Wild Bulgaria

Srebarna Nature Reserve

A Danube lake with one of Europe's dalmatian pelican colonies.

1–2.5 h

Central Balkan National Park

Nine strict reserves whose beech forests carry a World Heritage listing

3–10 h

Pirin National Park

Marble ridges, seventy glacial lakes and a 1,300-year-old pine

4–10 h

Rila National Park

81,000 hectares of high Rila, with four strict reserves inside it

2–8 h

Vitosha nature park

The first protected park in the Balkans, on Sofia's doorstep

3–8 h

Kaliakra

A red headland running two kilometres out to sea, walled across its neck

1–2 h

Stara Reka

A strict reserve above Karlovo where you keep to the marked path

2–6 h

Rusenski Lom Nature Park

A limestone canyon twenty kilometres from Ruse, full of cut rooms

2–5 h

Uzunbodzhak Reserve

2,661 hectares of primeval oak and beech on the border, and you cannot go in

closed to visitors

Alibotoush

A strict reserve of Bosnian pine on the limestone of Slavyanka

3–7 h

Vrachanski Balkan Nature Park

Limestone gorges, a vulture project, and the hill where Botev died

4–8 h

Rila Monastery Nature Park

The valley above the monastery, where almost nobody who comes to Rila goes

1–5 h

Strandzha Nature Park

Bulgaria's largest protected area: laurel forest, a border river, fire dancers

3–8 h

Bistrishko Branishte

A spruce reserve killed by a storm and a beetle, left standing on purpose

2–4 h

Orelyak

The high point of Central Pirin, with a broadcast mast on top

4–6 h

Radetzky

The steamer Botev hijacked, rebuilt with schoolchildren's money

30 min–1 h

Persina Nature Park

217 square kilometres of Danube islands, marsh and flooded forest

1.5–4 h

Bulgarian torpedo boat Drazki

The torpedo boat that hit an Ottoman cruiser, now sitting on dry land

20–40 min

Bulgarka Nature Park

The beech country above Gabrovo that ties Etar, Sokolski and Shipka together

1.5–4 h

Yulen

A closed reserve holding four groups of glacial lakes in Pirin

4–8 h

Sinite kamani

The rocks above Sliven that turn blue only in the right light

2–5 h

Golden Sands Nature Park

A strip of old forest directly behind the hotel wall

1–3 h

Shumen Plateau Nature Park

Caves, old beech and the concrete monument to the state's founders

1.5–4 h

Belasitsa Nature Park

Chestnut forest on a mountain wall, with the Greek border along the ridge

1.5–5 h

Silkosiya Reserve

Bulgaria's first reserve, declared in 1931 for an oak wood with a subtropical floor

1.5–3 h

National Historical and Archaeological Reserve "Pliska"

30 min–1.5 h

Vitanovo Reserve

1,106 hectares of Strandzha forest declared in 1981, with no way in

closed to visitors except on designated paths

Shkorpilovtsi Beach

A protected beach south of Varna, the longest on the Bulgarian coast

45 min–2 h

Ropotamo

A thousand hectares of river, forest and dune where almost everything is forbidden

1.5–4 h