Guide to Nessebar

'Clinging to the mainland by a rocky strip of land, Nessebar's lively atmosphere and lovely beach are a winning combination.'

If you like a chaser of history with your holiday cocktail, Nessebar is for you. It's a charming place that still has a shedload of traditional wooden buildings and a gaggle of medieval churches - what's left of the forty or so places of prayer that once almost outnumbered the houses. Apart from its sandy beach - one of the best in Bulgaria - Nessebar's greatest asset is its old town. A maze of cobbled streets centring on a dinky plaza speckled with picture sellers. The best place to start exploring is the Archaelogical Museum which packs a stack of interesting artefacts from the town's past - including a small 2nd century statue showing three incarnations of the witch-goddess Hecate. And it's also worth paying a visit to the Ethnological Museum, if only to see the typical National Revival building in which it's housed. When you're all cultured out, head out of the old town via the ulitsa Mesembriya and stop for a reviving coffee in one of the pavement cafes. Or go down to the harbour, packed with colourful fishing and pleasure boats and lined with places where you can pick up a drink and a snack. This is also the place to be after dark, when the restaurants come alive with lights and music, and lure in passers-by with everything from fresh fish to pizza and pasta. If you're looking for a more cosmopolitan atmosphere and a greater choice of nightlife, just a couple of miles down the coast is Sunny Beach, Bulgaria's biggest and liveliest resort.

Many visitors to Nessebar prefer to stay in the old quarter, enjoying its narrow cobblestone lanes and old wooden houses with strings of dried fish hanging from their roofs. Declared an architectural and archaeological reserve, its sights include the 6th century Basilica, a Turkish bath and windmill and sections of the fortress wall that once surrounded the town. Other visitors like to walk along the peninsula to discover the mainland beaches of fine golden sand which, to the north, connect with those of the larger resort complex of Sunny Beach. But whether enjoying the quiet of the old town, or the busy beaches and watersports facilities further up the coast, Nessebar is one of Bulgaria's finest attractions.

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