The best things to do in Varna are the Necropolis gold at the Archaeological Museum, the Roman Thermae, the Sea Garden and its beaches, the Dormition cathedral and the Naval Museum. Two days covers the city on foot. A third buys Aladzha Monastery in its cliff, the stone columns of Pobiti Kamani or the palace gardens at Balchik.
Varna is Bulgaria’s sea capital and its third city, a working port where some of the oldest worked gold ever found sits a few streets from a Roman bathhouse the size of a city block. The Sea Garden runs above the beaches, and the resorts start a short bus ride north.
The reason to come to Varna before the beach. The gold from the Varna Necropolis, found by accident during building work in 1972, is more than 6,000 years old. Go straight to those cases, then work back through the Roman rooms.
Built in the late second century for Roman Odessos and covering about 7,000 square metres, the largest ancient public building yet found in Bulgaria. Walk the furnace rooms and raised hypocaust floors, then step round the corner to St Athanasius.
The seafront park the Czech gardener Anton Novák reshaped from 1895, now the city’s living room. It holds the Summer Theatre, the Naval Museum and the aquarium, and its terraces drop straight down to the city beaches.
The Cathedral of the Dormition opened in 1886 and is still the seat of the Metropolitan of Varna and Veliki Preslav. It is the centre’s compass: every main street points at its gilded domes, and the Day of Varna begins here.
Medieval cells, a chapel and passageways cut on two levels into a limestone cliff in the Golden Sands Nature Park. A separate group of catacombs lies a few hundred metres west through the woods.
Hundreds of stone columns standing in sand in a strip about 850 metres long, the stone forest Bulgarians call Pobiti Kamani. A strange half hour and an easy one from the Sofia road.
The best of the beaches within the city limits: more than a kilometre of wide sand at Kabakum and, next door, Sunny Day, which has held the Blue Flag every summer since 1996. Calmer and cleaner than the central beach.
The museum opened in Varna in 1923, in a building at the south end of the Sea Garden. The draw is the Drazki in the yard, the 1908 torpedo boat that hit the Ottoman cruiser Hamidiye in November 1912.
The former royal summer palace, its park and the winery founded in 1891, now a government residence. The tour covers the palace, the greenhouses and the cellars, and it only happens if you book ahead.
A 48-metre-wide, 23-metre-tall concrete block on the hill where Russian forces camped during the 1828 siege, opened in 1978. Its bronze lettering was stripped after 1989; the view over the city and the bay was not.
On 6 January a cross is thrown into the sea and swimmers dive to retrieve it.
Eleven days of theatre across the city’s stages, 1 to 11 June in 2026.
Bulgaria’s oldest music festival, founded in 1926, running into October for its centenary.
Concerts in the garden of the Archaeological Museum in early August.
On 12 August naval vessels open to visitors at the port.
15 August: a cathedral liturgy, free concerts and fireworks at 11pm.
An international film festival at the Festival and Congress Centre in late August.
Bulgaria’s national feature film festival, held each September.
Bus 409 leaves from outside Terminal 2 for the centre, reaching the Cathedral stop in about 20 minutes.
The station sits by the port. Direct trains reach Sofia in about 7.5 hours, including overnight services.
Buses cover the city and the coast road north. A 60-minute ticket from a stop machine costs €1.00.
The central bus station is next to the Grand Mall, with coaches along the coast and inland.
Steamed or fried, served by the bowl at the beach restaurants.
Sprats fried whole and eaten by the plate with a cold beer.
Black Sea turbot, fried or grilled, the prize fish of the coast.
Tomato, cucumber, pepper and grated white cheese.
Cold yoghurt soup with cucumber, dill, garlic and walnuts.
Filo pastry baked with eggs and white cheese, a breakfast staple.
Meat and vegetables stewed slowly in a clay pot.
A relish of roasted peppers and tomatoes, spread on bread.
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