Eco Park Vaya

Worth a detour

Lake Vaya is the largest natural lake in the country and the hardest of the Burgas four to get near. This private ecopark on its shore is the practical answer: seventy hectares of restored wetland and pasture where you can watch birds, ride, fish, take a boat out or visit the bees. It is run by a foundation rather than the city, everything is by arrangement, and you must telephone ahead.

Story

Background

Vaya sits west of Burgas with the refinery on its far shore and the motorway along its northern edge, and for most of its length there is simply nowhere for a visitor to stand. The Via Pontica foundation has been restoring habitat at one point on the shore and running an ecopark there, which covers seven hundred decares and claims something close to a hundred thousand migrating birds through it in a year.

What is offered is unusually broad for Bulgaria: birdwatching along the flyway, horse riding, boat trips, sport fishing, photography weekends, applied-arts sessions and visits to a beekeeping operation. Ninety-one plant species are recorded on the ground they manage. It is a working piece of land rather than an attraction, and the experience depends on who is there and what has been arranged.

The practical warnings matter more here than usual. There is no published opening time and no published price; the season opens in early April; and the park's own directions amount to taking a taxi, because bus services to it are described as forthcoming rather than existing. Write or ring in advance, agree what you are coming for, and treat the visit as an appointment. For anyone who simply wants to see birds near Burgas without organising anything, Poda is the answer instead.