Veliko Tarnovo

I visited Veliko Tarnovo last year in May. Veliko Tarnovo is considered by many the most romantic city in Bulgaria, I have been to quite a few, and I must admit that it would be hard to find a better city for that award. Veliko Tarnovo was inhabited since 5000 BC, when Neolithic people settled on the hill where you now have the fortress, the hill of Tsarevets. Then came the Romans, then the Empire of Constantinopole and then basically centuries of fights between Turks and Bulgarians, until when in 1879 the Bulgarians got independence and their first constitution was written here. It is said that the best University in the country is still ...  Read the complete review

With a combination of quaint wooden houses clinging to the hillside, a historic fortress and some attractive National Revival era buildings, Veliko Tarnovo must be one of the most charming paces in Bulgaria. Although it is a firm favourite on the backpackers trail, I must confess to never having heard of the town until planning my trip around the Black Sea in 2006. Veliko Tarnovo is one of the most visited tourist destinations in Bulgaria and it's easy to see why; it really is picture postcard beautiful. However, the town has not succumbed to the tourist tackiness that many places have and, although visitors are well catered for, Veliko Tarnovo remains (mostly) unspoilt. ...  Read the complete review

IN THE SUMMER the trees are lush and green, temperatures sore in the high 30s, and the local girls strut up and down in their tightest mini-skirts and impossible tans. In the winter you can clearly see the strata of rock in the hills through the skeletal trees, and the landscape is buried under snow for many weeks. I'm in Veliko Turnovo, tucked away in the northern foothills of the "Old Mountains" (or "Stara Planina"). The town nestles upon the slopes of four rugged looking hills, in the beautiful unspoilt terrain which is northern Bulgaria, and the tranquil Yantra River weaves through the hills in a swooping horse-shoe formation, like a child's ...  Read the complete review