Sunny Beach: everything worth knowing before you go

Sunny Beach is the largest seaside resort in Bulgaria — roughly 8 kilometres of sand between Nessebar and Sveti Vlas, with more than 800 hotels stacked up behind it. In July and August it is loud, busy and full; in June and September it is the same sea with noticeably fewer people and lower prices. This guide is written by a hotel that sits in the middle of the resort, twenty metres from the sand — and it tries to tell you the useful things as well as the awkward ones.

The beach: eight kilometres, and where it is quiet

The strip runs for close to 8 km, with fine golden sand and a very gradual shelf — you can wade tens of metres out and still be no deeper than your waist. That, rather than any marketing campaign, is why the resort fills up with families with small children.

Sunny Beach is not the same all the way along, though. The difference between the two ends is bigger than most people expect:

• The northern end, towards Sveti Vlas, is the calmest part. The sand is wide, there are fewer people and the evenings are quiet. If you are travelling with a baby, or you want to read on the beach, look here.
• The centre is the busiest. Beach bars, watersports, hawkers, music — and at the same time the most practical place to be, because everything is within walking distance.
• The southern end, towards Nessebar, is calmer for swimming, but it is also where the big beach clubs are, and the music carries right through the afternoon.

The rule is simple: from wherever you start, ten minutes’ walk away from the centre makes a visible difference to the number of people around you. On the busiest days in August, that is the cheapest way to buy yourself some space.

If you want something entirely different — a beach with no hotels, no parasols and no bar — the wild beaches north and south are an hour away by car. We have written about Irakli, Perla and Chengene Skele separately; there is no infrastructure at all out there, which is both the reason to go and the reason to take your own water.

What costs extra

Parasols and sunbeds on the beach are not included in your hotel rate. You pay for them on the spot, to whoever holds the concession for that stretch, and the rate varies from one section of the beach to the next. This catches guests out every summer, so we say it up front rather than in small print.

By law, part of the beach stays free of equipment — you can always lay a towel down for nothing, usually in the rows further back from the water or between sections. Watersports, the loungers belonging to the beach bars and parking in the central area are all charged separately too.

When to come: month by month

Month	The sea	Crowds	Prices	Good for
May	too cold for swimming	almost nobody	lowest	walking, old Nessebar, quiet
June	warming up; still cool early on	moderate	moderate	families, an unhurried beach
July	warm	busy	high	the full programme, nightlife
August	warmest	peak season	highest	anyone who likes it lively
September	warm and pleasant	thins out after the first few days	falling	the best compromise
October	cools quickly	empty	low	day trips rather than beach days

If you have a free choice, choose September. The sea has a whole summer’s warmth in it, the beach is empty on weekdays, you can still eat outside in the evening, and the prices are no longer August prices. June is the other good bet, with the caveat that early in the month the water can feel distinctly colder than the air.

July and August are what Sunny Beach is known for: hot, full, noisy until late. That is no bad thing if it is what you came for — but do not pretend it will be peaceful.

For the detail on air and sea temperatures, the north wind that knocks the water temperature down for a day or two, and what actually stays open in the shoulder months, see the weather in Sunny Beach month by month.

Getting here

Burgas Airport is 37 km away — about 40 minutes by car, and the obvious way in. Your options are a transfer, a taxi, a hire car or the bus.

If you are travelling with children and luggage, a transfer booked in advance saves the most stress. Taking a taxi from the airport, use the official rank, look at the tariff stuck to the window and make sure the meter is running — that is the standard advice for every airport on the Black Sea coast, and it still holds. The bus works, but usually with a change in Burgas; services are frequent in summer and much less so out of season.

Varna Airport is the other possibility, about 100 km up the coast road. The journey is longer and slower, but the flights are sometimes more convenient.

By car, Sunny Beach is about four hours from Sofia along the Trakia motorway and then through Burgas.

Getting around the resort

The resort is entirely walkable — but do not underestimate the scale of it: north end to south end is over seven kilometres, which is over an hour on foot. If your hotel is at one end and you are eating at the other, you will need transport.

In summer a tourist train runs along the main street, and there are regular buses to Nessebar and Sveti Vlas — a matter of minutes in either direction. There is no shortage of taxis; insist on the meter.

Parking in the central area in August is difficult and almost always paid. If you are driving, check what your hotel offers before you set off.

What is nearby

Sunny Beach makes a convenient base — almost everything of interest on the southern coast is within reach on a day trip.

Place	Distance	What for
Nessebar	5 km	UNESCO-listed old town, medieval churches
Sveti Vlas	5 km	Marina, a quieter mood, fish restaurants
Pomorie	about 20 km	Salt pans, the salt lakes and mud therapy
Burgas	37 km	The Sea Garden, museums, the nearest proper city
Sozopol	about 70 km	Old town, narrow streets, beaches nearby

Add to that the two waterparks in the area — one in Nessebar, the other in Sunny Beach itself. Which one to pick comes down mostly to the age of your children; we have compared them here.

For a full day out there are three classics: Ravadinovo Castle near Sozopol, the Ropotamo reserve with its boat trip along the river, and the Sea Garden in Burgas. All of them are covered in day trips from Sunny Beach.

Sights and attractions

Honestly, Sunny Beach itself has no historic sights. The resort was built from the late 1950s onwards as a holiday village and it does not pretend to be anything else. The sights are around it — five kilometres away in Nessebar, and twenty to seventy in Pomorie and Sozopol.

What the resort does offer on its own account is entertainment:

• Watersports all along the strip — parasailing, jet skis, banana rides, water-skiing. They are paid separately, and it is sensible to look over the equipment and the life jackets before you hand over any money.
• A waterpark in the resort itself and a second, larger one towards Nessebar — the two are very different.
• A funfair, go-karting and children’s attractions in the central area, mostly in the evening.
• The beach clubs at the southern end and the venues along the main strip, which in July and August run until morning.
• The tourist train along the main street — unashamedly touristy, but it earns its keep with small children.

If you have come for history and old streets, plan on leaving the resort. If you have come for the beach and a programme, you will not have to.

Eating out

The main strip is lined with restaurants competing for exactly the same tourist, and the quality varies enormously. A few things that hold true anywhere on this coast:

• The place with someone standing outside pressing you to come in is rarely the meal you remember.
• If there are Bulgarians at the tables, that is a good sign. If the menu is in eight languages with photographs, less so.
• Fresh fish is eaten in Nessebar and Sveti Vlas, not necessarily on the main strip.
• Check whether a service charge is already on the bill before you leave a tip on top of it.

If you are on all-inclusive, dinner out once or twice is still worth it — above all in old Nessebar, where the view does half the work.

Honestly: what Sunny Beach is and is not

Sunny Beach is not a quiet resort. The central area around the main strip is built around nightlife, in August it is packed solid, and you can hear the music from several venues at once. There are street promoters, and there are hawkers on the sand. If your idea of a holiday is an intimate one, choose a hotel at the northern end, stay in Sveti Vlas or Sozopol instead, or plan to be on the beach in the morning and out of the resort in the afternoon.

Sunny Beach is not the authentic Bulgarian coast either. This is a resort built to absorb a lot of people at once, and it shows. The authentic version is five kilometres away in old Nessebar, and twenty away in Pomorie.

What Sunny Beach genuinely does well is value. A world-class beach, wide and shallow; food and drink at prices that no longer exist in western Europe; hotels for every budget; and everything else — waterparks, an old town, a marina, day trips — either on foot or fifteen minutes away. For a family with children, or a group who want the sea and something to do without hiring a car, few places in the Balkans come close.

If you only have three days

1. Day 1 — the beach and the resort. Morning on the sand, an afternoon walk north along the promenade, dinner in the centre.
2. Day 2 — Nessebar early in the morning, before the coach parties. Back to the beach or to the waterpark in the afternoon.
3. Day 3 — one excursion: Sozopol and Ravadinovo Castle, or Pomorie and the salt pans if you would rather not drive so far.

With more days, add Sveti Vlas for an evening on the marina, and a day out at the wild beaches to the north.

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Hotel Caesar Palace is in the centre of Sunny Beach, 20 metres from the beach. See the hotel or call us on +359 554 222 36.