The first pensioners that the Government decided to sent on holiday with the money from the 2008 Budget surplus, expected to reach about six billion leva by the end of the year, left for the sea on September 21 2008. Bulgarian National Television showed sweet images of elderly Bulgarians lining up outside buses ready to be taken to the seaside.

On September 23, Social and Labour Minister Emilia Maslarova, who together with Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev was the mastermind of the idea, went to visit the holidaymakers in Bulgaria's biggest Black Sea resort Slanchev Bryag (Sunny Beach).

A total of 713 pensioners will vacation at the Black Sea this year. They will stay there for 10 days. Maslarova said that the choice of hotels was random and the price per person a night-stay was set at 35 leva.

Another 330 pensioners have chose to go to the mountings in Pamporovo winter resort in the Rhodope Mountains. Their holiday will most likely start on October 15. All of the pensioners come from pensioners' retirement homes. They were selected by the management of the homes together with the local social services.

The idea for sending pensioners on a holiday was announced on September 2 2008. Maslarova said the Government was going to send several thousand pensioners on all-expenses-paid vacations to the seaside. "Some people have never been on a holiday and we think it will be a good gesture to send them on one", she said and noted that other government have been doing it for years.

The idea, however, was not taken well by Bulgarian society, pensioners' organisations included, many of whom saw it as an attempt to boost popularity in light of next year's elections.