Diving in Bulgaria

Bulgarian recreational diving works the top 40 m of the Black Sea: 18-30 m wrecks accessible to Open Water divers, plus shallow rocky reefs, swim-throughs, and a handful of seasonal seahorse and Galata reef shore dives. The basin is brackish at around 17-18 ppt, cold below the summer thermocline, often murky, and biologically thinner than the Mediterranean. The industry is small and seasonal (April to November), running on a local-club and family-business scale. Three coastal regions carry the country.

The southern coast around Burgas Province packs the widest variety into the shortest distance. Sozopol concentrates the largest cluster of operators, the Centre for Underwater Archaeology, and most of the named sites. The Pioneer at 18 m, Bulgaria's first deliberately sunk artificial-reef wreck, opens to Open Water divers and is the area's signature dive; the Mopang WWI-era ship at around 27 m off Burgas and the Rodina cargo at 30-43 m off Cape Kolokita extend the wreck ladder for Advanced Open Water and deeper. Shallow shore sites like Seahorse Alley (7 m), the Goat Cave cavern at Sveti Ivan Island (15 m), and the Underwater Stone Forest at 17 m round out the OW-level scene.

The centre-north around Varna Province is the wreck-and-reef hub with the country's headline aircraft dive. The Tupolev 154 LZ-BTJ, the personal jet of former communist leader Todor Zhivkov, was sunk in 2011 at 22 m about half a nautical mile offshore from St Konstantin and Helena. At 49 m long with a permanent surface mooring listed in the National Maritime Navigational Book and a penetrable interior, it is one of the only Bulgarian sites set up for repeat structured diving. Galata, south of Varna city, is the macro-photography stretch with the Seahorse Garden at 7 m. Kranevo, 30 km north of Varna airport, holds the country's single indexed dive site, the Kranevo Cargo Wreck at 18 m.

The far north (Dobrich Province, with Tyulenovo, Cape Kaliakra and Shabla) is topography-driven diving. Cape Kaliakra rises 70 m vertically above the sea and forms a 2.5 km headland; underwater the cliffs invert to shallow reefs strewn with fallen boulders and surge-eroded swim-throughs, and some sites have partially flooded caves once inhabited by the now-extinct Black Sea monk seal. Most dives here are boat-access and require permits inside the protected zone. Tyulenovo north and south are the entry-level cavern sites at 7-12 m, with shore access from the village. A Bulgaria-resident community judgement, repeated in forum posts, holds that the northern end of the coast tends to be better than the south.

Bulgaria has no single dominant national recreational-diving federation. The CMAS-affiliated Federation Bulgare de Pêche Sous Marine in Sofia covers spearfishing rather than recreational training, and practical certification runs almost entirely through PADI and SSI. Centres do not require a federation card; insurance and certification gates are imposed by the operator (typically Open Water minimum plus one warm-up dive before any wreck programme). International cards are accepted across the coast.

Burgas Airport (BOJ) is the south-coast hub closest to Sozopol and Nessebar operators. Varna Airport (VAR) covers the centre-north, with the Tu-154 site, Galata, and Kranevo all within roughly 30-40 minutes' drive. Sofia Airport (SOF) is the main international gateway but sits 6-7 hours from either coast. Coast-internal driving is light: Sozopol to Burgas around 35 minutes, Varna to Kranevo about 30 minutes, Burgas to Varna roughly two hours. The currency is the Bulgarian Lev, pegged to the Euro at around 1.96 BGN/EUR; most operators quote in EUR. English is reliable at coastal centres, with German and Russian common.

A boat dive runs around 55-65 EUR, a two-tank wreck day around 90 EUR, and a wreck supplement around 35 EUR on top of a normal dive. PADI Open Water typically runs 550 EUR, materially below Mediterranean training prices. The hyperbaric chamber network is not openly catalogued, with the Varna Naval Hospital the most-cited reference; operators maintain current contact lists. Protected-zone permits apply at Cape Kaliakra most prominently, and the Tu-154 site uses a dedicated mooring listed in the National Maritime Navigational Book to keep boat traffic clear. Removing or disturbing artefacts from any underwater archaeological site is forbidden under Bulgarian heritage law, with the Centre for Underwater Archaeology in Sozopol as the governing authority. The practical season is April to November, with high season July-August.