20 kilometers north of Varna the panoramic highway following the curves of the steep shore leads to the indisputable pearl of the North Black Sea shore – Golden Sands resort. Here the fine sand of one of the longest beaches on the shore meets the freshness of the unique natural park. The cool summer here starts as early as May and often lasts till the end of October and the transparent sea water in the wide bay remains warm even at sunset and often reaches 24-25 °С.
The natural reserve Golden Sands on a surface of 1320,7 ha is declared a protected territory in the remote 1943. The deciduous forest follows the shoreline and surrounds the resort. The relief of the reserve is terrace-like and its appearance is determined by the rare ligneous and plant species, over 20 of which are registered as endangered of extinction. Among them are the winter snowdrop, the Caucasian primrose as well as some orchids.
On the territory of the Golden Sands reserve there are the rock Aladzha Monastery declared as a culture monument in 1957, the Catacombs caves, remains of a basilica and ancient fortress dating back to IV-VII century in Kaleto area as well as remains of a Slavonic settlement.
The idea for developing a big Bulgarian resort on the Black Sea was born in the middle of the 50-s of the last century. Quite naturally the choice was the area Uzunkum (from Turkish – long sand) north of Varna. In a unique way a virgin forest and a wide beach are combined in the place. One of the exceptional natural landmarks, of which today only the memory remains, was a big freshwater lake inhabited by terrapins situated only hundred meters from the seashore. Nowadays this is the place where the central entertainment zone of the resort with its model of the Eiffel Tower, Ferris wheel and Hotel International is situated.
The first sod of Golden Sands was turned in 1956. The construction of almost all the big hotel complexes and entertainment places, included in the first stage of development of the resort, lasted about 10 years. The idea at that time was the resort to combine the possibilities of family tourism by the sea with the potential of one of the most famous balneotherapy centers in the country. The design of the resort complex was assigned to a team of 30 Bulgarian architects and its construction was done in three stages. During the first mostly small 2-story hotels by the seashore have been built. Later the hotel complexes and entertainment establishments on the second and third line appeared.
The last stage of the construction of Golden Sands was concluded in 1966. Thus in Bulgaria in practice started the development of a program of large dimensions to establish our country as European destination for sea tourism.
Real peak in its development the resort reached at the end of the 90-s of 20th century when the former state property there was privatized. Since 2000 Golden Sands is an entirely privately owned resort and thus started its “second life”. Nowadays the number of the hotels in the resort exceeds 70 and the number of beds – 30 thousand. The serious investments done in the recent years – for over 500 million Euro, which the new owners put into the construction of new high category hotels, reconstruction and modernization of their property, improvement of the infrastructure, as well as in the construction of new places of entertainment and relaxation, substantially contribute to tranforming the resort into a destination of European magnitute, a prefered vacation place for more and more foreign and Bulgarian tourists.