Getting Around Varna
Varna is a compact city where the main sights cluster in the old town and the Sea Garden, and most visitors find that a mix of walking and public transport covers everything comfortably. The city has no metro or tram system, so getting around relies on buses, trolleybuses, taxis, and your own two feet.
On Foot
Walking is the best way to explore central Varna. Most sights and attractions are concentrated in the compact old part of the city and the Sea Garden, where you can easily get around on foot. A pedestrian zone connects the Cathedral square to the main entrance of the Sea Garden, and both are within walking distance of the railway station.
Several beaches sit immediately below the Sea Garden, and the alley that runs along them starts in the same place as the street leading to the public part of the port, about ten minutes east of the railway station. Even the central bus station is doable on foot — roughly twenty-five minutes to the Cathedral along a commercial boulevard. Distances do add up, though, so plan accordingly.
Public Transport: Buses and Trolleybuses
Varna has an extensive public transport network served by buses and trolleybuses (electric buses powered by overhead wires). There is no metro or tram network in the city.
With the exception of Bus 409 (which serves the airport and the resorts), all lines are run by a municipal company. Paper tickets can be bought from ticket machines — keep small-denomination cash on hand, as the machines accept notes of at most 10 лв.
To plan journeys, several online tools are useful:
- VarnaTraffic.com and Easyway — online maps of bus stops, routes, and current bus positions, with route planners that can use your GPS position to point you to the nearest stop. Their interface (including bus stop names) is in English, but the underlying maps are mostly labelled in Bulgarian Cyrillic. Varna Traffic also has an ad-supported Android app.
- OpenStreetMap — includes Varna's public transport routes in its Transport layer, so they can be displayed offline in apps such as OsmAnd or Mapy.cz. Note that OSM is often slow to reflect changes, including seasonal variation.
- Varna's official tourism information site — has a page on transport.
Useful routes for visitors include buses 9 and 109, which go to the resorts, and buses 22 and 41, which serve the Cathedral and the central bus station. These depart from the turnaround stop near the Central Railway Station — the more convenient of the two pairs of stops in that area for tourists.
Taxis and Ride-Hailing
A taxi stand operates in front of Terminal 2 at the airport, where the airport has a contract with Triumf Taxi.
Arriving by Air: Varna Airport to the City
Varna Airport (VAR) sits west of the city centre, right off the A2 motorway, and receives flights from destinations all over the world, mostly around Europe. The national carrier, Bulgaria Air, serves the only domestic line, to the capital Sofia.
Options for getting into the city:
- By bus — Bus line 409 connects the airport to the city centre and the outlying resorts (Sts. Constantine and Helena, Golden Sands). Make sure to have small-denomination cash for the ticket machine (a 10 лв note at most).
- By taxi — There's a taxi stand in front of Terminal 2, served under contract by Triumf Taxi. See the warning about taxi scams above.
- By rental car — At least half a dozen car rental services have offices at the airport.
Arriving by Train or Bus
The Central Train Station is a striking Art Nouveau building with a clock tower, within walking distance of the city centre and the Sea Garden, but far from the airport and the central bus station.
On foot from the station, you can reach the central street in under ten minutes: leave via the exit under the clock tower, use the pedestrian underpass to cross Primorski Boulevard, and follow the street leading immediately north/uphill (ulitsa Tsar Simeon I), which brings you to the New Yorker store on Independence Square. The station is also about ten minutes from the port (passenger terminal, yacht marina, amusement park), the beach alley, and the southern end of the Sea Garden.
By bus from the station, note that there are two pairs of stops serving different lines. The turnaround stop is more convenient for tourists: buses 9 and 109 go to the resorts, while buses 22 and 41 go to the Cathedral and the central bus station.
The Central Bus Station serves long-distance connections to Sofia, Veliko Tarnovo, Burgas, Plovdiv, Istanbul, Greece, Romania, and Central and Western Europe. It sits next to Grand Mall Varna, with public transport stops on the large boulevard immediately south of the station — the stop towards the centre is on the opposite side of the street, reached via a pedestrian underpass.
Arriving by Boat
Varna is one of Bulgaria's official ports of entry on the Black Sea and the country's only cruise destination. The passenger terminal is within walking distance of the southern end of the Sea Garden (about ten minutes), the Central Railway Station (about fifteen minutes), and the main pedestrian street (twenty to twenty-five minutes). Bars, restaurants, and an amusement park sit on the port grounds, with swimming pools near the port street exit and beaches starting immediately north of the port's breakwater.