Varna Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

Varna has two bus stations – the central bus station (448 349; bul Vladislav Varenchik 158) is about 2km northwest of the city centre. It’s a dingy place with a couple of newsstands, a basic café and a left luggage office (7am-10pm; per hr/day 0.50/4 lv). From here, services go to Athens (100 lv, 26 hours, one daily), Balchik (4 lv, one hour, 16 daily), Burgas (9 lv, two hours, five daily), Dobrich (4 lv, one hour, every 30 minutes), Istanbul (45 lv, 10 hours, two daily), Plovdiv (19 lv, six hours, two daily), Shumen (6 lv, 1½ hours, one daily), Sofia (25 lv, seven hours, 20 daily) and Veliko Târnovo (9 lv, four hours, 20 daily).

All buses to Sofia go via Shumen and Veliko Târnovo; the buses to Plovdiv go via Stara Zagora and buses south to Burgas pass through all the coastal resorts, including Sunny Beach (Slânchev Bryag) and Nesebâr.

Long-distance and international services are operated by private buses. Tickets for these can be bought at agencies in town, as well as at the bus station, but all departures are from the central bus station.

The second bus station in Varna is the Chatsna Mladost Station (500 039), about 200m along a road that starts almost opposite the central bus station; look for the sign in English opposite the bus station. From here, more frequent minibuses go to smaller places along the Black Sea coast, including Dobrich (4 lv, one hour, every 30 minutes), Balchik (4 lv, one hour, hourly), Kavarna (5 lv, 1½ hours, hourly), Burgas (9 lv, two hours, every 40 minutes to one hour) and Nesebâr (6 lv, 1½ hours, six daily) via Sunny Beach (5 lv, 1¼ hours).

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Air

Varna’s international airport (573 323; www.varna-airport.bg) is an increasingly busy place with scheduled and charter flights from all over Europe, as well as regular flights to and from Sofia. From the centre, bus 409 goes to the airport.

The local agency for bookings is the Varna International Airport Travel Agency (612 588; ul Knyaz Boris I 15). Bulgaria Air (573 416) flies between Varna and Sofia (one-way/return around €105/160) at least once every day.

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