Airline Wіzz Aіr has announced the four routes to its Gatwick base in London from Burgas, Varna, Venice and Palermo. The carrier will also increase frequencies on its newly announced routes from Gatwick to London, Milan and Vienna, the company reported.

From 27 March, the carrier will operate flights five times a week from London Gatwick to Venice, and from 29 March it will fly twice a week to Palepmo, the capital of the Italian island of Sicily. In addition to the four new routes, the airline is also increasing the frequency of its flights to Larnaca, Milan and Vienna from daily to twice daily on most days.

The news comes after Wіzz Аіr’s successful acquisition of 15 daily slot doubles at London Gatwick Airport and the already announced addition of 14 new routes from spring 2022 onwards. This means that Wіzz Air will operate a total of 25 routes from there for the summer season of 2022

The new museum opens for visits daily, and the admission is 6 BGN for children and 12 BGN for adult visitors.

Slava is 76 metres long, with two diesel and two electric motors, it was capable of a surface speed of 15.3 knots, and a submerged speed of 13.2 knots, and a maximum immersion depth of 300. It had a crew of 54. It had six torpedo tubes on the bow and two astern. Built-in the Soviet Union in 1959, the submarine was initially named Leninski Komsomol then in 1991 it was renamed to Slava.

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It was not actively used in the 1990s due to the expiration of the battery, which was replaced in 1998. After Bulgaria’s accession to Nato, the submarine participated in a number of joint exercises, and in 2007 participated in a successful exercise to rescue the crew of a damaged submarine.

Right now the Bulgarian Navy currently has left with no submarines in service. Defence Minister Krassimir Karakachanov said in February 2020 that Bulgaria was negotiating in an attempt to buy two second-hand ones.

The automated gates – vb i-match 5 e-gates supplied by Vision-Box – make use of facial recognition technology to verify the traveller’s identity. As for future developments, fingerprint will be activated to complement facial verification, making it the first multimodal biometric solution implemented in the Balkans. The associated contract is co-financed by the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior and EU, under Action 5 – “Establishing automated border control for EU citizens,” Annual Program 2012-2013 of the External Borders Fund.

“In modern airports like Varna and Burgas, facing constantly increasing flows at the border, it is imperative to embrace new technologies that concede the traveller more control and better convenience during his journey, while delivering the most efficient and effective tools to the border control authorities to increase their capacity,” explained Vision-Box’s Jean-François Lennon.

The e-gates can be used by e-passport holders who are aged 18 or over and are citizens of the European Union, European Economic Area or Switzerland.

The Branch employees say the forecasts on Summer 2014 give them a hope. These expectations are based on the successful presentation of Bulgaria and Varna in particular at different world tourist exhibitions. Traditionally, tens of thousands of German tourists will spend their holiday along the northern segment of the sea, one can tell that by the early bookings. We can say the same for holiday-makers from Great Britain, the Scandinavian countries, Poland etc. However, the Russian and Ukrainian market faces some concerns. Local hotel owners and tour operators hope that the Crimean crisis won’t affect it in a negative manner. In 2013 Bulgaria marked a 13 percent growth of Ukrainian tourists and now local entrepreneurs are concerned not to lose these precious customers. They hope that an eventual reflux of Russians and Ukrainians will be somehow compensated for by tourists from neighboring Balkan states and more precisely from Romania.

Many foreigners are expected for the Tall Ships Regatta 2014 in Varna. The town will host the prestigious event in the period April 30 – May 3, 2014. Local administration relies on the tourist influx from the Middle East, though a bit postponed in time. It turned out these days that Varna had voiced its participation in the World Tourism Cities Federation in China with the intention to welcome Chinese tourists, who mark the biggest growth globally. Right now the municipal administration of the town works actively for prolonging the tourist season outside July and August. EUR 180,000 have been allocated from the municipal budget for that purpose, as the money will be used for an advertisement campaign abroad. The idea is to be accentuated not only on stationery vacations at the seaside, but also on opportunities for congress, spa and medical tourism in the area.

Tours around the closest cultural and historical landmarks will be organized along the northern coastline this year too. Aladja Monastery from the 12 – 13c. AD and Varna’s Archaeological Museum are the most visited ones.

Veneta Nikolova, Zhivko Stanchev for Radio Bulgaria

Varna’s Archaeological Museum  is one of the most visited historical landmarks

Christophe Viatte, Chief Commercial Officer of airBaltic: “The new route will offer excellent opportunities to travellers visiting the warm and sunny Varna by the Black Sea. For the upcoming summer season we will discontinue a number of routes, recording somewhat weaker demand. This move makes an aircraft capacity available for the new route.”

Konstantins Paļgovs, General Manager of Tez Tour in the Baltics: “Varna is a popular and highly demanded holiday destination for our travellers, and we are delighted to partner with airBaltic to start flights on the route.”

* Lowest return fare, including taxes, fees and service charges, on airBaltic.com, subject to availability

airBaltic will fly from Riga to Varna two times a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. Passengers will board a Boeing 737-300 aircraft for a flight that will last for 2 hours 40 minutes. Return ticket price will start at EUR 199, including airport fees and transaction costs. A full schedule of airBaltic flights can be found on the company’s homepage at airBaltic.com.

airBaltic serves over 60 destinations from its home base in Riga, Latvia. From every one of these locations, airBaltic offers convenient connections via North Hub Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East.

Tez Tour offers charter flight to travellers all year round. Tez Tour customers are welcome to visit Turkey, Greece, Spain, Egypt, UAE, Thailand, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Maldives, as well as skiing resorts in Austria, Italy and Andorra.

The mayor informed of the rehabilitation of the related infrastructure and the construction of a parking lot on Primorski blvd. in Varna which will be used by tourists visiting the two Roman baths. Some BGN 1.5 M was stipulated in the city budget 2014, which must be passed by the City Council on Wednesday.

The condition of the Roman Baths in Varna rapidly deteriorated in the winter of 2010, as Valentin Pletnyov, director of the Regional Historical Museum of Varna has warned. According to him, the annual maintenance costs of the monument amount to some BGN 40,000.

Varna Mayor Portnih announced the launch of several others, long-delayed infrastructure projects in the city.

• Varna – 30 April to 3 May – Race one
• Novorossiysk – 9 to 12 May
• Sochi – 15 to 18 May – Cruise-in-company
• Constanta – 24 to 27 May – Race Two

The ships will be in Varna between April 30 and May 3 and the varna municipality is planning a series of events. Crew parade and award ceremony will be organised in the city centre. Also a Parade of Sails is scheduled for May 3rd, during which the participating sailing vessels will pass near Varna coast to show their grandeur and beauty.

Patron of the festival days in Varna is Rosen Plevneliev, President of the Republic of Bulgaria and of those in Novorossiysk and Sochi -Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation.

Some of the ships will also be open for visitors. Up to forty tall ships are expected to take part in the regatta.  Only sailing vessels of more than 30-foot water line length and a crew aged 16 to 75 can take part in the race. Bulgaria will be represented by Barquentines Kaliakra and Royal Helena.

Are you tired of frying under the sun or of knocking back one beer after another at the nearest beach bar ? Why not tryout a kayak tour in the Varna Bay – relaxing, engaging in sports and taking a view of the city from the sea!?

SeaAdventure (www.seaadventurebg.com) offers a kayak tour in Black Sea, which begins at an authentic fishing village located at the foot of Varna bay. Once you got our equipment prepared and after a short instruction, the group heads off along the beautiful city coastline.

This trip allows us to view the town of Varna from a different angle, providing you with an opportunity to get a feel of the summer rhythm and life of our sea capital.  Once you  reach the entrance of port of Varna, the group will head south, crossing a sailing canal and after paddling for a short while, you’ll find yourselves at almost inaccessible and wild beaches located at the heart of Varna bay.

Here you may either have a picnic or eat at an exotic restaurant with an incredible view of the city and bay area.  After the hour-long break, the group will take off towards cape Galata which is the end point of Varna bay. Paddling further to the south, you will get a chance to enjoy some wild nature and exotic beaches. The tour programme ends at “Fichoza” area, from where we will head back to Varna.

Sea Adventure’s kayak trip programme is not compulsory and may be changed on the spot at the discretion of the guide, depending on the current weather conditions, physical capabilities and experience of participants, etc.

You may enquire SeaAdventure at contacts@seaadventurebg.com or call Deiana Peykova at +359 878 642273

The bid to repair and restore the palace, all adjacent buildings, the green house and landscape works at the park is now open for candidates.

One year ago, the Regional Development Ministry has signed a contract with the EU operational program Regional Development for the project, which is to conclude in two years. Some of the funds will be slated for marketing and advertising the complex as a tourist attraction.

Since 1891, the palace, named “Euxinograde”, after the Greek name of the Black Sea – Euxenos pontos, and built in the French Louis XIII chateau style, has been the summer residence of the Bulgarian royal family.

With the coming of the Communists into power, (1944), the palace was turned into an official State residence of the leaders of the Communist Party and the Communist Cabinet. Today it is still used as official State residence and is managed by Bulgarian government.

Tour guides will be trained to take around the first tourists as until now the Residence was closed for visitors.

The palace is built in the French Louis XIII chateau style

The vineyards around “Euxinograde” include 115 dekares of the European Traminer, Chardonnay and German Riesling variety as well as the local Misket of Vratsa and Red Misket.

In 2008, the cellar had made BGN 540,000 in profit from wine sales. The wine cellar dates from the same time as the palace itself. The classical cellar with above ground and underground sections specializes in white wines due to the climate specifics of the Black Sea region.

The vineyards around “Euxinograde”

The sum came as a pleasant surprise to archaeologists who have asked for BGN 200 000.

Djankov made the pledge during a discussion organized by the Bulgarian Standard daily in Varna in the frame of the newspaper’s campaign “The Miracles of Bulgaria.”

The Minister stated the idea to provide significant funds under the Via Pontica program was not to give more money for archaeological research, but to make existing archaeological sites more attractive in order to boost tourism. He called on archaeologists to be creative in inventing names and stories around their discoveries.

The program is named after the Via Pontica bird migration flyway.

Djankov noted the Roman Baths are located in the very heart of Bulgaria’s Black Sea capital and are a great tourist attraction, thus the goal would be to make them even more interesting and accessible.

The idea was firmly backed by prominent Bulgarian archaeologist Professor Nikolay Ovcharov, nicknamed the Bulgarian Indiana Jones.

The Finance Ministry’s list of sites for funding includes several medieval fortresses and the former royal palace and now government residence “Evksinograd” near Varna.

Varna Mayor, Kiril Yordanov, noted his city had 125 years of history in tourism, and in recent years the City Hall had slated BGN 11 M of its own funds for cultural events.

The Roman Baths are one of the most valuable monuments of culture in Varna, situated in the central part of the city, on the corner of the streets San Stefano and Khan Krum. This is one of the sites of the Archaeological Museum in the city.

The Public Baths of Odessos are one of the most preserved architectural monuments of the Roman Age in Bulgaria (1st – 4th century AD). They are of the so called “small imperial style” and their construction refers to the end of the 2nd century AD. This is the largest roman bath on the Balkan Peninsula – with an area of 7000 square meters. It is the forth in size in Europe – among the baths of Karakala and Diocletian in Rome and Trevira (Trier, Germany). It was used by the end of 3rd century.