It was one of these flash visits when you complete a full two-weeks program in two days and two nights. We came over from Romania by car just to see our two children with their grandma for a couple of days in their summer vacation resort.
Sunny Beach (Слънчев Бряг) close to Nessebar with its historical old city is one of Bulgaria’s most popular Black Sea beach resorts and a good place for budget vacation at basic standards.
Crowded place with standard vacation facilities.
Sunny Beach which has always been a hot spot for beach tourism since socialist times has enormously grown up and is now densely built with new hotels and holiday apartment blocks that are owned and populated mostly by Russians. So Russian has become a more common language here than German or English.
The beach zone is of fine white sands but too overcrowded for my taste. There is a 4-5 km long beach front offering all from snack stands and souvenir booths to restaurants and premium label fashion stores. The latter offer mostly fake but of a surprisingly good quality. Probably, I wouldn’t have identified them as fake if there weren’t these low prices. Premium branded blue jeans and other top label fashion stuff at 10 and 20 Euros, if you understand what I mean.
Bars and restaurants are well booked at dinner time, but empty during day time. Unfortunately, almost all of them try to be “international” and offer all the same generic standard food (pizza, pasta, schnitzel). There are only a few locations where you will find traditional regional dishes and atmosphere. So for me as a food photographer there was nothing worth a shot this time. On the other hand, restaurant food is affordable and its overall quality meets normal European standards. So treat yourself to a good local wine and a traditional Shopska salad and enjoy a silent sea view from the terrace, provided you found one without dance floor sonication.