You are hereOther Activities
Other Activities
|
Shopping & the town |
|
Many shops close for siesta at around 1pm and re-open at around 3pm, staying open until 8pm in the evening. After hours, many shops stay open 24hr selling beer, wines and spirits as well as food, snacks, sweets and other everyday items. The nearest 24hr shop is about 5 minutes walk from the apartment. On Sundays, the market comes to town. Here you will find a varied range of goods and local crafts at what are often rock bottom prices. Behind the square is the fruit & veg market, where you can sample some of the local organic produce. The town's old quarters are best visited on foot. Here you will find the old stone built houses, mehanas and small shops lining the cobbled streets. |
   |
|
|
| Next to the apartment is the Belle Vue, where for a small cost, you can enjoy the facilities of their health spa. Among the facilities are an indoor heated swimming pool, a sauna, a jacuzzi and a turkish bath. You can also enjoy a wide range of alternative therapies, with everything from massage to reflexology available. |
   |
|
Day trips |
|
|
| The best known of Bulgaria's monasterys, justly famed for both its architecture and mountainous setting. Although you may wish to visit the monastery on a packaged day trip it is perfectly possible to get here independantly and the abundance of trails leading off into the densly forested hills make an extended stay more than worthwhile. Though the monastery gates are open daily to visitors from dawn till dusk, some of the sites within the complex keep more restricted hours. If you want to see a service, morning prayers start at 7 or 8am, evening prayers at 4 or 5pm. Services are preceded by monks hammering on wooden panels in the monastery courtyard, a ritual designed to remind the congregation of Christs nailing to the cross. The start of the Saturday evening service is usually announced by a monk ringing a carillon of bells from hrelyos tower. While the Thursday morning service is traditionally dedicated to St. John and features sacril chanting throught to date the 15th century. Apart from Easter, the two main religous festivals celebrated here are the birthday August 18th and feast day October 19th of St. John of Rila. |
 |
Melnik |
|
The smallest town in the southwestern Pirin Mountains, about 440 m above sea level. The town is an architectural reserve with 96 of its buildings listed as cultural monuments. Melnik is popular amongst both locals and tourists for its unusual landscape of sandstone formations, cliffs and pyramids as well as it's robust red wines. Melniks layout is simple, with a single main street running alongside a riverbed spanned by rickety foot bridges then diverging into two gullies. Tiny back streets invite aimless wandering, while the hillsides are abound with tortoises and lizards. Kordopulov House (opens daily from 8.30am to 12pm and from 1.30pm to 6pm for about 5 lev) protrudes from a rocky shoulder above the gully with twenty-four windows surveying every approach. The first floor, is now a Mehana (bar/restaurant) providing spacious yet intimate rooms. The reception room, a superb fusion of Turkish and Bulgarian crafts, with painted panelling, rows of cushioned bench seats, intricate lattice work ceiling and a multitude of stained glass windows. Below ground are the wine cellars, huge wooden barrells occupying vast caverns cut from the hillside, connected to the vinyards at the rear of the house by a network of tunnells. |
   |
The Dancing Bears Rehabilitation Park |
| The park is located in a forest area with natural water resources and home to the wild brown bear. Each bear has its own territory with access to water and plenty of space for climbing. The food for the bears is deliberately hidden at different places in the park, so that they find it themselves, just as they would in a natural wild environment. The Dancing Bears Park is an international project of “Four Paws” Foundation, a non- profit organization and financed mainly by charity. Guided tour visits are available between April and November |
Yagodinska cave |
| The Yagodinska Cave is the “pearl in the crown” of the Rhodope Mountains. It is situated near Buynovska River, 3 km from the village of Yagodina. The cave is a part of the unique Karst of Buynovsko Gorge. It is 10 km long, and 5 stories high, with many labyrinths and abysses inside. Visitors enter the cave through an artificially dug opening, while the natural entrance is 30 m above.A special path through the cave offers the opportunity to see the wonderful underground world formed in the course of millions of years. Atmospheric lighting illuminates the mysterious formations. Draperies, pipe-like stalactites, cave pearls, “leopard’s skin” and hanging stalactone visible along with many others. Some of the formations inside resemble the well- known Santa Claus, Snow-White and The Seven Dwarfs, Virgin Mary and her newborn child, the Elephant, the Crocodiles and hundreds more. |
   |
| Natural Spas & hot springs |
| The spa resort is situated in a mountainous area at some 550m above sea level and close to the Mesta river. The area is rich in mineral water springs, which had already been used during Roman times. The remains of Roman spa facilities have since been transformed into the village`s public bath. Ognyanovo offers perfect conditions for recreation and spa treatment all year round with its mild mediterranean climate. The mineral water temperature here is 43 degrees and is used for the treatment of a number of illnesses. |
|
|
| Why not take the Mountain train to Belitsa or Velingrad. The narrow-guage railway winds through the mountains with the most spectacular scenery. There are organised trips taking tourists from bansko to Velingrad or Belitsa, where you can visit the bear park as mentioned earlier. The organised tours include return transfer and a traditional Bulgarian lunch. |
   |