From Balchik’s Botanical Garden to Cape Kaliakra

From EUR €35.00

Duration: 6 Hours (approx.)
Location: Varna
Product code: BALKAL1DAY

About

Within a short drive of Varna are two of the most beautiful attractions on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast – Balchik and Kaliakra. Queen Marie of Edinburgh famously fell in love with Balchik and built a summer residence – a picturesque castle with its own Botanical Garden, home to rare plant species from all over the world. Cape Kaliakra takes you 2 km off the sea coast, and its picturesque reddish cliffs are home to an ancient Thracian fort.

Highlights

• Visit Balchik’s Botanical Garden

• Get a close look at rare and endangered plants from all over the world

• Travel to Cape Kaliakra – a place steeped in history and legend

• Visit the Thracian fortress

Description

We’ll be transported from Varna to the first stop of our tour - Balchik. We’ll go sightseeing in the Botanical Garden, specialized in growing tropical, subtropical and unique plant species. Particularly notable is its collection of large cacti and succulents, including winter-hardy cactuses. The garden’s collection includes tree species and lemon trees that bear fruit larger than coconuts, aquatic plants, vines, ferns and endangered plants, totaling 4600 species of plant. It is part of the Index Seminum Initiative, trading plant seeds with countries from all over the world. We’ll next visit Cape Kaliakra – a nature and archeological reserve that stretches 2 km into the sea. It is as beautiful from afar as it is from up close – its reddish cliffs plunge almost vertically into the waves, and the sea itself is a stunning backdrop for an already picturesque landscape. Cape Kaliakra is reaches far enough into the sea that one can sometimes see dolphins from its cliffs. The first to settle on this cape were a tribe of Thracians in the 6th century BC. The fort wall they built around their settlement stands to this day, as do the remains of building foundations and an impressively intact tomb and a bathhouse dating back to the 4th century BC. We’ll walk to the farthest end of the cape and visit the chapel. After that we’ll sit down for lunch at the restaurant.

On the way back we can go sightseeing in Balchik.