Bulgaria Rowing Tour

Bulgaria is located in South-Eastern Europe and occupies the Eastern part of the Balcan Peninsula. To the North the country borders on Romania via the Danube River, to the East it touches the Black Sea, its southern neighbors are Turkey and Greece, and to the West it borders on the Republic of Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro.

From wild, wooded mountain ranges speckled with remote villages and enchanting monasteries to vibrant modern cities and long sandy beaches hugging the Black Sea coast, Bulgaria rewards exploration.

The main stops of our rowing tour will be Sofia, Plovdiv, Ruse and Nessebar. We’ll stay approximately 2 days in each location and will travel in a spacious mini bus with a professional driver. In Sofia we’ll row in the beautiful Pancharevo Lake, have a walking tour with a professional tour guide, and visit the Natural History Museum, home of thousands of artifacts connected to Bulgaria’s archaeology, fine arts, history and ethnography.

Next, we’ll visit Plovdiv (host of a few World Rowing Championships in recent years) our rowing site is a 2000m canal with perfectly flat water and no motor boats. Our hotel there is situated right by the rowing canal and a pleasant 20min walk to the rowing club. After rowing we’ll visit some of Plovdiv’s lively city center and the Old Town featuring and a preserved 18-19th-century architecture. We will spend another day full day in Plovdiv and explore some sites in the mountain region such as Asen’s Fortress, Bachkovo Monastery and The Wonderful Bridges.

Ruse (Iva’s hometown)  will be our next stop and on the way there we are going to explore Tsarevets, a medieval fortress that served as the Second Bulgarian Empire's primary fortress and strongest bulwark from 1185 to 1393, housing the royal and the patriarchal palaces and will also stop by Etara – an ethnographic village museum where artisans work to preserve old Bulgarian trades such as wood carving, pottery, weaving and many more.

Our accommodation in Ruse will be right in the “center” of the town, which is its main street or promenade, filled with shops, restaurants, cafes, etc. It’s the perfect place to walk and explore a bit on your own. We will row on a beautiful lake about 20min drive away from Ruse. In the afternoon we leave Ruse for a wine tasting experience and dinner in a local village.

After visiting Ruse, we depart for Nesebar, UNESCO protected ancient town with ruins of 5th and 6th century churches and situated on the Black Sea. We will stay in a boutique hotel in the Old Town, featuring lovely views of the sea and walking distance to restaurants and shops. On our full day there we will visit some places of interest along the coast such as

While at the coast we’ll have some day tours to visit different sites. One of those is going to be Old Town Nesebar, an ancient town with ruins of 5th and 6th century churches and on the Black Sea Coast. While at the sea coast we’ll also have some time to relax and enjoy some rowing in addition to other water sports and activities prior to heading back to Sofia for the conclusion of the tour.