Are there thermal springs and spa towns nearby?

Yes, right on the doorstep: in Burgas's Vetren quarter lies Aquae Calidae — baths used since antiquity, with a museum, the restored bath of Suleiman the Magnificent and a modern bathing centre with warm mineral pools, sauna and steam bath. Pomorie, home to a state rehabilitation centre, is the largest mud-therapy centre on the Balkan Peninsula: healing mud from the bed of Lake Pomorie and lye from the local salt pans are used for joint, skin and respiratory complaints. Further inland you find Velingrad in the Rhodopes, which calls itself the “SPA capital of the Balkans”, with springs of up to about 90 °C — as well as the long-established spa towns of Sandanski and Hisarya, where the Romans already bathed at Diocletianopolis. Details and links in our guide.