What to do when visiting or on your holidays in Bulgaria
Whether you live in your own Bulgarian home or are taking a well-earned break in this fascinating country, you will find there is plenty to fascinate, inform and amuse you. However, outside the main resorts in Bulgaria, tourism tends to be understated and rather poorly promoted. This means you need to do a little homework to find out what there is to be discovered during your holidays in Bulgaria!
Experience pastoral life and work in a traditional Bulgarian home
Some of Bulgaria’s villages have managed to preserve examples of the type of traditional Bulgarian homes that have largely died out in the rest of the country. A few have been carefully restored or even rebuilt and turned into visitor attractions or tourist accommodation. Ideal for weekend or short holidays in Bulgaria, these museum villages are a way to discover how the Bulgarian home and lifestyle has changed over the centuries.
Guests (and day visitors) can experience fruit growing, making yoghurt, preserves and wine, rug weaving, and even help out driving donkey-drawn carts to market. There are at least a dozen of these villages to choose from including Bozhentsi, Etura, Kovachevitsa, Momchilovtsi (which is particularly strong on artistic folklore activities), Shiroka Laka and Zheravna. Details should be available from local Bulgarian tourism offices or on the Internet.
Stretch your legs – walking holidays in Bulgaria
The same size as England, but with less than 15% of the population, Bulgaria is wonderfully uncrowded. This is one of the reasons so many Brits have decided to buy a Bulgarian home. They want space to breathe, and they find it in Bulgaria. Tourism officials are only just starting to recognise the potential appeal of the country’s exceptional natural scenery and the 35,000km of waymarked paths that criss-cross it.
Week-long walking holidays in Bulgaria’s mountains and plains are now being offered by specialist tour operators but it is also possible to independently hire a guide through local tourist offices for day or weekend trips. Accommodation is provided in mountain chalets or remote Bulgarian homes or camps. The main areas for walking holidays are in Bulgaria’s Pirin and Rila national parks, the Rhodopes and the Stara Planina.
Rather less ambitious are eco-trails through short sections of outstanding landscapes. Some are not far from major Bulgarian tourism centres. The 6km Smolyanska eco-trail, for example, is just 15km from Pamporovo, a popular resort for skiing holidays in Bulgaria, and passes through the evocatively names Gorge of the Waterfalls.
Spend a few leva – go shopping
The cost of living in Bulgaria is remarkably low, as anyone who has their own Bulgarian home knows. Entertainment, activities and eating out – the typical additional costs of holidays in Bulgaria – are excellent value, too. But pure shopping ie browsing around small shops, is a joy in Bulgaria because almost everything is considerably cheaper than we are accustomed to in the UK. Not all that is on offer appeals to our tastes – electrical equipment, for example, is not usually aesthetically pleasing. But temptation is never far away.
Best value items are table and bed linen, rugs, leather goods (especially shoes) and wine. Designer fashion is surprisingly good in Sofia and the Black Sea’s main resorts, and often available at a fraction of what it would be in the UK. Clothing in other Bulgarian tourism centres tends towards the practical ie ski wear and other winter warmers, or old fashioned.
Bulgarian crafts include handmade lace, woodcarvings, ceramics, wrought iron and copper, and silver filigree jewellery while traditional souvenirs are embroidered dresses and blouses, Valley of the Roses perfumes and shampoos, dolls in national costume and cds of folk music. It is best to buy these items in small workshops or stores outside Bulgaria’s tourism centres where the prices are hugely inflated.
The Valley of Roses
Bulgaria was famous for its roses as far back as Thracian times but it was not until 400 years ago that it began to develop a rose oil industry to feed the hungry French perfume market. Today, central Bulgaria’s Valley of Roses is one of the biggest producers of rose oil in the world.
The Valley of Roses is magically transformed with breathtaking blooms in May and early June. This is when a Festival of Roses is celebrated in many local villages and towns, including Kazanlak, Karlovo and Stara Zagora.
Celebrations include rose picking rituals enacted by locals wearing colourful national costumes. Folk tunes are played and traditional dancing is performed, Rose Queens are crowned and spectacular parades weave through the streets.
Whether you are on your holidays in Bulgaria or living permanently in your Bulgarian home, the Festival of Roses is an opportunity to join in the fun with locals and gain an insight into a bygone age. Bulgarian tourism offices and websites normally post the schedule of festivals early each year, but if you cannot make it during the blooming season, you can still visit the Roses Museum near Kazanlak at other times of the year.
