Summer hot spots – Black Sea Coast

Balchik

Since Vama Veche is so close to the border between Romania and Bulgaria, a visit to the neighboring Balchik could easily be factored in. Located in Dobrich Oblast, the town is 60 km from Vama Veche and 42 km from Varna, a prominent Bulgarian seaside resort. Its geography impresses through a mixture of hills and its seaside location.

After the Second Balkan War in 1913, the town, styled Balcic, became part of the Kingdom of Romania. It was regained by Bulgaria during World War I (1916-1919), but Romania restored its authority when hostilities in the region ceased. In 1940, just before the outbreak of World War II in the region, Romania ceded Balchik to Bulgaria under the terms of the Craiova Treaty.

During Romania’s administration, Balchik Palace was the favorite summer residence of Queen Marie of Romania and her immediate family. The town hence hosts Queen Marie’s Oriental villa, the place where her heart was kept, in accordance with her last wishes, until 1940 (when the Treaty of Craiova awarded the region back to Bulgaria). It was then moved to Bran Castle, in central Romania, and nowadays may be found in Bucharest’s History Museum (which upsets the many who want to bring the queen’s heart back to Bran).

Today, Balchik Palace and the adjacent Balchik Botanical Garden are the town’s most popular landmarks. Currently, three 18-hole golf courses are being developed around the town.
During the inter-war period, Balchik was also a favorite destination for Romanian avant-garde painters, lending its name to an informal school of post-impressionist painters – the Balchik School of Painting which is central in the development of Romanian 20th century painting. Many works of the artists in the group depict the town’s houses and the exotic Tatar inhabitants, as well as the sea.

Read more about

Turkish Black Sea Coast listed on CNN Travel’s “Best Places to Visit in 2024”

read more

Vama Veche

Romanian coastal resort Vama Veche is most commonly associated with the younger, uninhibited generations, although age is not the most important criterion. Vama Veche, which translates as the Old Customs Point, is actually a Romanian village that forms part of the Limanu commune on the Black Sea coast, near the border with Bulgaria. Even during communism, the resort had a reputation as an alternative tourist destination, which has only grown since the Romanian Revolution of 1989.

During the communist era, concern for border patrol sight lines spared Vama Veche the development that took hold in other Romanian Black Sea resorts.
It became a hangout for intellectuals, and for reasons that are not exactly clear, the generally repressive regime of Nicolae Ceauescu chose to tolerate
this countercultural oasis, as long as people had their identity papers with them.

Accommodation consisted of tents or rooms rented from peasants or fishermen. While camping is theoretically not permitted, to this day many visitors and semi-permanent residents still stay in tents on the beach.

Some of Vama Veche’s most famous attractions are its nudist beach, as well as local restaurants and pubs Papa La Soni, La Mitocanu and Corsarul, which offer large portions of local food at accessible prices.
Stufstock festival is another local highlight. The ninth Stufstock will take place between August 21 and 29, bringing rock, jazz, blues, reggae, indie, fusion and electro music under the same umbrella with movies, photography, literature and theater.

Meanwhile the Newcomers competition will give twelve bands the chance of their big break. The name Stufstock is an allusion to Woodstock, the famous hippie festival of the 1960s, incorporating the word “stuf” (reed), which refers to the event’s seaside setting.