Anyone with young children knows that life is way more enjoyable when the kids have lots to do. Luckily children have incredibly active imaginations so keeping them entertained takes just a little effort. I remember once telling my children that a paving stone was actually a ship and then watched them go on a half hour pirate adventure by jumping on and off it, in the end they found a treasure (a couple of pebbles) which they keep in their bedroom.

There are more traditional ways of keeping children amused: slides, swings, climbing frames are some of them but when you go on holiday finding a playground isn’t as easy as you would expect. Let’s face it a slide doesn’t count as a tourist attraction so it won’t be marked on a tourist map.

Luckily I have some inside knowledge when it comes visiting St Vlas, Sunny Beach and Nessebar because I’ve been there enough times with my children. In the map below I have marked a number of child friendly locations:

View the map of child friendly locations in St Vlas, Sunny Beach and Nessebar in a larger map

There are a few playgrounds with swings, slides and climbing frames in St Vlas. One is in front of Hotel Laguna near the main square, another smaller one is past the main square as you walk up the hill. There is another one on the last beach past the marina, there you will find other activities which are fun for children like a bouncy castle and mini golf. One more that I know is at the top of the hill above the last beach. There are other playgrounds in Nessbar new town and Nessebar old town (they are on the map).

The water parks are a lot of fun. There are two of them, one in Sunny Beach and one in Nessebar. There are free buses running every 15/20 minutes that stop at all the bus stops in the area which will take you there and bring you back. Each water park has it’s own bus so make sure you get on the right one.

In the past years in St Vlas they organised a baby disco / singing / dancing activities for children two times a week on Tuesday night and Thursday night at the amphitheatre. The events are advertised on posters but I recommend you to go to the tourist office and find out the exact times and days of the week as I am sure the exact times and days change each year.

In the main square in St Vlas they organise events in the evening like classical/jazz music. Again I recommend asking at the tourist office which will have up to date information. Speaking of the main square there is also a fountain there with lights and music (not live, from speakers) which is enough to attract a lot of children every evening who like to play there.

Another place worth visiting is a restaurant on the mountain between St Vlas and Sunny Beach called Hanska Shatra (Han’s Tent). The building has an unusual tent type architecture and there is lots of space for the children to run around and play. It’s good to go at sunset because there are fantastic views better enjoyed as the sun disappears over the horizon. Also when I was there, they had a show with music, dancing and traditional costumes. Note that it’s not within walking distance if you go with young children so you will have to organise a taxi or find out about a shuttle bus.

I hadn’t been in Sveti Vlas for over a year so when I visited this summer I got to check out all the changes that have happened. Sveti Vlas is still very dynamic so there was a lot to see, here is a summary.

First let me start with some of the brand new. It probably comes as no surprise that there are new apartment buildings, some unfinished ones from my last visit have been completed and some new ones have been started. I’m happy to say that the new construction is visually very appealing which is good news. As well as using aesthetically aware architects, I suspect that the developers did a lot of learning in their first builds and now that the industry is more established they are doing a better job than ever. Today the area between the old town and the beach is much closer to completion with only a handful of areas of open land that either belong to local government or will no doubt be snapped up in the next few years.

That part of Sveti Vlas has grown into a modern, sun drenched, residential resort with well kept, self contained complexes perfect for families with young children. By self contained I mean that each has it’s own communal and private areas to relax in like gardens and swimming pools. Quite a number of them also house food/clothes shops, restaurants and bars which are of course open to non residents as well. And some buildings have more exotic outlets; I came across a gym, a few beauty salons and a sky-bar. For sure the character for this area of Sveti Vlas has matured into one that suits quite relaxation and luxury.

Now that most of the eastern side of Sveti Vlas is complete, businesses are beginning to find their feet. For example this year I noticed some of the beach bars look very much like they are actually there to stay, with temporary structures replaced by permanent ones, proper bathroom facilities and kitchens. Also on the beach the places where you can hire equipment for water sports like windsurfs are better run, for a start they openly advertise prices so they no longer give you a price based on how much money they think you are willing to spend. I might even rent a board for a few hours next year. And another thing just about every establishment in Sveti Vlas has free WIFI so if you need to get onto the internet just pull up a chair, order a drink and get the barman to give you the password.

The general infrastructure of the area has also been markedly improved. Roads that used to be dirt tracks are now tarmacked and well lit. One of the new roads that leads to the port even has pavement level lighting which gives a really great effect and I’ve never seen it before anywhere. Also there has been an effort to put in pavements everywhere which makes it easier if you have a pushchair, although I would say that some haven’t been thought out that well. On more than one occassion I was forced onto the road with the buggy because there was a lamp post right in the middle of the way.

There is one big part of Sveti Vlas that I haven’t talked about yet and that is area that joins it to Sunny Beach. On my first ever visit to the area this piece of land had no construction on it at all, but it has been growing and in the last year it has really begun to pick up momentum. Here too construction is primarily holiday style apartments with all mod cons. Some of the builds have direct access to the sea and although not all this coastline is beach, although I have heard (and seen evidence) that there are plans to transport sand so that Sveti Vlas beach joins the one at Sunny Beach. Certainly this is a prime location if you are want to buy a property abroad.

Despite their homely character and exclusive feel there are some villa’s, chalets and guest houses that are very hard to find on the internet. I’m going to explain why and give you tips on how to search for this niche accommodation.

The vast majority of holiday accommodation is booked on the internet with the help of a hotel search or hotel comparison search which makes sense because they look through thousands of hotels and apartments with a single convenient action. However hotel search engines are unlikely to have really niche properties in their database and it’s to do with the how those search engines make money from internet bookings. Let me explain.

Online travel companies that operate hotel search engines add properties to their database as a result of a contract with a hotelier. The essence of the contract is that every booking made through the search engine is subject to commission which is payable on a monthly basis as long as it’s over a certain amount. This is ideal for big hotels or companies that own many properties since this is similar to how traditional travel agents work so they are used to this kind of contract which they can process and honour efficiently.

Niche properties on the other hand are often owned by individuals or are a family business. These kind of owners aren’t used to dealing with the kind of contract I just described and in any case they usually don’t want to be tied to a contract that gives them little control of their own properties. On top of that search engine operators aren’t that keen to have properties owned by individuals in their database for two reasons. The first is that those kind of properties often have a very limited number of rooms so accumulating sufficient commission to get paid on a monthly basis is not likely. The second is that the owners aren’t able to process and uphold contracts, and commission payments efficiently or reliably. This means that this kind of business takes a lot more effort to deal with and it’s simply not lucrative enough.

Said that, it’s clear that niche properties are bookable and based on my experience are often fully booked throughout a season. So how do you get to stay in those niche properties? To answer that I’ll explain it from the owners point of view. The way I attract guests to my property is with local classified adverts, by operating my own web page (not on hotel search engines), from repeat customers and by word of mouth from guests who have stayed in previous years. I know some property owners who also use local travel agents, however the agents’ websites are unlikely to have a tailored search facility on their website.

Based on that, seen from a travellers point of view this is what I recommend if you wish to book a niche property using the internet:

• Spend time on niche sites that offer accommodation, here’s our section for holiday properties in Bulgaria.
• When friends and famliy talk about a particularly good holiday, ask them for details of how to book.
• Offer contact information to friends and family for any good places you have found.
• Make sure you get in touch with good local travel agents.

Choosing the ideal holiday hotel is a subtle art but luckily anyone can learn it. In this post I’m going go through some of the finer aspects that I think will help you make a better and cheaper choice of hotel.

Unless you have money to waste and the luxury of time you won’t be visiting each candidate hotel before you make your choice, what you will be doing is using the internet to search and making your decision based on the results of a hotel search engine. Luckily good search engines are packed with technology that help you make an informed choice. For example interactive maps show you where the hotel is in relation to an important landmark like the beach, advanced searching will allow you to choose accommodation that has wheelchair access, and there are countless other useful features.

More importantly hotel search technology can help you get a better deal, here’s how. First you have to realise that there are hotel search engines and hotel comparison search engines. The first will find results from a single on-line travel company and the second (like the one at the bottom of this post) will find the results of many on-line travel companies.

You may be forgiven to think that a comparison search will drown you in a deluge of information however you would be mistaken. Comparison search engines actually give you the same results as a regular search engine except that they automatically find you the best available price. So you don’t need to put in any special effort and you will find the cheapest deal. It’s a no brainier which is why any hotel searches you do on Bulgaria Sea View are comparison searches.

That’s great but how can you determine the best hotel for your needs? Apart from your specific requirements like your budget, the location and any must have services you have chosen for your stay, there are two pieces of information related to reviews submitted by hotel guests, that you need to pay attention to: the number of reviews and the review ratings.

The number of reviews is important because there need to be enough of them to make the review rating meaningful. If there is one reviewer that rates a hotel as being excellent, it’s just the opinion of a single person so you shouldn’t give it much weight. However if there are 100 reviews that rate it as excellent then the rating is credible. Another great feature you get with a comparison search engine is that the reviews are aggregated across all the on-line travel companies which makes them much more reliable. On a comparison search I expect at least 20 reviews before I really trust the rating.

Another tip is to actually read a handful of the reviews instead of just looking at the rating because they will give you a feel for the atmosphere at the hotel. From the reviews you can tell if a hotel is family friendly, if it’s a place to party or if it’s a good place to socialise with fellow travellers. By the way the same rule applies here, don’t just stop at the first review, read enough reviews to get a meaningful picture.

I just want to add a final word about personal recommendations by someone you trust. In my experience they take priority over everything, that’s how these travellers found a great family friendly hotel in Tenerife and also why people who find the perfect hotel go back again and again.

1. I chose the right type of property in the right place, here’s how to choose a property overseas.
2. I researched the market by considering all potential properties, here’s how to research properties abroad.
3. I made sure my viewing trip went smoothly by planning to view property in another country.
4. I made the most out of viewing 12 properties and asked the right questions, here’s my advice about viewing a property abroad.
5. I made my offer with the knowledge that I was making a reliable investment when I closed the deal on a property abroad.

OK, as promised here are a few things to look out for.

If you go on holiday to a beach destination like the Black Sea Coast or the south of Spain you will see big glossy adverts about investment properties in the airport when you land, when you transfer to your accommodation, when you are idling around during your stay and when you go back to the airport. It’s in your face all the time. The thing is, if you are going to invest in property abroad the ones you see on those billboards are most probably not the ones you should be choosing.

Investment implies that you want to make money out of it and as I have previously explained there are better ways of making money form a property abroad that getting a beach retreat. But why would you buy a property in a summer destination like St Vlas or a winter destination like Bansko? After all there are so many being built that they must be selling. The answer is, when you are not buying the property purely as an investment. It’s when you, your friends and your family will use the property for holidays. Imagine you use it for ten years and are able to rent it out when you are not there, then when you sell it you make a profit because it has increased in value during the time you owned it. It’ll most likely work out like having had free holidays for the whole time you owned it.

Here are two tips to get a great holiday home that is going to pay for itself.

You may be offered a guaranteed rental income deal, this usually is for aparthotels which is like a self contained studio flat within a hotel. The hotel most likely already has agreements with travel agents for the next few years so they know that they will rent out your apartment that’s how they are able to guarantee rental income. The advantage of this kind of deal is that it’s guaranteed money without you having to lift a finger. The downside is that need to let them know when you wish to use the apartment in advance and you most probably won’t be able to rent it out yourself even if you can make more by doing so. On balance be careful with this kind of deal, I’ve come across some that seemed genuinely advantageous and others that felt like they were part of the sales pitch and I suspect there were get out clauses so that they didn’t have to pay you rental income after all (I don’t know for sure but I remember one in particular that just didn’t feel right).

If that’s not for you, make sure you get a property that has a unique selling feature compared to the ones around it. For example if you are buying in an apartment complex, get the one that has the fantastic view of the beach or a private garden or a roof terrace… you get the picture. That way you know that it will be the number one choice for anyone who wants to stay in your apartment complex. That’s what I did and mixed with a number of other strategies I’ve got it to the point where I booked my place out for the whole summer before mid March. The income covers council tax, maintenance fees and there’s money left over to spend when I am on holiday. I’ll tell you how I do it in future blog posts, so stay tuned.

When you close the deal on the purchase of a property abroad it’s the biggest, most exciting and satisfying part of all. In particular I knew I was doing the right thing because I was following a sensible approach which gave me full confidence that I was buying the ideal holiday home for my family. Now I’ll tell you some important steps I followed or wish I’d followed when I bought my overseas property.

What’s the biggest concern when buying a property? It’s the uncertainty factor.

It is twice as big when the property is abroad because on top of all the usual worries you don’t know the law of the land, you can’t speak the language well (or at all) and you won’t be there in person if you are needed or even to collect the keys. Oh, and have you read about those property nightmares in foreign countries? For example where the property developer ‘forgot’ to get permission to build from the local government office, so someone bought a house that was bulldozed a couple of years later. Believe me, you really don’t want to be involved with absent minded property developers.

A lot of what I have told you so far is about addressing that uncertainty. I told you to do your research, plan your viewings and remember I said to collect as much information about the property developer as possible when you view a property abroad. It’s so that you have the means to give them a proper shake down before you commit to anything.

I got lawyers involved. Make sure you use a reputable firm, based in the country you plan to invest in. I told them that I was planning to buy a property, gave them the address and told them who the developer was. I asked them to check out it’s legitimacy and they did an excellent job.

Before I put down a holding deposit for the property I knew that planning permission had been correctly requested and granted. I also knew that the developer had been around for a good few years, they had completed a number of builds all over Bulgaria including some high profile ones and they had a clean legal history. For me this kind of information was well worth paying for and it was the final trigger that gave me the green light.

So I contacted the developer directly since I wasn’t using an estate agent and told them that I wanted to put in an offer to buy. I asked them to let me know what the terms were. I already had them for the estate agents that I was in contact with because I collected them when I was planning to view properties in another country and thinking it over now I should have got hold of the developers’ ones as well. Certainly before I got solicitors involved. Anyhow, it took a few emails to beat out the fine details because they were willing to accommodate for my specific financial arrangements. For example I was able to choose how much I was going to pay in cash and how much with a mortgage. I was also able to choose when and how much the instalments for the cash part of the transaction were. I made sure the last instalment was paid just a few days before I was going to use my new apartment for the first time. And as expected from a reputable firm, eventually they sent me terms and the sale contract in Bulgarian with an English translation.

One final review of the documents by my solicitor was duly followed by a money transfer abroad using a carefully chosen foreign exchange service (a good one will save you a lot of money). About six months after I made the first payment I was walking through the door of my newly built holiday home.

I spent a little over 42 hours in Bulgaria at the end of one summer, in that time I met with 3 agents, 2 property developers and viewed 12 different properties. Within three months one of those properties was mine, I’ll tell you what to do when you view a property abroad.

Before I get down to specifics, let me tell you a bit about negotiating. It’s important.

Negotiating is about finding common ground, agreeing on something from two different points of view. Good negotiation is mutually beneficial, bad negotiation leads to no deal, wasted time and probably even wasted money. Be in no doubt, the moment you start interacting with a real estate agent you are starting to negotiate. It doesn’t look like it and it doesn’t feel like it but you are. That is why I said that being knowledgeable and showing you mean business when planning to view property in another country is important, it is because it puts you in the correct frame of mind for negotiating effectively.

Now back to the property viewings. Before you fly out get into the negotiation mindset, print off your research spreadsheet, recharge your mobile phone and make sure you have roaming enabled. When you meet agents or developers let them know two things:

1. how much time you have planned to be with them
2. that you have or already had other appointments without going into details

It’s just a bit of psychology in order to start your viewings as early as possible and so that they are aware that they have competition to beat. Since you don’t give details they’ll have to assume that it’s serious competition.

I won’t go into all the usual things you should check when viewing a property as it’s either common sense or subjective. However if you are viewing a new or off plan build it is important to find out the as much as possible about the developer. Do your best to determine how long they have been in business, how many builds they have done previously and how successful those builds were.

Why? Because property developers like the rest of us learn from their mistakes. The more established they are, the more likely they do a good job with all the parts of a building that you can’t check yourself (plumbing, electrics and so on). I played it safe and made it clear that I wasn’t interested in first time builds or anything off plan. Of course you may be happy with a riskier approach but I still advise that you have a compelling reason to consider first time and off plan builds.

Another tip to keep in mind is that while you are with an agent be non committal and avoid being pressurised, remember they want that commission but you want to keep your cards close to your chest until you have done all your viewings. After each appointment in your schedule make notes about the properties you saw in your research spreadsheet. Write down both the good and the bad. Gathering this information while it’s fresh is much better than relying on your memory and will help you make the right call when the time comes.

After a day of viewings you will be tired because you will be multitasking constantly: you will be focused on systematically inspecting while you walk around the property, keeping your emotions at a bay to avoid rash decisions, and being friendly and relaxed with whoever is showing you around. But it doesn’t finish there.

Once your appointments are done, sit down to a well deserved meal and rationalise your day. Work out if you would consider putting in an offer for any properties you visited and if you would, once you’re done eating get back out there to familiarise yourself with the local area. All you want to do is identify any show stoppers, these are subjective. For instance a stadium just around the corner may be desirable for one person but not for another. When I did it with my wife it only took about 20 minutes and it also gave us a chance to check out the property from outside once more on our own.

To recap, property viewings abroad are constrained by time, so you need to get a lot done quickly. Learn the facts, get organised, collect the info and fly back home with the knowledge that you have everything you need to make an informed buy decision for an overseas property.

I’ve told you how to research properties abroad, now I’ll tell you how I planned to view properties. Looking back on it now, I realise that it was key to finding what I wanted in a single weekend.

I flew out on Friday night, spent 9am to 7pm on Saturday doing viewings and again on Sunday from 9am to 5pm. Two hours after that I was on a flight home, armed with enough information and contacts to make a purchase decision. It was an aggressive schedule that I had to fit around work commitments but I advise to take it easier, for the sake of your own sanity. However you do it, your time will be limited so you need to be really, really organised and that takes planning.

If you have followed my advice about choosing an overseas property you will have a clear idea of what you want. Now pick out the agents and developers from your research spreadsheet that may be able to meet your needs, get in touch and tell them exactly what you are after. Be as specific as possible and show them that you have done your research by including a list of potential properties from their website.

This is a good idea for a number of reasons. First, you help them help you, the more they know about what you want the better they can serve you. Second, by showing you are knowledgeable they will know that they can’t pull the wool over your eyes (by trying to sell you that cold, damp property that has been on their books for over a year). Third, if they can see you have already invested time by doing research they will know you mean business and they will do their best to convert that business into commission by giving you a better deal than their competition.

It won’t be long before they’ll get back to you with additional information about the properties you selected and probably about properties you haven’t come across. By the way, the best properties are snapped up before they have even been properly advertised so pay good attention to anything that’s not on their website yet. Add new knowledge from their feedback to your research spreadsheet. I found that agents sent me detailed architect drawings which often allowed me to pin point the exact locations of the properties using the techniques I mentioned while researching properties.

Once you have digested all the responses, order your contacts by how reliable/organised they are and from that you can start organising your time. Give preference to your top properties and contacts, you want to get the important viewings out of the way first so that to you have a chance to fit in a second viewing. In my experience you are shown about three properties by agents and one by developers. Allow 1 hour per viewing, this will give you plenty of time for your contact to drive you to the property, look around and ask questions… and don’t forget to schedule time for lunch!

Add your schedule to the research spreadsheet and make sure you have mobile telephone numbers and addresses for each person you intend to meet, the last thing you want is to miss an appointment because you can’t get in touch. Also start shopping around for flights so that you have an idea when you can fly out and how long you will be there. Finally get back in touch with everyone with tentative dates and times, amending your schedule as necessary. I found that actually all my contacts were very accommodating (why wouldn’t they be?) which is why I was able to organise viewings throughout a weekend. Depending on how many appointments you are juggling it will take you some time to finalise the schedule, it took me about 4 days.

At long last you have reached the final and easiest step: book your flights, transfers and accommodation. You are all set for the viewings.

Once you have chosen where your property abroad will be it’s time to get out there for some viewings. Of course this is much more effort than when you do it in the country you live in. I’ll tell you how I was able to pick my property in a weekend by following a series of simple steps.

Step 1 is do your research. The more the better and keep the all the info you collect in a single place that you can refer back to. The good news is that you can do pretty much all of this on your PC. Make sure you’re connected and then get comfortable because it takes time.

Open a new spreadsheet, this is where you will keep all the important info you come across. You need to start by compiling a list of real estate agencies and developers that deal with your chosen area. The very least you need is websites and contact information. Next you need to find out what the terms for each of these are, summarise them and put them in the spreadsheet as well.

I found that terms vary a lot. Sometimes the buyer is charged a fee, sometimes it’s the seller and sometimes it’s split between the two. Also the kind of service varied, some agencies simply introduced you to the seller, others offered a full hand holding service to help you through the whole sale process. All of this is worth knowing because it will help you set rules for your purchase decision. Consider the scenario where you choose a property that is listed with more than one agency in which case the terms will be all that tells the two deals apart.

Now it’s a case of browsing through the agency websites and making note of potential properties. Remember when you choose an overseas property to use common sense so that you avoid the wrong kind. By the way, have you noticed that quite often agencies don’t give you the exact map location for the properties? That’s when developers sell directly to the public, agencies don’t want you to go direct because they won’t get any commission. You however do want to go direct because you’ll get a better price, so put in extra effort to find out exactly where the properties are. Here are two ways that I did it.

1. I studied the floor plans and found the names of neighbouring streets, then I used google maps to pin point the exact location.
2. Where I was looking the buildings all have names like Sea View. So I searched for the building name in the town I had chosen. Usually I ended up on the developer’s own website where I could find info about direct sales.

Don’t forget to put all the information you come across in your spreadsheet because you will need to refer to it regularly and print it out for when you go for viewings. All that done move on to step 2: plan your property viewing visit.

It’s like this, when you buy a property overseas it’s a big deal. It’s a commitment that costs a lot of money, that takes a lot of time and that takes a lot of admin. You have to get it right. I know because I have done it and I’m going to tell you what I learned along the way.

It is vital that you think very carefully what you want the property for. This is important because your reason for owning the property will determine the type and location of the property. Here are a couple of scenarios that illustrate what I mean.

Scenario 1 is that you plan to buy an overseas property as an investment. Your main motivation is to make as much money as possible and you’d rather be renting it out than using it yourself. There are two financial aspects to an investment property, the capital gain (that’s profit you make by selling it at a higher price than you paid for it) and the rental income. You need to land a deal that is cheap when you buy it, expensive when you sell it and is making money for you the whole time you own it.

The countries where you can expect to cash in the greatest capital gain are those that have an emerging economy. That’s because house prices will always rise when an economy becomes more stable. Bulgaria is a perfect example, it’s a country that was very poor and is pulling itself out of a financial hole, it’s politically stable having recently joined the EU and it has successfully adopted a largely capitalist way of life. So do your research to identify a handful of candidate countries, you will need these tools: a few spare hours and the internet.

Your next step is to identify ideal locations for your investment property. It’s the rental income aspect that will help here because you need to focus on finding conditions that lead to long term renting. I know you can ask for more money with short term rental but it’s also a lot more work and it’s just not worth it. Where do people want to rent a property on a long term basis? The answer is where there are plenty of study or job opportunities because that is where people will want to settle down for at least 3 years. So look for university towns and find out where international companies have or are planning to set up satellite offices. If you find a place that has both these qualities then you have the makings of a winner.

The last step is to work out what kind of property to look for. Actually this is easy because the right kind of property will naturally exist: executive style apartments are available near financial centres, basic family friendly accommodation are available in resort towns, etc. So all you need to do is avoid the wrong kind of property. If you come across a bargain family town house next to a beach then forget it because you’ll never be able to rent it out all year round. That’s why it’s a bargain. Don’t do too much thinking for this step, just use your common sense and you’ll be fine.

OK, now consider scenario 2: you want a place next to the sea to take your young family on holiday. It’s got to be big enough to cook and sleep in, and a stone’s throw from the beach which is where you’ll spend most of your time. In this case your research will focus around things like ease of access (you’ll be flying over a couple of times a year) and a family friendly environment: a party town with nightlife that keeps your kids awake all night isn’t for you.

It’s pretty clear that these two scenario’s will lead to buying very different kind of properties in different locations. When I bought mine, I put quite a bit of thought into my needs and by the time I had finished even I was surprised by the conclusions. My motivation was a combination of the two scenarios I described and of course there were other factors that came into it as well. Think about your motivation, you may have a special interest in the country you plan to buy in like friends and family living there or maybe you can speak the language.

Whatever your reasons the method remains the same, work out your true motivation for buying and then use that to identify the country, location and type of property. Good, the next question is how do you research properties abroad?