthouses are on the increase, and out-of-town beaches are easy to reach on foot or by bus. The ideal base for exploring the northern coast is the riviera town of Varna , which, after Sofia and Plovdiv, is Bulgaria's most animated metropolis. North of Varna crumbling rock formations and imposing cliffs characterize the coast around Balchik and Kaliakra , while to the south lie quieter seaside backwaters and the Longoza , a dense riverine forest that lines the lower banks of the River Kamchiya . Controlling access to the southern half of the Black Sea coast is the rough-edged trawler port of Burgas , far outshone by the historic peninsula towns immediately north and south - old Greek fishing villages like Sozopol and Nesebar , the latter noted for its ruined Byzantine churches, and swarming with visitors in the summer. The coast beyond Sozopol and the Turkish border offers a succession of glorious white sand beaches and a wide variety of flora and fauna, ranging from the near-tropical forest around the River Ropotamo to marshes rich in bird-life. Numerous local museums recall the Greek settlers who colonized the area six centuries before the birth of Christ. The Black Sea coast is governed by the seasons . The tourist season runs from late May to late September, and is at its height in August, when transport and accommodation are overburdened. It's difficult to find private rooms at this time, but you shouldn't find yourself stranded without a bed for the night if you persistently ask around; solo travellers, however, may be asked to pay double rates or share with a stranger, as owners are loath to lose money. From October to April the coast can be freezing cold, and a number of hotels close down entirely. Outside Varna and Burgas, many museums and tourist attractions open only during the summer, and hours become erratic as tourist numbers begin to slacken off in September. However you travel, your likely point of arrival on the coast will be either Varna or Burgas, from where buses can take you to the smaller towns and resorts. It's also possible to travel on from Bulgaria to destinations elsewhere in the Black Sea regions, with regular buses to Istanbul, and seasonal bus services to Odessa and Kiev. The website is a good source of information on resorts and hotels all along the coast.
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