If you’re travelling to Vidin in North West Bulgaria, we definitely recommend a visit to Baba Vida, a historic medieval fortress.

Built in the 10th century on the river Danube as a defensive installation, it’s remains the only fully preserved medieval castle in the Bulgaria.

The fortress is often used for film shoots which is an indication of it’s beauty.

The Museum and activities are great for everyone including families with childrens. There is also a theatre stage used for plays in the summer and the castle is beautifully lit in the evenings.

These photographs were taken by our friend Plamen Angelov who published them on his blog. You can see these photographs and more on uniquetravelphotos.blogspot.com.

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You can find out more about the castle on the official website or on Wikipedia or watch a video about it on YouTube.

easyJet have announced they are launching a new service from Manchester to Sofia in Bulgaria from December 11th 2008.

Some flights cost as little as £33 for the outward journey and just £23 for the return making them the cheapest of all airlines flying to Bulgaria.

Check out our review of easyJet’s service from Gatwick for an idea of what to expect.

Many people from the UK are making their way over to Eastern Europe to save on large amounts of dental work which can often run into many thousands of pounds.

The dental holiday tries to combine a relaxing break with a bargain dental work to make the prospect even more reliable. The majority of dentists are based in Sofia as this is easy to get to and a great place to base yourself for a quick break.

To save even more money, you should consider a holiday package from Budget Bulgaria. The low-cost car hire and hotel packages can help keep the costs as low as possible. When combined with a cheap flight from one of the low cost airlines, the total holiday cost can be less than £100 for a couple of days.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/insurance/health-insurance/article.html?in_article_id=423726&in_page_id=39

If You’re travelling to Bulgaria for the first time, you’ll want to know a little bit about the currency,

The currency in Bulgaria is the lev and the plural is leva. You may well see the acronym BGN used in currency conversion as this is the equivalent to GBP, EUR or USD.

There are 100 stotinki (equivalent to pence or cents) to 1 lev.

The coins used are 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 stotinki and a 1 lev. The banknotes available are 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 leva.

The lev exchange rates are fairly stable.

At the moment 1 Lev = £0.40 GBP / €0.51 EUR / $0.80 USD

This makes it very easy to calculate if you’re used to Euros, just half everything. It’s a bit harder to convert to pounds in your head but you quickly get used to it.

Bulgaria is planning to join the Euro in 2012 which will simplify things further for residents of other Eurozone countries. British visitors to Bulgaria are also likely to benefit as it’s more likely they will be familiar with the value of their holiday money.

It’s not all good news though. Our Bulgarian friends are predicting the prices of everything will rise as retailers take advantage of the initial confusion of the value of the new currency. Prices are typically rounded up the nearest unit.

Bulgaria will have its first ever gay parade on June 28th in Sofia.

The event is being organised by Gemini, a Bulgarian gay organisation and it’s planned to begin at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia at 4pm.

It may not be an entirely love-filled event as the Bulgarian National Union, a right-wing group, are planning to hold a counter protest and disrupt the activities. Previous gay events have also faced strong criticism from the Church.

http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/gay-pride-row/id_30188/catid_5

If you’re going on holiday to Bulgaria and you happen to be in Sofia, you should visit the National Gallery for Foreign Art. Located on St Alexander Nevsky Square in Sofia, it serves as the Bulgaria’s national institution for foreign artwork.

The Gallery is mainly filled with non-bulgarian artwork including European, Asian and African art, contemporary art and engraving.

The Gallery is currently featuring an exhibition celebrating the 75th anniversary of Bulgarian artist Svetlin Roussev which finishes on July 14th.

The museum is closed on Tuesdays, free on Mondays, otherwise adults pay 4lv (£1.60/$3.20/€2) and children 2lv (£0.80/$1.60/€1).

Check out the official website for details on the latest exhibitions.

http://www.foreignartmuseum.bg/en/

Read this detailed review.

http://www.sofiaecho.com/cat-restaurants.php?resid=22302&catid=73

Bulgaria has just decided to increase it’s minimum monthly wage in 2009 to a staggering 240 Leva which is under £100/$190/E122.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=93374

Living costs reflect this level of salary which is why a holiday to Bulgaria is such a fantastic bargain.

Pauline Frommer of Frommers.com Travel Guides, has rated Bulgaria in her top 10 budget destinations for 2008.

Top Budget Destinations for Summer 2008

The Frommer’s Travel Guides are well respected in the US and this is a great acknowledgement of the fantastic savings you can make by holidaying in Bulgaria (We’re obviously a little bit biased so you have to forgive our pride).

After many months of hard work, we’re finally ready to launch the first version of the Budget Bulgaria website. 

Budget Bulgaria was set up with the simple aim of providing cheap holidays to Bulgaria giving visitors the freedom to enjoy this wonderful country.

Our offer is very simple - £27 / €35 per person, per night for a quality hotel and hire car in Bulgaria.  We don’t think anyone will be able to beat our prices. 

Our hotels cover most areas in Bulgaria including Sofia, Plovdiv, Bansko, Lovech, Triavna, Arbanassi, Troyan, Elena, Bozhenci, Koprivshtica, Sandanski, Melnik, Belogradchik, Vidin, Bachkovo, Samokov, Chepelare, Pamporovo and Velingrad.

We’re planning to add a lot of new content for our users to help guide them around Bulgaria.

We’d love to get your feedback, positive or negative, to help us improve our service so please take a look.

 www.budgetbulgaria.com