Varna Transportation

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For the first time in Varna and in Bulgaria too I saw such red buses as in London and other tourist cities. (Actually it has started last year). It is a typical hop on hop off bus with a specific route in Varna, Golden sands and St. St. Constantine and Elena. 24 hours ticket cost 12 EUR and a 2 hour one costs 6 EUR. In the website you’ll see the schedule and the map of the route.

Varna airport is about 8km outside the city.

Bus number 409 takes you from the airport to the bus station, city center and all the way to some of the resorts. Tickets are sold from the ticket collector in the bus (he/he will come to you once you get on the bus). Also not only hotels, but some hostels can arrange to pick you up from the airport.

Although the airport is very small, it runs pretty well. So far, i havent had problems both taking off and landing, either in the summer or in the winter.

The airport gets very busy in the summer season, with lots of seasonal and charter flights from/to all over europe. There are regular flights to London-Gatwick, Vienna, Sofia, few cities in Germany, and i think Bratislava. The best is to check their schedule.

ticket sale: + 359 52 573 416 or + 359 52 511 825
flight info: + 359 52 573 323

if people on the phone seem rude to you, dont pay attention, i think this is their intonation.

good luck!

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Varna has an extensive local bus network operated by two competing private companies, Gradski Transport and Transtriumph Holding. The main terminus is in front of the central railway station and the city centre stops are quite well signposted with timings and destinations. At the time of writing (Nov 2009) a single journey fare is 1 Lev within the city limits (which includes to and from the airport). Tickets are sold by conductors on the buses - just ask for "edin bilet molya".

Use the link below for a useful schematic route map.

The main transportation in Varna are buses. Here I share a link with the map:
http://zaednoeuro.hit.bg/Varna.jpg

Also in that site you can find buses's routes.Unfortunately it's in Bulgarian but it's easy to translate with chrome.

Varna has two bus stations located close to each other.

The main bus station services almost all destinations out of Varna:

http://www.autogaravn.com/ Bulgarian only, but Google-translate works.

The minibus station, also known as the Private Bus Station (Chastna) is located on Dobrovoltsi street, very close to the main one:

http://www.bgmaps.com/map.aspx?sid=f3a1ca97b9863d2f6dab335c7ecc3a4f&tip=1

Minibuses to Dobrich, Balchik, Kavarna and minor places around the city:

http://www.minibus-varna.com/

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Varna has a rather cute little airport (Letishte Varna) about 20 minutes west of the city centre and whilst the number of daily flights is relatively small it does provide regular links to hubs such as Sofia and Budapest for travel further afield.

From the UK Bulgaria Air has daily flights on weekdays from Gatwick, BA flies both ways on Tuesdays and Thursdays also from Gatwick) and WizzAir flies from Luton on Sundays.

To get to the airport by public transport the 409 bus runs about every 20 minutes from Golden Sands with the city stop at Vladislav Varnenchik, the bus stop being the one across the road opposite the western side of the cathedral. The single fare (at the time of writing) being the princely sum of 1 leva.

The only thing to beware of is that if you like a beer be prepared to be extorted! A can of Kamenitza, land-side, (which was marked as 89c) cost 6 Leva. The same can airside 7.50!!!

So perhaps this should be transferred to "Warnings and Dangers"!

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You'll sometimes see reference to Varna "Central" Bus Station but in fact the city's main bus terminus (Avtogara Varna) is about 1.5 km out of the city centre, on the main Vladislav Varnenchik road heading towards the airport.

Buses arrive and depart to and from the whole country, as well as some International services. Whilst the terminus is a bit on the scruffy side it is well-organised with vehicles departing from clearly signed stops. Several different companies operate the various routes and popular destinations, such as Sofia, have competing services. Generally-speaking tickets should be bought in advance and each company has its own ticket office, although some offices act as agents for several operators.

To get from the Avtogara into the city the local bus stop is across the road from the main entrance (using the underpass). From this stop most buses drop off at the Cathedral and services 109 and 409 continue out to Golden Sands. For city destinations the standard fare, at the time of writing, is 1 leva which you pay to the conductor on the bus.

Alternatively there are usually plenty of taxis available and a standard fare into the city should be about 4 leva.

First website is for the Avtogara which has constantly updated current departures. The "All Starting" link at the bottom-right opens the full daily schedule.

Second website is a national one but sometimes the information can be out-of-date and so should always be double-checked.

For trips out from Varna to the immediate area the private bus station Mladost provides fixed-price minibus services, mostly run by the appropriately-named "Minibus OOD". These run to timetables (see website) and are simplicity itself to use. You just turn up and buy your ticket from the cashier (Kaca) for the relevant destination. The departure points are clearly signed and about five minutes before the scheduled time the bus arrives to pick you up. Normally you wont have to show your ticket on the bus as the driver knows how many people he should have and does a head count before departing.

The Mladost station is about 100 metres down ul Dobrovoltski, across the road from the main Avtogara. Local buses connect at the Avtogara stops and the arriving minibuses usually drop-off at the city services bus stop.