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Bulgaria

When Bulgaria ran away with the topsy-turvy capitalist circus, no-one told its people they were swinging without a safety net. Consider that citizens resorted to digging up the streets to pull copper from the telephone wires and you can assume the ring wasn't exactly swinging. But what the visitor encounters now is a country struggling valiantly to adapt and people who remain remarkably hospitable in the face of social and economic chaos. Urban Bulgaria, especially Sofia, is much changed. In the villages, though, you can still find folk who drive the donkey to work and eat homegrown potatoes and home-milked cheese. The difference is that they settle down for an evening in front of the satellite TV.

Of course what high inflation means for visitors with stronger currencies (that's most of you), is that the ski and beach resorts are ridiculously cheap. And you don't need wads of cash to appreciate Bulgaria's dramatic mountains, haven-like monasteries, churches, mosques, Roman and Byzantine ruins, and the excellent coffee you'll be offered wherever you go.

Provinces

Burgas Grad Sofiya Khaskovo Lovech Montana Plovdiv Ruse Sofiya Varna