Hi DOA,

You don't really have a great deal of choice currently as far as direct Varna flights are concerned.

As far as I'm aware, the only direct scheduled flights are operated by BA (Gatwick), Bulgaria Air (Gatwick) and Wizz Air (Luton) - the number of scheduled flights per week this year is significantly lower than last year.

Bulgaria Air used to fly from Manchester to Varna but the route is no longer showing on their website.

Even the Balkan Horn coach fares from London to Varna (an epic 48 hour journey, from which I still ache 5 years later.... ) are as expensive as flying this year (or dearer in the case of my own flight), with the standard dated return costing £169 (concessions £159)

Other than the above, you are looking at either tour operator charter flights (e.g. BH Air, who are only flying into Varna from Newcastle, Manchester, Gatwick {code share with Bulgaria Air} & East Midlands) or scheduled indirect flights, such as Bulgaria Air (Heathrow-Sofia-Varna) & Malev (Gatwick-Budapest-Varna) or multi-airline flights, such as Easy Jet (Gatwick-Sofia or Manchester-Sofia) or BA (Heathrow-Sofia) plus an internal flight from Sofia to Varna, or train/coach/hire car, etc., from Sofia to Varna.

Flights to Burgas are likely to be more plentiful, as more tour operator charters fly there and Wizz Air operate a scheduled Luton-Burgas timetable, but you would then have to factor in transfers from Burgas to Varna.

Baldur

Hi baldur, can you give me some info of the coach trip, been to bulgaria 5 times, but not been for past 4 years as suddenly devloped fear of flying! Me and my other half have been goin to spain on coach... but its not the same. was it really that bad? thank in advance.

Hi ynneynne,

ynneynne wrote:

...can you give me some info of the coach trip, been to bulgaria 5 times, but not been for past 4 years as suddenly devloped fear of flying! Me and my other half have been goin to spain on coach... but its not the same. was it really that bad? thank in advance.

Bear in mind that it's five years since I did the trip, before Bulgaria became an EU member state, and that I travelled in February/March.

It was basically 48 hours of constant driving with a break of 20 minutes every four hours or so.

We left Green Line coach station, Victoria at around 7:00 p.m. on Monday and arrived at Varna Central Bus Station at 7:00 p.m. on the following Wednesday. The coach took the Channel Tunnel and we travelled from France into Belgium, then down through Germany and Austria.

The worst bits were the border crossings after Austria - Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina took at least an hour each, while the Kalotina border crossing into Bulgaria took a lot longer.

There were stops in Bulgaria at Sofia Central Bus Station and Veliko Tarnovo, and a drop-off point near Shumen.

The journey felt endless and the thought of the return journey was not something to which I looked forward. On the positive side, I certainly saw a great deal of Europe and Bulgaria that I would not otherwise have seen.

Hope this helps,

Baldur

Thanks , baldur, , think we might be able to manage the trip , it takes us 28 to spain and as i said its not a patch on bulgaria. im quite excited as i didnt think id be able to visit there again. how would we gt to golden sands from where they drop us off? Bein on the balkan website and thats all i can get without flights, i usually go to elenite or albena but they dont offer hotels there. again thanks in advance.

ynneynne wrote:

....think we might be able to manage the trip , it takes us 28 to spain and as i said its not a patch on bulgaria. im quite excited as i didnt think id be able to visit there again. how would we gt to golden sands from where they drop us off? Bein on the balkan website and thats all i can get without flights, i usually go to elenite or albena but they dont offer hotels there. again thanks in advance.

The 409 bus goes from the main road immediately outside Varna Central Bus Station to Golden Sands or taxis are plentiful (but watch the prices).

If you give Balkan a ring they may be able to sort you accommodation at Albena, if you prefer that to GS - minibuses travel there from the private bus station 'Mladost' which is just down a side road opposite the Central Bus Station or from 'Makedonski Dom', which is just opposite the cathedral.

A few years since this topic was mentioned - Time for an update:

You can now fly Luton to Varna (all-year round) with WizzAir
And starting this summer you can fly im the summer months from Gatwick to Varna with Easyjet.