Varna

From the museum, walk southwest down Maria Luiza Boulevard for 8 minutes past turn-of-the-century merchant houses until the street opens onto Cyril and Methodius Square and the 1886 cathedral rises with its three seafoam-green onion domes. Step inside (free) for the gilded Bulgarian iconostasis and the candle-lit Theotokos icon in the right-hand chapel, where locals stop to ask for safe travel before any long journey.

Tip: The brass chandeliers are fully lit only during the late-morning liturgy hour — this is the one window of the day you'll see the interior actually glow. Drop €1 for a beeswax candle in the iron box on the right; the smell alone is worth it and the soft flicker rescues otherwise dark phone photos.

Walk southeast for 12 minutes down Preslav Street through the pedestrianized old town, then slip into the narrow bougainvillea-draped lanes of the Greek Quarter where the 2nd-century Roman baths appear suddenly between apartment blocks — the largest preserved thermae in the Balkans. We're here at midday because the high sun maps the geometry of the surviving brick vaults and you can clearly read the hypocaust floor-heating channels from above; the perimeter walk gives you everything, no need to enter.

Tip: Climb the small staircase at the corner of San Stefano and Han Krum streets — there's a free public terrace looking straight down into the ruins, no ticket needed. The columns and apse line up dramatically from there; bring a wide-angle lens and shoot before 12:30 when the sun goes flat overhead.

Walk five minutes north up Han Krum Street to Slivnitsa Boulevard. Happy is the beloved Bulgarian chain born here in Varna in 1994 — yes, a chain, but it's where Varnans actually eat lunch and the menu is hyper-local. Order kebapche (grilled minced sausage, €2.50 each) with shopska salad (€4) or the sach (sizzling iron-skillet pork with vegetables, €9); the awning-shaded outdoor tables face the Court House and food hits the table in 15 minutes.

Tip: Order ayran (€2) instead of soda — the salty yogurt drink is the local pairing and cuts the heat far better. Ask for the kebapche 'na skara' (fresh off the grill, not pre-cooked from the warmer); it doubles the smokiness and most tourists don't know to ask.

Walk east on Slivnitsa Boulevard for 10 minutes until the street opens onto the cliff above the Black Sea — this is the gateway to Primorski Park, Bulgaria's longest urban garden at 8 km. We're walking the full coastal promenade now because the afternoon sun turns the water cobalt and the sea breeze flips off the inland heat; descend the central allée under century-old plane trees, pass the Aquarium, the open-air theater, and the Naval Museum's gunboat, and finish at the wooden pier near Asparuhovo for the postcard panorama of Varna Bay.

Tip: Skip the Pantheon of Revival Heroes and walk 50 meters east to the cliff-edge bench under the cypress trees — this is the best free Black Sea view in the city, and locals come here to propose marriage. The light goes golden around 17:30 and the bench gets claimed fast; arrive by 17:00 if you want it.

Walk back along the upper promenade for 15 minutes to Mr. Baba, perched on a wooden deck right above the water at the Sea Garden's eastern flank — Varna's most-loved seafood house. The kitchen sources daily from the Black Sea fleet that docks 800 meters away; order the safrid (whole-fried Black Sea horse mackerel, €12) eaten with fingers and a squeeze of lemon, and the rapana (sea snail in butter and garlic, €16), the Black Sea specialty you cannot get inland.

Tip: Reserve a deck table at least 24 hours ahead and arrive by 19:30 to catch the last sunset light on the bay — after dark the deck stays warm with heaters but the view loses its drama. Pitfall: avoid the seafront cafés along Knyaz Boris Boulevard near the casinos where touts pull you in from the street — they triple-price tourists and serve frozen fish. Mr. Baba and Captain Cook next door are the only authentic seafood houses inside the Sea Garden itself.

Exit the cathedral and walk five minutes north along Maria Luiza Boulevard through a leafy linden alley — the elegant 19th-century yellow building rises on your right at number 41. Head straight upstairs to the Varna Gold Treasure: more than 3,000 gold pieces from a single Copper Age grave, 6,500 years old, the oldest worked gold on Earth. While Stonehenge was still an empty field, a Black Sea king was buried here in 1.5 kilograms of gold.

Tip: Skip the audio guide and head straight to Hall 8 — Bulgarian school groups flood in around 11:00, so the first hour is your only window for silence. Buy the combined ticket here (museum + Roman Thermae, €7) to skip the queue at the Thermae later.

Walk eight minutes south down pedestrianised Knyaz Boris I Boulevard — Varna's main shopping street, shaded by linden trees and lined with old stone facades. Mekitsa & Coffee serves the city's signature breakfast-into-lunch: mekitsa, a Bulgarian fried-dough pillow, eaten with white cheese, honey, or rose-petal jam. Two pieces with a cold ayran runs €5; the smell of frying dough hits you from across the street.

Tip: Order one savoury (white cheese) and one sweet (rose jam or lyutenitsa) — locals call this combination the 'two-faced' breakfast. Add a tarator, the cold yoghurt-cucumber-walnut soup; it's the dish Black Sea Bulgarians say defines summer.

Walk ten minutes southeast down San Stefano Street — the massive brick walls rise suddenly out of a residential block, 22 metres tall, the largest Roman baths in the Balkans. Built in the second century when Varna was Odessos, a Roman port shipping grain to Constantinople, the complex sprawls across 7,000 square metres of arches, hypocausts and collapsed columns. Afternoon sun cuts diagonally through the ruined arches around 14:30 — exactly when shadows are sharpest for photos.

Tip: Climb the wooden stairs at the back of the caldarium for the only elevated view of the full complex — most visitors miss this and never see the scale. There's no shade on site; bring a hat in summer or come after 14:00 when the west wall casts a strip of shadow over the apodyterium.

Walk seven minutes west back into the heart of the city — past stone fountains, tile-roofed mansions and waiters setting up for the evening — to Independence Square, the social heart of Varna. The Neoclassical theatre with its caryatid columns rises over the square; you don't need to enter, just sit on the steps and watch the city's evening corso, an old Black Sea promenade ritual still alive here. This is where every Varna generation, from teenagers to grandfathers, meets at dusk.

Tip: Between 16:00 and 17:30 the low sun turns the theatre's white facade gold — that is the photographer's hour. Stay until 21:00 in summer for the square's musical fountain show; it runs at 21:00 and 22:00 nightly.

Walk three minutes north along Slivnitsa Boulevard to Staria Chinar — 'The Old Plane Tree' — set in a hidden courtyard under a vast plane tree strung with lanterns at dusk. This is Bulgarian dining in its full evening form: order the kavarma (slow-cooked pork-and-vegetable clay pot, €11) and a glass of Mavrud, the dark red wine from Asenovgrad (€5). The courtyard fills by 20:30 with locals already on their second glass.

Tip: Reserve a courtyard table for 19:30 — by 20:30 every chair is taken. And here is the pitfall: along Knyaz Boris one block south, waiters with glossy five-language menus will pull you into pizzerias charging €20 for frozen-topping pizzas — only foreigners eat there. If a menu has photos of the food, walk on.