Veleka beach is a golden spit of sand between a midnight blue river and the Black Sea. Hermann’s tortoises mate in the maquis; geckos skitter across the sandy path. One day a proposed trail along the Bulgarian coast might link this beach, a few miles from the Turkish border, to the vineyards of Balchik, near Romania, via nature parks and Unesco-inscribed sites. Until then I’m riding a minibus from Ahtopol to the last stop on the line.

My seven-day adventure, getting around using the bus network along the 235-mile shore, is a personal pilgrimage. In 1995 I rode the exact same route, alongside holidaying Russians with USSR passports blowing roubles on bottles of inky red mavrud wine. The country has sold itself as a discount sunshine destination since it became the Soviet Costa del Sol in the 1960s.

But in 2026 Bulgaria will join the euro and it hopes to attract a new breed of traveller in search of sand and sophistication. Can this sunny coastline showcase heritage and high-end stays alongside its big resorts?

What you need to know

How to get there Sunny Beach is reachable from Burgas or Varna airports; buses make getting along the coast easy
What does it cost? Bulgaria remains great value with the official currency, the lev; a cup of coffee costs about £2 while the average price of a three-course evening meal for two is £48.25, according to the Post Office Holiday Money Report
Who will love it? Families looking for child-friendly resorts with good beaches

Enough water slides and activities to keep three boys happy

To test the five-star aspirations of Bulgaria I meet my wife and three boys at Sunny Beach, consistently ranked among the cheapest European holiday destinations by the Post Office in its annual report. The road trip begins at Hyatt’s Dreams Sunny Beach Resort & Spa. Our first dinner is a sprawling buffet of marinated pork neck, bulgur salad, pickled herring, pickled carrots, pickled cucumbers and 200 help-yourself platters, many wildly experiential for an all-inclusive.

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Dreams Resort pool area overlooking the ocean.

One of the five outdoor pools at Hyatt’s Dreams Sunny Beach Resort & Spa

The inaugural morning view from our family suite shows a sense of the place. The Dreams resort cascades down to the four-mile-long sands of Sunny Beach in a series of outdoor pools, activity courts and help-yourself snack kiosks. The scene is framed by more sunloungers than a Disney cruise. High fences mean that our three kids can’t escape this luxurious penitentiary filled with water slides, table tennis and a private beach area.

Every Bulgarian beach has culture on its doorstep. The No 5 bus (just over £1) from Sunny Beach bus station runs to Nessebar, a Unesco-inscribed ancient city. The Archaeological Museum there reveals a city colonised by Thracian potters, Greek goldsmiths, Roman olive-oil moguls and Byzantine iconographers (£4; ancient-nessebar.com). Alas, much of the surrounding settlement is a modern agora stocked with tat. Our nine-year-old twins beg to buy a Lamine Yamal football shirt, a lighter in the shape of an AK-47 and even a real communist-era bayonet. We decline, saying we wouldn’t be able to fit them into our luggage.

Yet authenticity reigns in Nessebar in the form of grilled fish restaurants perched alongside Byzantine churches above the Black Sea. Nearby we taste the Bulgarian difference in an ice-cream shop that sells scoops flavoured with pumpkin and tarator (a cucumber-yoghurt smash). The store is staffed by two teenagers from Russia and Ukraine — best friends and refugees from the political turmoil a short drive east.

Politics is far from the minds of most guests back at the all-inclusive. Serve-yourself spigots keep them nicely tanked on a flinty white wine. Dreams’ guests — predominantly British — commend low prices as their principal reason for selecting Bulgaria. This September a family of four booking directly can reserve a six-night all-inclusive break at Dreams Sunny Beach Resort for less than £1,000 plus flights; a comparative five-star in Mallorca would cost three times that. If you plan to simply fly and flop, there are few cheaper places for summer and autumn sun.

Taking the bus to the smaller towns along the coast

Aerial view of a lighthouse on a cliff overlooking the ocean.

The lighthouse at Cape Emine stands alone on this coastal promontory

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We ride the bus 30 minutes north (£4) to Obzor, a smaller and more cultured version of Sunny Beach, connected by all buses that link the latter with the Black Sea port of Varna (every 30 minutes at peak times). Our journey takes in oceanic switchbacks, miles of golden sand and the lonely lighthouse of Cape Emine. From here a 400-mile hiking trail, the longest and oldest in Bulgaria, crests the spine of the Balkan Mountains — maybe another day. Instead I stroll a mini version: Obzor’s eco-path, a 90-minute loop that passes a mineral spring, a waterfall and a ruined fortress that forms a forested home for Balkan whip snakes.

My family have forsaken the hike in favour of the most noteworthy hotel on the Black Sea. HVD Reina del Mar is an “ultra-all-inclusive” that would challenge any resort in Turkey or Spain and easily entertain any age group. The vast lobby is centred around a café serving snacks du jour — matcha macarons, Dubai chocolate cake — at all hours. The spa is magnificent yet unstuffy; our kids are welcome to stroll from ice rooms to hot tubs and indoor pools in a wet zone blessed with a café and sea views. Our family villa stands alongside a Maldivian-style swimming lagoon, beside which parents can recline at night while the kids sleep upstairs.

Hotel balcony overlooking landscaped grounds and the sea.

A balcony view from a suite at HVD Reina del Mar

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The all-inclusive catering could also give the Maldives a run for its money. Reina del Mar’s head chef was recruited from a Michelin-starred restaurant in Tuscany. The buffets are a finely presented blend of Ottolenghi meets the Black Sea: beetroot, hummus, fava beans, aubergine, yoghurt and walnuts, plus big roasts and freshly caught seafood. Once again, if your holiday means maxing out on sun, spas and gourmet cuisine, you’d be hard pressed to find better value.

The temperate Bulgarian climate is another boon. As veterans of the Mediterranean’s all-inclusive archipelago — Istria, Hammamet, Costa Blanca — my kids find these destinations too hot in summer. At the scorching end of the dial, Gran Canaria in August is a Mephistophelian purgatory. Bulgaria is cooler in every way.

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My family is looking for a final dose of culture, so we ride one last bus from outside the hotel, heading north for 40 minutes to Varna (£4). In 1972 workmen at this Black Sea port unearthed a necropolis dating from about 4,500BC. Decorating the dead warriors were the oldest gold ornaments in the world, including a golden headdress, a gold shafted axe and quite possibly a golden penis sheath — all on display at the Varna Museum of Archaeology (£4; museumvarna.com).

Balchik Palace overlooking the Black Sea coast in Balchik, Bulgaria.

Head to Balchik for affordable wines and its relaxing beach

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My family jet home from Varna airport while I complete my 30th-anniversary pilgrimage to Balchik, a resort town near Romania once known as Dionysopolis thanks to its veneration of wine. In 1995 a power failure meant that I drank dimyat white wine by candlelight for 25p per glass. Today vineyards such as Queen’s Winery House offer free tastings and sell rounded vintages. For an honest price there’s a sunny beach and accessible culture waiting here for everyone.
Tristan Rutherford was a guest of Dreams Sunny Beach Resort & Spa, which has all-inclusive doubles from £193 (hyattinclusivecollection.com), and easyJet Holidays, which has seven nights’ all-inclusive at the HVD Reina del Mar from £1,469pp, including flights and transfers (easyjet.com)

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