Nessebar is about eight miles southwest of Sveti Vlas and is where we call “home” these days. Like Sveti Vlas, it is on the coast of Burgas Bay. It is sometimes transliterated as Nesebar or Nesebur. A few weeks back we spent a day visiting the old town and also looking around the neighborhoods to find our next lodging.

The historic part of town, Old Nessebar, was formerly an island, but is now attached to the mainland by an isthmas/causeway. It juts out into the Black Sea. New Nessebar is the portion on the mainland.

We were able to find an apartment in the “new” side of town located just steps from a long sandy beach. We will be staying here for about a month. Here is an introduction to our apartment, neighborhood, and this very popular area.

New Nessebar

New Nessebar feels like the space right before you reach something cool or grand. Buses drive down long streets lined with cafes and benches with touts / hosts standing around hoping the tourists will meander outside the old walls and eat at their restaurant instead.

This area is not pretty, but it is functional. There are a number of hotels and apartments and “apart-hotels”. There are the usual shops, cafes, and markets as well. New Nessebar is sandwiched between the Black Sea and the highway that runs parallel to the coast. On the south side of the city is a long sandy beach called South Beach. (The north side of the city meets up with the southern portions of Sunny Beach, but we did not like that beach area as much as South Beach.)

South Beach

This is where we call home. Hanging laundry to dry outside is a fun task these days since it comes with a gorgeous sea view. We have a one bedroom unit on the fourth floor that faces the pool, sand dunes, and the sea. For $55 per night we get all this plus daily housekeeping. The bed is comfortable though a little small but it’s not as small as the TV!

Besides the pool and sea view, our apartment looks over the sand dunes and lifeguard compound (beach barracks?). I only mention it because it’s odd. The lifeguards all return from the beach around 6pm, and the techno music cranks up loud while they start their workouts. The good news is that it’s not so late and it quiets down before 8pm.

There are a lot of families in the building but we seem to be the only English speakers. This area in general feels more “local”.

My favorite part of our new place is that there is no hill to climb when returning home from the beach! There are a dozen or so steps up and a about a block down the road to our front door.

South Beach

The beach sits at the foot of a row of sand dunes. The water conditions seem to shift from day to day. We’ve seen the water appear as glass and other days the roar of the surf can be heard from our balcony. The water is clean, clear, and warm. Usually there is no seaweed but on occasion there’s been some either in the water or strewn about the sand. There’s been a handful of jellyfish sightings but the water is so clear that they’re easy to spot! Since the sand continues to shift in the tide, we see a different beach every day that we come out, with changing slopes and tidepools.

There are hundreds of paid chair rentals but we like to walk past those to the “free area”.

We tend to enjoy an early start and place our towels out around 10 AM on the soft, fine sand and stay for a few hours. The wind picks up in the afternoon and the UV levels become strong.

There are numerous waterfront restaurants. We dined at a few but overall we think they are average quality and priced high, but you can’t beat the scenery!

Behind the beach are the sand dunes, with some vegetation and forested areas. The vegetation keeps the dunes in place, and creates a buffer between the sea and the nearest roads.

We have been very pleased with how accessible our location is to the beach, and have had a great beach experience. The beach is so photogenic that I’ve taken a ton of photos. Here are some of my favorites:

Old Nessebar

“Nessebar is one of the oldest and most picturesque towns in Bulgaria and in Europe likewise: a magnetic place of unique landscape, sea scent, and romance is the environment of splendid modern tourist resorts.” (Copied that from a sign)

Old Nessebar has been settled since the 6th Century BC. It is a quaint and pretty town filled with vine covered alleys, ruins of churches from the 5th through 13th Centuries, multiple ruins of city and fortress walls, and dozens of seafood restaurants.

As you walk through the old town, the streets narrow and twist and suddenly you’re standing in front of a church that is 1000 years old.

As you walk further you pass three leather shops and wonder who would even think about buying a leather jacket when it is 91 degrees outside.

The entire old town can be toured in a day if you start in the morning. There is an archaeological museum and an ethnographic museum. You can pay 20 leva (around $10) for tickets to the museums and all the churches, or the tickets are also available a la carte.

The perimeter of town is lined with cafes each offering a sliver or more of the view of the bright blue sea.

The restaurants with the better views are more expensive by Bulgarian standards, but the view during sunset is gorgeous as you can watch the colors in the sky change and the moon rise up from the water. Every restaurant we tried or looked at has the typical expansive Bulgarian menu, including the usual selection of seafoods (and so many other items).

We have visited Old Nessebar a few times and while the restaurants are fairly standard, a few drinking venues stood out to us.

Messembria Wine has three different shops in the old town, filled with hundreds of local wines, including some from their family vineyards. It is a family-run operation and it was clear from their service that they were wine lovers. Unlike some of the other wine shops that can be found in Old Nessebar, they had a keener focus on quality. I picked up a bottle of rose for purchase and was instructed to not buy it because it was “no good.” I love an honest recommendation!

The main wine tasting house has a large outdoor and indoor space for tasting and we noticed they get very busy throughout the day with large groups. We assume the local hotels push guests toward tours that include stops at Messembria Winery.

We discovered Michael’s Eco Bar through TripAdvisor and the reviews made it seem like such a unique experience, which it was! It’s a tiny bar in which the entrance leads you through a small man made, yet very cool cave. Stalagmites and stalactites separate the seating areas indoors.

The cave opens up to a lush outdoor garden with a small waterfall and turtle pond. Seating is carved from rocks and the atmosphere is shady and cool. It was nice to sit back and relax with a cold drink and watch the turtles swim and sunbathe.

Prices were very reasonable (around $4 per drink) and the menu provided a long list of boozy and non-boozy shakes and lots of other options. The space fills up quickly so if you ever find yourself in Old Nessebar, come at noon when they open. Grab a rock…er, seat and enjoy a cold beverage.

We also enjoyed a stop at Beer Shop Shark, aka You Need A Beer (based on the signs posted out front). The wide selection of mostly-Belgian bottles was nice, but we appreciated the microbrews on tap, including an IPA and a dessert stout, each from Beer Bastards (a brewery in Burgas, Bulgaria). Beer is served from the doorway and there are a few pub height tables to stand around as you sip on a frosty pint.

We liked to go to Old Nessebar in the morning, when the weather is moderate and the town is still peacefully waking up. But because of the summer heat, much of the action in Old Nessebar happens after the sun sets and the streets fill up with pedestrians. Plan your visit based on what experience you are looking for. We have also read that the old town generally shutters outside of the summer tourist season, so this may not be the town to visit in the winter.

Nessebar is probably the most visited city on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast. It is a place rich in history, picturesque streets, and enough cafes to feed an army. Though a lot of it feels like a tourist trap, we do think visitors should experience this town while in the area! Just don’t forget to bring a swimsuit and take a trip down to South Beach!

Head here if you missed our post on Sveti Vlas, the resort town to the northeast of Nessebar!