Day trips: Ravadinovo Castle, Ropotamo and the Sea Garden
Three full-day trips from Sunny Beach — Ravadinovo Castle, the Ropotamo reserve and the Sea Garden in Burgas.
There are days when you have had enough of the beach — usually the third or the fourth, or the first wet one. The three trips below are the classics of the southern coast, and each of them fills a day without sending you home on your knees.
All three need a car or an organised excursion. Bus connections in this direction are inconvenient, and Ropotamo is effectively unreachable without transport.
| Trip | Distance from Sunny Beach | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Ravadinovo Castle | about 75 km | families, photographs, children |
| Ropotamo reserve | about 90 km | nature, a boat trip |
| The Sea Garden, Burgas | 37 km | half a day, a wet day, no car needed |
Ravadinovo Castle
Its official name is “In Love with the Wind”, and it stands a few kilometres from Sozopol. It is not a historic monument — it was built by one man, Georgi Kostadinov, who has been working on it since the 1980s and is still going. That is precisely what makes it interesting: a castle of white stone, built by hand, over decades, to one person’s private vision.
The complex is a good deal bigger than the castle itself. There is a courtyard with lakes and swans, a small zoo, a winery, a chapel and enough corners for children to run about in. At a normal pace it takes two to three hours to go round.
Who will like it and who will not. If you are after an authentic medieval fortress, this is not one, and you will come away disappointed. If you are travelling with children, or you enjoy places that resemble nothing else, you will have a good time. Go in the morning — August afternoons are hot and there is not much shade in the courtyard.
It combines naturally with Sozopol in a single day: the castle in the morning, the old town and a beach in the afternoon.
The Ropotamo reserve
Ropotamo is the mouth of the river of the same name, south of Burgas, and it is the loveliest piece of nature within comfortable reach of Sunny Beach. The reserve protects longoz — riverine floodplain forest, where the trees grow straight out of the water and the branches close over the river.
The main event is the boat trip along the river. Small boats leave from the jetty near the bridge and move slowly between the overgrown banks. It lasts about half an hour and it is why most people come. If you are lucky with the birds you will see herons and cormorants; terrapins on the branches are commonplace.
Besides the boat there are marked trails, the Lion’s Head rock above the river mouth, and a beach at the very start of the reserve which is usually far emptier than the resort ones.
Practical. Bring water, closed shoes and insect repellent — this is a wet forest and the mosquitoes know it. Go early; the boats fill up and on a busy day there is a wait. The reserve is a protected area, so stay on the paths and do not light fires.
If you have a car, Ropotamo combines well with the wild beaches to the south — Irakli, Perla and Chengene Skele are all on the same road.
The Sea Garden in Burgas
The most accessible of the three: Burgas is 37 km away, the buses are regular and you do not need a car.
The Sea Garden is a long park on the bluff above the sea, with avenues under old trees, benches with a view and steps running down to the Central Beach. It is a municipal park rather than an attraction — and that is exactly what makes it pleasant. This is where Burgas itself goes for a walk.
There is enough in and around the park to fill a day: the Clock and the Casino, the Pantheon, playgrounds and a funfair at the northern end, and towards the centre the pedestrianised Aleksandrovska street, the archaeological museum and the ethnographic museum.
When to go. The Sea Garden is at its best in the late afternoon and at sunset. It is also the best option for a wet or windy day, because the museums and the city centre are close by and the day is not lost.
How to combine them
If you have one car and three days:
- Ravadinovo + Sozopol — one day, early start.
- Ropotamo + a wild beach — one day, the earliest start of the three.
- Burgas and the Sea Garden — half a day, unhurried, no car.
If you do not have a car, Burgas is the one that works with no organisation at all. For the other two, ask about organised excursions — most of the agencies along the main strip sell them.
The shorter outings — Nessebar, Sveti Vlas and Pomorie — do not need a whole day and are covered separately. For an overview of the resort, see the Sunny Beach guide.
Hotel Caesar Palace is in the centre of Sunny Beach, 20 metres from the beach. See the hotel or call us on +359 554 222 36.