Byala (Varna): beaches, cliffs and what to see on the south coast

Byala (Бяла) is the last town on the Varna Province coast before Burgas: a small resort of about 2,500 people, 52 km south of Varna by road, with ruins on a headland, pale cliffs that record the end of the dinosaurs and some of the wildest beaches left in Bulgaria. If you searched for “Byala Bulgaria” and want the sea, this is your Byala, not the inland town of the same name in Ruse Province. It works as a beach base for a week or as a day trip from Varna by bus, and Obzor is just 7 km further south.

Which Byala is this?

Bulgaria has two towns called Byala. This one is in Varna Province, the centre of Byala Municipality, on hilly ground where the last ridges of the Balkan Mountains run down to the sea (Wikipedia). The other is in Ruse Province, an inland town in northern Bulgaria close to the Yantra river (Wikipedia). The difference matters at the ticket desk: Varna bus station lists the seaside town as БЯЛА and the northern one as БЯЛА (РУСЕНСКО).

The town has a long past. People settled around the bay of Cape St Atanas probably as early as the 6th century BC, the area joined the First Bulgarian state in 681, and the Ottoman village here was known as Akdere, “white river valley”. Byala was declared a town on 5 September 1984 (Wikipedia (BG)). For the full story, local archaeologists and historians published a History of Byala in 2021 (Varna Museum of History).

Cape St Atanas: ruins above the sea

The headland at the south-east end of town is Byala’s main sight. Excavations funded by the municipality since 2009 uncovered layers from almost every period: cult pits with Archaic Greek pottery, a Thracian temple used from the 4th century BC to the 1st century AD, Roman finds including a votive relief of Heracles, and above all a late antique harbour town with fortress walls, a public bath, more than 40 houses and workshops, pottery kilns and an early Christian complex with a basilica and two baptisteries (Wikipedia (BG)). Archaeologists also found a late antique winery here. A restoration project was finished in December 2013, and the site is open to visitors.

We found no official opening hours or ticket prices, so treat the visit as an open-air walk and check locally in the off season. The St Atanas lighthouse stands on the tip of the cape, and the views north over the town beaches are the best in Byala.

The White Rocks (Belite Skali)

North of the central beach, towards the mouth of the small Byala river, the coast turns into pale cliffs known as Belite Skali, the White Rocks. They are more than scenery: their layers include the thin Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, the layer linked to the meteorite impact about 65 million years ago, and Wikipedia mentions a demonstration centre at the site (Wikipedia). Look, take photos, but do not dig into the rock, and keep away from the cliff edge and foot, which erode.

Byala beaches: what the official register lists

Byala has about 3.5 km of beaches, mixing rocky stretches, small coves and sand with dunes; most face east (Wikipedia (BG)). The Ministry of Tourism beach register names eight of them:

• Byala North: next to the White Rocks, listed as an unguarded beach (register).
• Central I–V: the town beaches below the centre. In the current register Central II is rented out with umbrella and sunbed at €3.00 each (register) and Central V at €2.50 each (register); Central I, III and IV are listed as unguarded.
• Byala South: below Cape St Atanas towards Obzor, umbrella and sunbed at €5.00 each (register).
• Karadere: registered as a “beach for nature-friendly tourism” (register).

Lifeguard status and rates are set each season, so the flags on the spot are what count. Swim only where there is a lifeguard if you are not a strong swimmer.

Karadere and Cherniya Nos: the wild coast

About 3 km north of town, Karadere is one of the last undeveloped beaches on the Bulgarian coast, with dunes and freshwater wetlands behind the sand (Wikipedia). There are no cafés, toilets or lifeguards, and the beach is reached on foot, by bike or by car from Byala. In summer it is busy with surfers and campers, and volunteers regularly clean up after them (Wikipedia (BG)), so take every scrap of rubbish back with you.

The coast ends to the north at Cherniya Nos, the “Black Cape”, an 80 m sandstone headland covered with oak forest; beyond it begins the long sandy strip towards Kamchia and Shkorpilovtsi (Wikipedia (BG)).

In town: churches and the museum

• St Paraskeva, the oldest surviving church in Byala, dates from the 1840s and was restored in 2013.
• Uspenie Bogorodichno (Dormition of the Theotokos), first built in 1876; the present church was begun in 2003 after the old one fell into ruin.
• A monument to Shteryu Pevtichev, the 19th-century haiduk (rebel) linked to the area, raised in 1986.
• The town museum in the centre; Wikipedia describes an ethnographic museum founded in 1986. We found no current hours.

How do you get from Varna to Byala?

• Bus: for 3 November 2026, Varna bus station listed 15 daily departures to Byala between 07:00 and 18:00, all from sector 4, taking 48 to 77 minutes (Varna bus station). Most are Varna–Burgas buses run by Travel Express, Varna Bus 2000, M-Bus and Deyli; Rozhen Express runs Varna–Byala buses at 11:20 and 17:20. In Byala the bus stops by the town bus station on Shteryu Pevtichev St. Times change with the season, so check the site or call 0700 200 24 the day before. More on these buses in Varna to Nessebar and Sunny Beach.
• Car: about 52 km by road from central Varna, roughly 50 minutes (OSRM), on the road towards Burgas.

Next stop: Obzor and further south

Obzor is about 7 km south of Byala by road (OSRM) and already in Burgas Province; the same Burgas buses continue there and on to Sunny Beach. If you are still choosing a bigger resort for your holiday, our comparison of Golden Sands, Sunny Beach and Albena sets them side by side. Byala is the quiet alternative: smaller hotels, a season from May to September and a coast that still has empty stretches.