BULGARIA

With the Balkan Mountains stretching across its entire length, and a 378-kilometre (235-mile) Black Sea coastline, Bulgaria is rich in natural beauty and cultural heritage. Nowhere exemplifies this better than Plovdiv, Europe’s oldest continuously inhabited city, set on the Maritsa River and encircled by seven hills. Founded in 342 BC, the city has been under the control of the Thracians, Macedonians, Romans and Ottomans. Today, it is known for its Roman theatre and vibrant cultural scene. It was named the European Capital of Culture twice, in 1999 and 2019.

Bulgaria’s medieval capital, Veliko Tarnovo, known as the “City of the Tsars”, is famous for the Tsarevets Fortress overlooking the Yantra River. Nessebar, a pretty 3,000-year-old town on a peninsula on the Black Sea, is renowned for dramatic fortifications, Byzantine churches and timber-framed houses. Bulgaria’s current capital, Sofia, at the foot of Vitosha Mountain, is studded with Roman ruins and Byzantine and Ottoman architecture, as well as reminders of its more recent, communist past.