Sunny Beach
The largest and most popular Black Sea resort, stretching 2 mls along the coast from N to S and ½ ml inland at its widest point, Sunny Beach is another purpose-built affair that began in earnest in the late 1950s on the site of private villas and vineyards.
The resort is by passed by through traffic about 3km behind the sea front. The main road through the resort is only occasionally busy, as there is no residential community to talk of, with hotel workers coming in from surrounding areas.
Rapid development was sustained until the 1970s, with the substantial buildings designed and mass-produced with no thought to individuality. Today, after a rapid regeneration programme, it has become a very long, concentrated resort of predominantly large, modern hotels with a brash, unsophisticated style with the older establishment having under-gone refurbishment too.
Flat and easy to get about on foot or by minitrain, the 1-ml-long pedestrianised promenade beside the beach is a hive of activity, as is the main street lined with assorted stalls, minimarkets and attractive wood-built restaurants and cafes; loud, pulsating technomusic emanates from every direction