Hi Alfred60,

can you tell me the price of a beer.cigs .and a meal

The prices of meals and beer will vary widely depending on where you intend to eat/drink - prices in resorts tend to be significantly higher the nearer you are to the beach and are likely to change from one season to the next due to local inflation/profit margins etc.

Until early visitors begin to return and report in May/June you are unlikely to get accurate prices for the 2010 season.

The price of cigarettes is fixed by the Government and increased by around 30% on 01/01/2010 due to an increase in excise duty, making a 20 pack of the local brand, 'Victory', around 5 Leva (approximately £2.36/€2.58 at today's cash exchange rate offered by the Bulgarian high street bank, Bulbank).

Baldur

thanks baldur can you tell me last seasons prices tourist and local as i do like to eat and drink not always with the sunbed people so to speak.

Afraid I don't 'do tourist'. From memory, you will find some resort prices in posts from last year, if you use the site's 'Search' function (Tonyt posted quite a list from Albena in May/June, as I recall).

I paid anywhere from 75 Stotinki to 1.20 Leva per 500ml bottle for local beer in the bars of the village where I have my house (Shumensko, Kamenitza, Zagorka, etc.) but city bars/restaurants charge from around 1.50/1.60 Leva upwards for draught and more for bottled beers. A 500ml beer in a resort like Albena was reportedly up to around 4 to 5 Leva, according to some Bulgarian neighbours who worked there.

I tend to do my own cooking, apart from the odd snack, so am not really able to give prices, but eating out in 'normal' (i.e. outside resort areas) Bulgarian restaurants/mehanas is pretty cheap by Western European standards, even though the Lev is much stronger against Sterling than it was a couple of years ago.

Baldur

<Edit> One of Tonyt's posts that I mentioned above can be found HERE

The prices from 2009 in Sunny Beach.
A large lager( local Zagorka or Kaminitza ) was only 1 lev (45p) in a large number of bars away from the beach promenade. Beach bars were as much as 3-4 lev.
Depending on what you wanted to eat , a kebap was 5 lev, pizza approx 8 lev ( large ) Chicken dinner approx 7 lev, Kavarma ( a local chicken/pork stew in a rich gravy ) 6 lev.
Portions are usually good size too.
Buying "English" brands of cigarettes in the supermarkets were about 38 lev (£19 ish) for 200. DO NOT BUY OFF STREET SELLERS.

Toonman