Thank you for choosing to join us for our wedding in Bulgaria. 
A strange choice of county you may be wondering… believe us, so are we! … We can’t even say you will understand why when you meet the friendly charming locals ready to welcome you… Bulgarians are just not friendly or customer service orientated people. There is of course something drawing us here besides the glorious sunshine and relatively short flight time, but we would like to keep you wondering on that one. 
Booking Flights: 
For those of you located around MK, Luton or Birmingham airports are the easiest to fly from. We have flown with Thomas Cook Airlines flying from Birmingham as they tend to have the early morning flights which we find easiest with the little ones (they sleep!) Luton tends to have afternoon flights. 
Thomas Cook planes are reasonably comfortable, seats recline (unlike Ryanair) and just seemed a slightly nicer experience than the other budget Airlines. 
Flight costs average around £xxx plus these days of course if you want to ‘check’ a bag you 

Hotels night before flight: 
Flying from Birmingham

If you have the crack of dawn flight leaving from Birmingham International Airport, we would recommend the Hilton Hotel at the NEC. We paid £90.00 for a family room of 4. The food in the lounge was really quite good and beds comfortable for a few hours sleep before getting up and out! The airport is just a couple of minutes drive away. 

Airport Parking: 
Valet: 

Doesn’t have you dropping your car right at the airport door, you still have to walk a few hundred meters up towards the airport, (at both Luton and Birmingham) but we still favour this parking method for a stress free start to our holiday. 
Sites you can book through are:

Xxxx

Xxxx
And costs around £xxx for a week 

Areas to stay in Bulgaria 
Sunny Beach 

Think Magaluf and you’re on the right kinda track with Sunny Beach. It has a lovely stretch of beach, a huge selection of hotels to chose from, your classic holiday train running through the resort and gift shops, bars and restaurants are plentiful. It’s actually not bad if going before midnight but we get the feeling the place goes wild in the early hours of the morning. 

Transfer time from Burgas Airport: approx 30 mins 
Sveti Vlas 

A quiet location just on the southern outskirts of Sunny Beach. Not much going on other than some good quality four star hotels located on the sandy beach with calm waters for swimming. If selecting this location you will either need to book Full Board or hire a car as there are not really any other restaurants within walking distance. Self catering could always be an option if you have a shop on site or there are a few supermarkets closeby that you could certainly just hop in a taxi to if not walk. A good spot for families. 

Transfer time from Burgas Airport: approx 30-40mins 

Nesabar 

Located just north of Sunny Beach, the (new town) is much the same as Sunny Beach, quite a big and busy place but the Old Town is a lovely historic fishing town. This is a great place to come of an evening and stroll around getting lost in the lanes that are filled with market stall type traders and restaurants. Ruins give the centre piece to the town and venture further behind them to find the restaurants overlooking the sea. Tip: do not wear heels, it’s cobbled streets! 

Transfer time from Burgas Airport: approx 30mins 

Sozopol 

This is the closest resort to our wedding venue and located further south. The little old town is lovely with a small marina, cobbled streets, some great ice cream sellers, ruins and monuments. The beaches are good with loungers and umbrellas to hire as well as beside cafes and bars. We would recommend staying closer to the old town end as just a nice place to stroll around. 

Transfer time from Burgas Airport: approx 40minutes 
Ibzor 

Further up the coast towards the north. This is the next main resort on from Sunny Beach area. It’s a condensed place and all of the shops and restaurants are all located together and can be walked around. It’s highly developed and not really my thing! 
The beach is nice and loungers available to hire. Would reccomemd when going to the beach to stay the Hotel Rui Helios end as is just a little quieter. 
I personally don’t think this resort is worth the extended transfer time for, but if doing a ‘beach crawl’ for the day it’s worth stopping by. The sea can get quite choppy in this area though. 
Transfer time from Burgas Airport: approx 1hr 30mins 

Kamchia (Kamchiya)

A lovely long white sandy beach. The most undeveloped of all the the beaches we have come across in Bulgaria. There are still sunloungers though!  
Take the time to go to the river that’s here and go on a little boat trip (you can have a big boat just to yourself, there are just guys waiting to take you out and for a family of four it costs us around £15 for a 20 min ride). It’s nothing amazing but takes you right up to the mouth of the river where it joins the sea, not something I’d seen before! 
Swimming in the sea is odd here, patches of cold and patches of warm, no doubt from the river coming into the sea. 
There is not a lot going on in this area. It is a little rural. 

Transfer time from Burgas Airport: approx 2hrs  

Varna 

One of the bigger cities on the Black Sea coast line of Bulgaria. On the edge of the city are long stretches of beach which are filled with loungers and umbrellas. There is also a wake board water park based here. 
It is more of an ‘everyday city’ rather than a tourist resort. 
Varna is home to the Dolphinarium (see attractions) 

Transfer time from Burgas Airport: approx 2hr 30mins 

Things to do and see: 

Bulgaria is actually very big, just touring along the Black Sea coast line will take you around 3hours in the car going from just Sozopol to Varna. Weather is generally a couple of degrees cooler in the north (Varna) 
There actually isn’t a huge amount of attractions to go and see, but you can certainly fill a week with a mix of chilling by the pool and getting out and about. 
Waterparks: – Sunny Beach, Nesabar, Sozopol 
There are actually many waterparks along the coast. We chose the Nesebar water park over the one at Sunny Beach as just seemed a little less busy. There is a smaller one more suited to toddlers passed Nesabar heading back towards the airport (you drive straight past it) 
The parks seem to have it all wrapped up with lockers and wrist bands that you ‘load up’ with cash for the day so you are not carrying things around with you. 
Sozopol also has a waterpark. 
Well worth a day out.  

Dolphinarium, Varna 
Wake Board Park, Varna 

If water sports is your thing, this is a purpose built water park in the sea for wake boarding on a wire. They also have kayaks going on and a few other things as well. Life jackets all there and a section of beach cordoned off. 
Free parking is available just across the road from the beach but be prepared to have to bump your car up the curb. 
Anyone not wishing to take part in the watersports can laze on the beach and swim in the sea next to it where you can see what’s going on. 
Ravadinovo Castle, Sozopol 
Beach Crawl 
Kamchia Riverboat Tour 
Banana Boats/jet skis/ etc 

All generally available around the Sunny Beach and Ibzor coast line. 

Eating and Drinking

It is generally quite cheap to eat and drink in Bulgaria. As with anywhere the more tourist area you chose to go to will be a little higher than other areas (water parks being one of them) but overall it is considerably cheaper than the UK 

Getting around 

Climate