Sveti Vlas (St. Vlas) is a small town in Bulgaria, located on the Black Sea coast. Since 1963 it has been a climatic seaside resort. Now a little more than 4,000 people live in Sveti Vlas, and 40% of the real estate belongs to citizens of Russia and other republics of the former USSR.
History of St. Vlas
The first settlement on the territory of modern Sveti Vlas appeared in the 2nd century AD. It was a Thracian settlement called "Larissa". The city received its modern name in the 14th century in honor of Blaise of Sebaste, a Christian saint and patron of livestock.
In the 14th – 18th centuries there were several Orthodox monasteries here, destroyed by the Ottomans.
During the period of Turkish rule, the settlement bore several different names; the name Sveti Vlas was returned to it only in 1886.
Until 1920, the village was inhabited mainly by Greeks, but after a series of wars, Bulgarian families from various regions of Bulgaria appeared in it. The Greeks moved to Western Thrace, which by that time had been transferred to Greece.
A new stage in the history of Sveti Vlas began in 1963, with the opening of a climatic resort here. The next revival occurred in the 2000s, during the period of intensive development of the Black Sea coast. The resort received city status only in 2006.
Not far from St. Vlas are the bustling resort complex Sunny Beach (Slanchev Bryag) and the ancient Nessebar.
Resort Saint Vlas
Over the 54 years of its existence as a resort, Sveti Vlas has become one of the most popular resorts in Bulgaria. A number of circumstances contribute to this:
- healing and mild climate;
- convenient location in close proximity to major centers, but at the same time at some distance from them, ensuring a leisurely, comfortable stay;
- a large number of cloudless sunny days;
- clean mountain and sea air;
- coniferous forests in the surrounding area;
- warm sea – even in December the sea can warm up to +15 degrees;
- beautiful beaches.
The resort of St. Vlas is great for family holidays, and the local climate creates natural conditions for the treatment of respiratory tract and asthma.
Beaches
The beaches of the resort are wide and sandy, located in small coves, well suited for swimming. The total length of the three beaches of Sveti Vlas is 1.5 kilometers. The Marina and Central beaches are located on both sides of the Marina Dinevi yacht harbor, the largest yacht port in Bulgaria.
The beaches of St. Vlas provide the full range of “classic” services: here you can ride yachts, jet skis, banana boats, water skiing; go windsurfing. There are special playgrounds for children. There are also no problems with food: there are numerous cafes and restaurants and shops open on the beaches and in the city itself.
The best time to travel to Sveti Vlas is from the beginning of June to the end of September. At this time, the air temperature warms up to +25-26 degrees, and the water temperature – up to +23-25˚C. There is no sweltering heat at the resort; this is facilitated by a fresh, ion-rich sea breeze.
Infrastructure
The resort's hotel complexes do not resemble monotonous, dull buildings. Each of them is decorated in an original style, has courtyards with swimming pools and bars, and sports grounds.
Prices for accommodation here are moderate, and this despite the fact that the resort has become a favorite place for recreation and residence of the local (and foreign) elite. By the way, the proximity of the “powers that be” ensures a high level of public order protection at the resort. There is also no need to worry about active construction within the city: construction work at resorts in the summer months is prohibited by Bulgarian laws.
There is no embankment as such in Sveti Vlas, and all purchases and services necessary for vacationers can be purchased on the two main tourist streets - Tsar Simeon and Mak, from which you can look at the yacht port. Tsar Simeon is the main shopping street of the town, passing through the central square with administrative buildings.
Sights of St. Vlas
One of the main attractions of the city is the Church of St. Blaise, the patron saint of the town, built in 2007. It was built on the site of a monastery destroyed by the Turks. This temple houses Orthodox shrines - the relics of St. Blaise and a piece of the Life-Giving Cross.
Another Orthodox church is the Church of St. Athanasius the Great, built in the mid-19th century.
Picturesque ruins remain from the ancient Orthodox monasteries, as well as the churches of Blachernae and St. Andrew.
Among the cultural attractions, it is worth noting the grandiose open amphitheater "Arena", on the stage of which you can watch performances by youth contemporary dance groups, theatrical performances, and all kinds of shows.
Other entertainment in St. Vlas includes local and international regattas, supercar rallies, beauty contests, auto shows, fashion shows, sailing school competitions and much more.
By the way, the yacht harbor “Marina Dinevi” can also be called one of the attractions of Sveti Vlas: it is designed for 300 yachts, with 50 places intended for royal class yachts with a length of more than 25 meters. The harbor is especially magnificent at night, when beautiful lighting illuminates the even rows of masts, the coastline and the mysterious shimmer of the sea.
On the territory of the marina there are expensive restaurants, stores of leading fashion brands, casinos and other attributes of “Dolce Vita”.
If you are bored with a beach holiday, and the local attractions have been explored far and wide, then you can organize an excursion to the ancient city of Nessebar (Nessebar), located just 10 km from Sveti Vlas. To do this, you can rent a yacht or take an excursion tour, they are offered at any hotel.
Of tourist interest is primarily Old Nessebar - one of the oldest cities in Bulgaria and Europe, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Its age is more than 3,000 years, and on the territory of Old Nessebar, turned into a pedestrian zone, there are about 40 ancient temples and other evidence of its centuries-old history.
The main attractions of Old Nessebar:
- Church of Christ Pantocrator (XIV century) with richly decorated facades;
- Church of St. Stephen (XI century) - an Orthodox church made in the Byzantine style;
- Church of St. John Aliturgitos (XIV century);
- Church of St. John the Baptist (10th century);
- Church of Hagia Sophia (V – VI centuries), made in the Byzantine style;
- Church of St. Paraskeva (XIII century);
- the fortress wall is part of the city’s fortification system;
- an ancient windmill – a symbol of Old Nessebar;
- remains of an ancient amphitheater;
- Turkish fountain;
- ruins of early Byzantine baths (XI - XIII centuries);
- Ethnographic Museum, the exhibition of which tells about the life and crafts of the inhabitants of Nessebar;
- An archaeological museum introducing the history of the ancient city.
In New Nessebar you can visit the Aqua Paralyze water park - the largest water park in the Balkans.
St. Vlas is a well-groomed, flourishing Black Sea resort in Bulgaria with a convenient location, excellent tourist infrastructure and a healing climate.
Resort town of Saint Vlas Bogaria, view of the city, overview photo
Saint Vlas Bulgaria a very favorite place for Russians, along with, om and, as well as resorts and. But why? Why has this place become so beloved? Why suddenly St. Vlas, and not, say, or?
Saint Vlas Bulgaria - view from above There seems to be so little beach here, but there is something special... probably there is??? After all, someone or something attracts people here every year.
Probably the whole point is that people come here for the summer, which explains why Russians are so keenly interested in St. Vlas. What else is interesting, well, besides hotels and yachts, piers, sunsets, sea foam, etc.?
Resort Saint Vlas Bulgaria, nightlife of the Bulgarian resort Historical part of the city Saint Vlas Bulgaria- this is a special place, even just to come here is a great thing!
The old name of the city is Larisa
Resort Saint Vlas Bulgaria - formerly the city of Larisa City of Saint Vlas Bulgaria(in Bulgarian Sveti Vlas ) is located in the southeastern part of Bulgaria. The settlement was created by the ancient Thracians (Thracians) under a funny female name - Larisa in the 2nd century AD.
Much later, in the 14th century, the city was renamed in honor of the Christian Saint St. Vlas, who is the patron saint of livestock breeders, doctors and merchants.
Resort city combines sea and mountains, tranquility and a cozy atmosphere turn the resort into a desirable place for summer tourism and recreation.
City of St. Vlas Bulgaria, map of the resort city Very close to the city of St. Vlas there are: Solnechny, Nessebar, and the Elenite cottage village.
Among the attractions are: Kamchia Nature Reserve, Cape Emine.
Distances: Sofia - St. Vlas 414 km, Plovdiv - St. Vlas 302 km, - St. Vlas 91 km, Burgas - St. Vlas 48 km.
Transport in the city of Sveti Vlas
Saint Vlas Bulgaria transport - all public transport routes in the city of Saint Vlas. It is possible to get to the city of St. Vlas by water transport from the cities of Nessebar and Burgas.
There is a large choice in the city: public transport, taxis, buses.
Burgas Airport is approximately 30 minutes drive from the city.
Contact information and useful links about Saint Vlas
Resort Saint Vlas Bulgaria on the map
Official website of the city of Saint Vlas in Russian
Page of the resort town of Saint Vlas on Facebook
Transport in the city of Sveti Vlas
Ecotourism and flights in the city of St. Vlas Bulgaria
Temples and churches in St. Vlas
Yacht port in the city of Sveti Vlas Bulgaria
Website of hotels in Sveti Vlas
“Bad Notes with Dmitry Krylov” - a film-program about resort town of Saint Vlas, Bulgaria
Saint Vlas reviews
Saint Vlas is a young resort, which is located 6 km from Sunny Beach, 30 km from Burgas airport and 10 km from the ancient city of Nessebar. If you manage to visit this resort, you will be surprised by the comfort of this snow-white town, every street of which leads to the embankment. The resort of St. Vlas is not as crowded as the large Black Sea resort of Sunny Beach. There is a sense of calm and serenity here. The clear sea and sandy beaches will create a feeling of comfort, along with service, in the newly built hotels and apartments. Saint Vlas is the best place for a family holiday!
Opinions about the resort St. Vlas
They write that: St. Vlas is a relatively young and actively developing resort. It is located three kilometers from the largest southern resort of Sunny Beach. The village is located on a hillside, reminiscent of Crimea. There is clean air, good beaches, clear sea, and many inexpensive restaurants. Involves a relaxing holiday; for entertainment near Sunny Beach with discos, bars, restaurants, water park.
They write that: St. Vlas is considered one of the youngest resorts in Bulgaria, located 6 km from Sunny Beach. From here you can easily reach Nessebar, Burgas and Sunny Beach. People go to St. Vlas not only for relaxation, but also for health: the special local microclimate promotes the treatment of pulmonary diseases. This is an ideal place for a quiet family holiday, and if you want entertainment, then just a few minutes by taxi - and all the delights of the “party” Sunny Beach or Nessebar are there. The resort of St. Vlas is still uncrowded and quiet. The hotels are mostly private, small and, therefore, inexpensive.
They write that: Sveti Vlas is a city located on the Black Sea coast near Sunny Beach. Sveti Vlas occupies the northern part of the Nessebar bay and is located 10 km from the center of Nessebar. Sveti Vlas is a famous international tourist center. Every year tourists from all over the world visit this resort and take with them unforgettable memories of a pleasant holiday in Bulgaria. The natural sea breeze combined with crystal clear air creates conditions for sea balneotherapy and has a positive effect on patients with bronchial asthma and other lung diseases. The favorable climate is suitable for treatment all year round.
They write that: the resort of St. Vlas has begun to actively develop in recent years, becoming an alternative to the noisier and more crowded Sunny Beach. Both resorts are getting closer and closer to each other as new hotels appear on the coast. In addition to hotels, luxury residential complexes are being built in St. Vlas, which are very popular. Property prices here are rising faster than anywhere else on the Bulgarian coast. In 2007, the construction of the yacht port Dinevi Marina in Sveti Vlas, the largest marina in Bulgaria, was completed. A new grandiose project - the Dinevi Resort aparthotel complex, located in St. Vlas, offers accommodation in 26 modern apartment complexes, 13 restaurants and bars, 14 swimming pools for adults and children, a SPA center, an Internet cafe, tennis courts, a disco, fitness centers, beauty salons, shops and a private beach.
They write that: the village of St. Vlas is comfortably located on the slope of a mountain. Almost all of its streets with cozy restaurants and cafes go down almost to the sea. Saint Vlas is located 33 km from Burgas airport and only 4 km from the largest resort in Bulgaria, Sunny Beach. The advantage of the Saint Vlas resort is not only its proximity to the sea, but also its distance from the center of the Sunny Beach resort and entertainment complex, which gives guests the opportunity to take a break from the constant exposure to the noise and bustle of the big city resort. And if you want, you can get there in 5-10 minutes by taxi or public transport. On vacation in the resort of St. Vlas you will find crystal clear air, magnificent beaches, comfortable hotels and a fairly rich infrastructure. All this annually attracts a large number of tourists as lovers of peace and quiet. So are fans of active recreation. In this region it is the only place that combines sea and mountains. A characteristic feature of this resort is a completely new layout, in which Bulgarian architects were able to implement all the best structural solutions taken from recognized resort cities of the world. The embankment was built according to classical canons and is a center for evening walks. It is home to a large number of bars, restaurants and nightclubs. Like any other resort, there are a lot of souvenir shops and benches.
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Add a reviewReviews about the resort St. Vlas
My girlfriend and I and three children vacationed in St. Vlas in August 2009. We bought groceries in the city itself, 20 percent cheaper and with more choice. Try "sour mlyako" - a thing!). Lunch - light salads at home or pizza with salads in a restaurant or bar on the shore. Dinner is usually at restaurants (Paradiso is more expensive, Italian and fish are simpler, but also delicious). You can walk to the yacht marina (if you have a stroller, then it’s a leisurely 30-minute walk). There are plenty of restaurants there, but since going in the evenings with small children is still a pleasure, we only went out 3 times. On the plus side: the absence of any drunken contingent that was encountered in Turkey. Everything is calm and orderly. A separate area creates some kind of peace and comfort. The apartments are spacious, new, nothing was broken. There are mountains nearby (or rather, hills, but they are mountains:) with pine forests on them, so the mountain + sea air is healing. In short, we liked it.
Ira. 33 years old, Moscow
Our main residence in Bulgaria was in Sveti Vlas (look for Sveti Vlas in Gizmeteo). Located between Elenite and Sunny Beach.
Yeah, that same Slanchev Bryag - an all-Union resort, the one that is “not Crimea, but cooler,” which even now receives 6 million people per season.
Sunny Beach, 6 million holidaymakers per season
A bunch of hotels and sanatoriums and entertainment for “hungry kids”. It looks, even in the complete absence of people, like hello from the 90s - the entire embankment is lined with endless stalls with underpants, hot dogs, shooting ranges, sunglasses, etc. And all this enchanting fucked up stretches for many kilometers and replaces the usual embankment from the 20th century - with benches and lawns, showers and toilets. I wonder how people feel who bought rooms in an expensive hotel near the sea, but discovered that in order to get to the sea they must overcome an obstacle course with shawarma and slot machines that stand almost on the sand.
Sunny Beach, luxury hotel
But this was roughly what was expected from Sunny Beach, although there was hope that it could be improved in 2016.
Sunny Beach, deserted embankment
Pomorie - here they have salt lakes, there is a salt museum, but the main thing is that there is a spit there that separates the mud lake from the sea and on which there is a local nudist beach for those who are for... in general, for grandparents.
Bulgaria. Pomorie. Spit is a nudist beach for grannies.
And there in the lake, snakes swim in the spring to lay eggs and there was darkness there - the big ones immediately ran away from the shore and I didn’t have time to take a picture of them, but the small ones then swam in large numbers - they looked out, curious.
Bulgaria. Pomorie. Scythe - young snakes.
And in front of the “spit with sand and poppies” there is a whole “spit with huts in the Soviet style”, where the poorest Bulgarians rest - something like the Belosaraysk spit or Zatoka.
Bulgaria. Pomorie. Kosa - huts for the poor.
Then Burgas (this is already a real big city, in which there is a “marine park” that stretches along the entire coast and where local residents can relax culturally. They say that there is a project that the Russians were supposed to sponsor, according to which half of this park will be converted into “ entertainment center" with a water park, slides, blackjack and locks, but for now there is a crisis in Russia and therefore the whole thing is on hold - they are looking for new investors).
After Burgas we drove to Sozopol. Sozopol, by the way, made a more blissful impression on me than Nessebar, although in essence it is “the same eggs only in profile” - probably because it will be smaller and there were also fewer people in it. There was a moment when we walked along completely empty streets and thought that the zombie apocalypse had arrived. There, near Sozopol, there is still an island where you can swim and look at the stone columns at the bottom (petrified grove of ancient trees). But the sea was slightly stormy and there were few people, so we didn’t even try to rent a boat.
Sozopol. Did you notice the name of the ship in the upper left corner?
Sozopol - steamship Kherson, Kryshmen and more.
Sozopol. Kryshman.
Sozopol architecture.
Sozopol. Architecture.
Sozopol. Street.
This is how they live.
Sozopol. This is how they live.
I was very interested in why they lay the tiles like that. I think it’s “beautiful”.
Sozopol. Beautiful tiles.
And this is a Christian church that was built under the Tatars, and in order not to violate the ban on being no taller than a rider on a horse, it was built something like this - mostly underground.
Sozopol. Church.
Well, you understand that I liked Sozopol, so there are a lot of photos.
Sozopol. Sea.
If you ever get to Sozopol, along the way you will see a road sign for Zvezdets. We also slowed down and thought a little about whether to go and see what it looked like, but we decided that there seemed to be enough Zvezdets in life and we’d better go back to Sveti Vlas.
Zvezdets is there.
Because Sveti Vlas looks very advantageous against the backdrop of all this tourist and cultural crap.
Let's start with the fact that, despite the fact that this settlement was founded back in the 2nd century AD blah blah blah, it received city status only in 2007 or so. And all this happened only because the Denov brothers decided to make this area their family nest and their pocket city - as I understand it, the local mafiosi (in general, Bulgaria, in some way of its own, has only just begun to emerge from the 90s and here all the politicians they are a bit of a mafioso, mafiosi are politicians and philanthropists - fathers, etc.) - in short, you understand why Bulgaria is not yet in Schengen.
Saint Vlas. Amphitheater.
So the Denev Brothers made a real “garden city” out of St. Vlas. And they build a lot themselves and let others in. That is, in fact, this is a separate area near the sea (climatically similar to Crimea, because it is also separated from the mainland by a mountain). And life in this area is in no way similar to what happens in the rest of Bulgaria. And everything looks very decent, despite the fact that it is not enclosed by a fence, but its own pocket security service travels along the central streets 24/7, which identifies “their own” and those who are not allowed to be here (gypsies and local poor people) - and very quickly takes them out of the territory. They drove past us many times, day and night, and identified us correctly.
Saint Vlas. Security service 24/7.
Because foreigners are considered our own here - mainly Russians and English, maybe Germans or Ukrainians. And perhaps even Bulgarians can be here, but only those who have passed face control or with Ausweiss. And all because an endless number of hotels and residential complexes have been built here for sale and rental “at the resort” - that is, each complex has its own pool (or several pools - 8 for example) each has landscape design, trees, bushes, flowers, lawns and so on and so forth depending on the level of lakshari in this complex. And all this because each owner of apartments in these complexes, in addition to utilities, pays an annual fee “for the maintenance of the territory, swimming pool and house” - and this fee averages 600 Euros per year (there is a little less, but there is also 1010 Euros). In the rest of Bulgaria there is also a maintenance fee, but it is around 60-100 Euros per year.
The resort of St. Vlas is one of the youngest resorts in Bulgaria. The Stara Planina mountain range in some places reaches almost to the very shores. Sandy beaches with a total length of 1.5 km are located on the shores of numerous bays convenient for swimming. In recent years, the resort has become one of the most modern and popular summer holiday destinations. St. Vlas is a quiet and peaceful resort, but its proximity to Sunny Beach allows tourists to experience the unforgettable emotions of summer nightlife. That is why this place is perfect for a family holiday with children, and for those who want not only to relax, but also to have fun by visiting clubs and discos.
The hotel has an active animation program and quality food. Recommended for families with children. |
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