I will start by saying that I am not much of a tourist so the opinions and impressions in this post should be taken with a grain of salt because I lack a good base of comparison. This travel story is inspired by my brief visit of the Starosel complex.

Starosel is located where the Upper Thracian Plain meets the Old Mountain near the town of Hisarya. Coming from Plovdiv we pass several villages in which it is interesting to observe the varying level of infrastructure development, the amount of people and the state of the buildings. In each one of them you can see remnants of communist past, functioning agriculture and some new houses but the amount is different. Some villages are more alive and feature small hotels and good-looking renovated houses and agricultural machinery and in others you can see visibly older population, stores which haven't been open for years and a greater amount of adobe buildings. Interestingly the village of Starosel itself is in worse condition than the others which is strange considering the business developed so close to it.

The most interesting village from a tourist perspective is Old Zhelezare. The reason is that walls in the village are full of pictures drawn by the artist Ventzislav Piryankov. They show different historical figures, local people and characters from literature and cinema. You can see The Beatles, Castro, Thatcher and Freddy Mercury talking to locals. The atmosphere is exciting enough to justify a walk on foot through the village.

One arrives in the hotel complex following a picturesque road surrounded by tidy vineyards. The complex itself is impressive in size and probably has around three thousand beds. There are multiple guest houses as well as a big hotel. On arrival one is greeted by beautify peacocks which roam around freely. I am starting to feel the theme of the complex already. It has swimming pools, spa, bars, restaurants, children center but it is obvious that there are two main attractions - the wine and the animals.

At the start the complex was simply a winery. Over the years the guest houses appeared and finally the hotel. One of the attractions is a wine tour in which a guide shows us how the wine is made. It ends with a wine degustation of locally produced wines. Instead of grass the complex has vineyards and orchards. Definitely a place where you feel like drinking wine.

Other than the peacocks I mentioned there is a big area with wild and domesticated animals. The tour through it goes on for an hour. One can see wild goats, wild pigs, wolves, ducks, geese, horses, lamas, sheep, turkeys and deer. The guide tells me that these animals are not used for anything but attraction. I am a bit annoyed by the waste, but the vegans can rest easy.

The architecture of the complex is made to resemble the Thracian style. Other than the fact that this goes well with the wine theme it is a tribute to local history. Two significant pieces of Thracian civilization have been uncovered in the region both serving as both temples and tombs.

To sum it up the complex is ideal for a family vacation. Children of the city can see how plants grow and animals live which is not that easy these days. The place is built with a lot of love and attention to detail. I am quite impressed that someone in Bulgaria invested long term in this way and in this scale. I knew that wine tourism exists, but I always imagined a small winery and a small hotel beside it. I have infinite respect for small businesses but the scale here is totally different. I expect that big investors (with capitals acquired legally or not) simply build the next hotel in sea resorts or ski resorts like Pamporovo or Bansko. In Starosel we see totally different line of thinkin - a well-planned and measured development started in the middle of nowhere and developed as a place for family tourism using the strengths of the region. I hope I see more examples like this in the future.