Sozopol from Varna: Old Town, beaches and how to get there

The best things to do in Sozopol are in and around its Old Town: a rocky peninsula of cobbled lanes and 18th–19th-century wooden houses, with beaches on either side and St Ivan Island offshore. Sozopol lies 34 km from Burgas (Sozopol Municipality) and about 164 km by road from Varna. There is no direct bus from Varna, so you change in Burgas. It is doable as a day trip, but one night here makes it a much better one.

A short history: from Apollonia to Sozopol

Greek colonists from Miletus founded the town in the 7th century BC. It was first called Antheia, then soon renamed Apollonia (Wikipedia). In the 5th century BC the city set up a statue of Apollo about 13 m tall by the sculptor Calamis. In 72 BC the Romans under Marcus Lucullus took the city and carried the statue off to Rome. From the end of the 6th century BC Apollonia minted its own coins with an anchor as the city’s emblem. The later name Sozopolis gave today’s Sozopol.

The Old Town and its wooden houses

The Old Town fills the northern peninsula. In 1974 it was declared the architectural and historical reserve “Ancient Sozopol”, and it keeps more than 180 houses from the 18th and 19th centuries (Bulgarian Wikipedia). The typical house has a stone ground floor and an upper floor of dark timber, often jutting out over the street. The municipality’s tourist portal picks out several of them by name, such as the Laskaridis house and the houses of Ana Trendafilova and Marieta Stefanova.

Come in through the restored southern fortress wall and tower. The walls date from around 511, under Emperor Anastasius, and parts were rebuilt and conserved from 2003. Then wander north: the Old Town is small, and the lanes end above the rocky shore. The municipality’s tourist portal lists 16 churches. Two matter most to visitors: St George keeps particles of the Holy Cross and relics of the Apostle Andrew, and Sts Cyril and Methodius keeps the relics attributed to St John the Baptist.

Museums worth your time

• Archaeological Museum “Prof. Bozhidar Dimitrov”: founded in 1978, it follows the area from the 5th–4th millennium BC to the 17th century, with finds on ancient metalworking, trade and seafaring (municipality). See it first; it gives the rest of the town its context.
• Ethnographic Museum in the Old Town, the Art Gallery (opened in 1991) and the exhibition “Old Sozopol”, all on the municipality’s list of museums and galleries.

We found no official page with current opening hours or ticket prices, so check them on the spot, especially outside the summer season.

St Ivan Island and St Kirik

St Ivan covers 0.66 km², and at 33 m it is the highest of Bulgaria’s sea islands (Wikipedia). A monastery of St John the Forerunner stood here from the 5th–6th century and was rebuilt several times. In 2010 excavations turned up bones attributed to St John the Baptist. The island also has a lighthouse from 1884 and has been a protected area since 1993: 72 bird species nest there. Whether and when boats land there depends on the season, so ask at the harbour.

St Kirik, about 8 hectares, sits just 250 m north-west of the Old Town and is joined to it by an embankment and breakwater.

Beaches in Sozopol

The town beaches are the Central beach by the Old Town and Harmani along the New Town. The municipality also lists Gradina, Zlatna Ribka, Kavatsi and Smokinya further along the coast (beaches). About 17 km of the municipality’s 51 km shoreline is sandy beach. Near Kavatsi, the Sand Lily reserve, declared in 1962, protects one of the largest stands of the rare sea daffodil. The municipality calls it the smallest reserve in Bulgaria.

How to get from Varna to Sozopol

By bus (via Burgas). As of November 2026, Varna Central Bus Station lists 13 buses a day to Burgas South bus station, from 07:00 to 18:00, taking 2 h 24 min to 2 h 41 min (Varna bus station). Sozopol buses leave from sector 5 of the same station, so there is no need to cross town (Burgasbus):

Operator	From Burgas	From Sozopol
Burgasbus (daily)	hourly 06:00–20:00	hourly 06:00–21:00 (06:00 weekdays only, 20:00 weekends/holidays only)
Sozopolbus (Mon–Fri)	every hour at :30, 06:30–19:30	every hour at :30, 06:30–19:30
Sozopolbus (Sat–Sun)	every 2 h, 06:30–18:30	every 2 h, 07:30–19:30

The last bus from Burgas South to Varna leaves at 19:00 and arrives at 21:28 (arrivals). Timetables change with the season, so check both websites the day before.

By car. About 164 km from Varna, roughly 2 h 50 min, along the coast road via Burgas (OpenStreetMap routing).

Day trip or overnight?

With the first Varna bus at 07:00 you reach Burgas at about 09:30, and you must be back at Burgas South for the 19:00 bus. That leaves around six hours in Sozopol for more than five hours on buses. Our advice: stay one night. You get the Old Town in the evening and early morning, when it is quietest, and still have time for the museum and a beach. In early September the Apollonia arts festival (held since 1984, 1–10 September) brings theatre, music and exhibitions to the town.

Plan the rest of the coast

Sozopol pairs well with Nessebar on the way: see Varna to Nessebar and Sunny Beach. For a longer route, use our Bulgaria itinerary from Varna, and see where Sozopol fits among the best places to visit in Bulgaria. Guided trips to Sozopol are sold on external sites; check what is included before you book.