Burgas sits in the middle of the best-preserved stretch of the Bulgarian coast, and every one of these is a comfortable half or full day by public bus. Contest week gives you Monday to Wednesday and most of Friday free; this is what to do with them.
Distances below are straight-line from Arena Burgas, so road journeys are a little longer.
Nesebar — 26 km north
The one to do if you only do one. Ancient Nesebar is a UNESCO World Heritage site: a small rocky peninsula joined to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, packed with Byzantine churches, wooden Revival-era houses on stone foundations, and cobbled lanes that drop straight into the sea.
There are the remains of around forty churches on a peninsula you can walk across in fifteen minutes. Several are standing, a few are still in use, and the ruins of the rest are simply part of the streets.
Go early. By late morning in season the coaches arrive and the lanes fill. In May, before the season proper, you may have parts of it nearly to yourself.
Getting there: frequent buses from South Bus Station, around 40 minutes.
Sozopol — 23 km south
Nesebar's quieter, more lived-in southern counterpart, and many locals prefer it. Another old town on a peninsula, another set of wooden houses over stone, but with fewer coaches, a working fishing harbour and two good beaches either side of the neck.
The Archaeological Museum is small and genuinely worth an hour — this was Apollonia Pontica, a Greek colony from the 7th century BC, and the finds are local. The island of St Ivan offshore is where the relics attributed to John the Baptist were found in 2010.
Getting there: frequent buses from South Bus Station, around 40 minutes.
Pomorie — 14 km north
The nearest trip and the most underrated. Pomorie is a working town on a narrow spit between the sea and a salt lake, and the lake is the point: salt has been produced here since antiquity, there is a Salt Museum, and the lake's black mud is used in the town's mud-bath and spa facilities.
Also here: the Pomorie Monastery, an unusual domed Thracian tomb just outside town, wide quiet beaches, and some of the region's best-known wineries and brandy producers.
Good for a half day, or a full one if you spend the afternoon in a spa. In May the lake is full of migrating birds.
Getting there: buses roughly every half hour from South Bus Station, around 25 minutes.
Sunny Beach and Sveti Vlas — 28 and 33 km north
Sunny Beach is Bulgaria's largest resort — an enormous strip of hotels, bars and one very long beach. In mid-May it is half-awake, which is arguably the best time to see it: the beach is magnificent and the crowds are not there yet.
Sveti Vlas, just beyond, is quieter, greener, with a marina and the Stara Planina foothills rising behind it. Better for a calm afternoon than a night out.
Getting there: very frequent buses from South Bus Station, 45–60 minutes.
Cape Emine and the Stara Planina — about 45 km north
Where Bulgaria's mountain range ends in a cliff over the Black Sea. The Kom–Emine trail, the Bulgarian section of the E3 European long-distance path, finishes here. Wild, empty, and a completely different landscape from the beach towns half an hour away.
Realistically needs a car or a taxi for the last stretch. Worth it if you want one day that is not a town.
Strandzha — south, an hour and more
The Strandzha Nature Park is Bulgaria's largest protected area: oak and beech forest, empty villages, Thracian sanctuaries and a coastline that stays wild all the way to the Turkish border. Malko Tarnovo inland, Ahtopol and Sinemorets on the coast — Sinemorets, where the Veleka river meets the sea, is one of the most beautiful beaches in the country.
This is a full day and much easier with a car. Buses exist but are slow and infrequent.
Practical notes
- Buses leave from South Bus Station (Avtogara Yug), next to the train station, 4.1 km from the arena and central to everything else. Tickets from the counter or the driver; no advance booking needed for coastal routes.
- Check the last return of the day. This is the recurring warning of this whole guide. Coastal services thin out in the evening and in May they are still on the shoulder-season timetable. Know your last bus before you order a second glass of wine in Sozopol.
- May is the right month for all of this. Everything is open or opening, nothing is crowded, and the weather is warm enough to walk all day. See the weather page.
- Staying in one of these towns instead? Perfectly reasonable — the neighbourhoods guide covers the trade-off, and the map shows the real distance from each to the arena.