Bulgaria's Topography, Nature & Climate

Bulgaria occupies a wide part of the central Balkan peninsula. In the north, the Danube marks most of the border to Romania. In the west, Bulgaria shares borders with →Serbia and →Macedonia, in the south with Greece and →Turkey. In the east, the country borders on the Black Sea. The beautiful coastline is around 350 km long. A large part of the country is mountainous terrain. Especially the mountain ranges Stara Planina, Rodopi and Strandsha dominate the small country, but there are also some small but highly impressive massifs such as Rila and Pirin. The highest peak of the country can be found in the Rila massif - it's the 2,925 m high Musala. The one and only large plain can be found along the Danube. This plain offers very fertile chernozem-like soils and therefore it's used as Bulgaria's granary.

Although the country is comparatively small, it offers an amazing variety of landscapes, with more than a few of them protected by national parks. Among them, Rodopi national park (see →Smolyan), Rila national park (see →Rila and the amazing national park along Ropotamo river in the south-east of Bulgaria are definitely worth a visit. There are many scenic roads in Bulgaria, but my personal favourite (although it's hard to pick a favourite here) is the road connecting Michurin (south of Burgas) with Malko Tarnovo (at the Turkish border) - a highly interesting landscape with some sleepy little villages. 100% backwoods.