Bulgaria is still a low-key golf destination, and that is part of its charm. Most of the golf is on the northern stretch of the Black Sea coast, between Balchik and Kavarna, where three 18-hole courses lie within half an hour of one another: Thracian Cliffs and BlackSeaRama, both designed by Gary Player, and Lighthouse, by Ian Woosnam. The fairways run across a steppe plateau that stops abruptly above the sea in white and ochre limestone cliffs; at Thracian Cliffs, the sea is in view on every hole.
Inland, Sofia comes with St. Sofia Golf Club, a parkland course dotted with lakes half an hour from the centre, and the trip then continues two hours south to Ian Woosnam's Pirin Golf, near Bansko, a mountain course facing the Pirin ridges. The season runs from May to October on the coast, from April around Sofia; May, June and September are the most pleasant months, mild and quieter than high summer. We arrange tailor-made trips there: reserved tee times, private transfers from Varna or Sofia, carefully chosen hotels and good tables serving Bulgarian cooking.
Between Balchik and Kavarna, on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, three eighteen-hole courses lie less than half an hour from one another: Thracian Cliffs, a Gary Player layout clinging to the cliffs near Cape Kaliakra, BlackSeaRama, another Player design, and Lighthouse, by Ian Woosnam. Golfers come for these fairways set above the sea, resorts of a good standard and the summer palace of a Queen of Romania, preferably from May to October.
Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, has only one 18-hole course within 45 minutes: St. Sofia Golf Club at Ravno Pole, opened in 2004 and reworked by Paul McGinley in 2012. The region's other major course, Ian Woosnam's Pirin Golf near Bansko, is about two hours' drive away and is played as the second leg of the trip. Golfers come to combine golf, a historic city and the mountains, from April to October, ideally in May, June and September.
