Nesebar: a practical guide to the Old Town and the beaches around it

Nesebar is a town on Bulgaria's southern Black Sea coast, about 35 km north of Burgas. Its Old Town sits on a rocky peninsula joined to the mainland by a narrow isthmus with a windmill on it. For its medieval churches, fortress walls and Revival-period wooden houses, Old Nesebar has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. It was the Thracian Menebria and, from the late 6th century BC, the Greek colony of Mesambria.

New Nesebar, on the mainland, has a long beach and most of the hotels and apartments. Sunny Beach and Sveti Vlas lie to the north; Ravda, Pomorie and Burgas to the south. The season runs from June to September; in July and August the Old Town is at its busiest and parking there is hard, which is why our parking guide is the most-read page on the site.

Here you will find practical guides: getting here from Burgas airport, which beaches suit children, where to eat at a fair price, which churches and museums are worth it, and what to do when the weather turns.