RURAL TOURISM IN BULGARIA

RURAL TOURISM

Human kind has achieved great results in the field of technology and engineering; the trends are towards even higher technologies and acquisitions, faster and faster, higher and higher... But where does the individual human go, the man who creates all these wonders? Where is his origin; where in his life is his natural environment, where he appeared from for the first time? The individual, used to the modern conveniences fails to become aware of the fact that his connection with nature is getting thinner and thinner, and within nature he feels helpless, because his knowledge of it goes weaker. People feel more and more tangibly the stress of the urban style of life and search for opportunities to spend their holidays in the open in order to lose touch with their intensive daily routine. Not by chance the motto of the last years is “Back to Nature”! Elderly people, families with small children, scholars and businessmen, working under strenuous conditions, and with responsible jobs, as well as many others – if they really wanted to relax for several days in quietness, close to nature, would not choose the city hotels, or the noisy camping sites and resorts.

Bulgaria is one of the countries with the most numerous protected natural territories in Europe and one with the most preserved nature. It has exclusive diversity of natural elements and landscapes, architecture, lifestyle, agricultural production, ethnography, folklore, cultural monuments, etc. The notion about the rich Bulgarian culture is broadened after visits of the Thracian, Byzantine, medieval Bulgarian capitals, fortresses, tombs and religious sites scattered upon the whole territory of Bulgaria. These are really important prerequisites for the development of the non-traditional tourism, which becomes more and more popular in our country. Staying in a rural house, the contacts with its living dwellers, the everyday lifestyle and the holidays, the music and the crafts, all combined with a walk in the nature give the unique charm of this kind of recreation. Bulgarian village, this original cultural and ethnographical reserve, gives the unique opportunity to feel and immerse into a manner of life that casts bridges across time and cultures, for which the modern Europeans are only barely aware. Bulgarian rural regions are rare combination of preserved natural environment and lifestyle, reiterating the unchanged with centuries natural cycles and laws, being at the same time a place of unique gathering of the traditional ethnographic origin of labor, cuisine, entertainment and present times. If you stay in a village, and then start hiking the mountains, visit some interesting cultural site near by (and there is no place in Bulgaria, without a unique historical or cultural site!) and finish with wine tasting, under the accompaniment of our folk music, then most certainty you would want to do that again and again. You can taste also the home made white cheese, cheese, the famous Bulgarian yogurt, wines, brandies, and local delicacies. Most of the landlords in Bulgarian village have small “botanical and zoological museums” in their yards – there they grow various vegetables and fruit with unique taste, poultry and domestic animals. You will find on your own account that these are the most palatable fruits and vegetables, which you have ever eaten – all grown in natural, ecologically clean environment, with no genetic engineering. Along with the production of home made wine almost in every home, there are also rural wine cellars with various production of red and white wines, some of them mend for export – Karaisen, Novo selo, Slavyantsi, Damyanitsa, Osmar, Stambolovo, Karabunar, etc.