The city is home to the Geo Milev Drama Theatre, the oldest Bulgarian theatre in Thrace; the ancient Augusta Traiana Forum; and the national balneological centre, the Stara Zagora Mineral Baths, 14 km from the city centre. The South Bulgarian Opera (today the Stara Zagora State Opera), the country's second opera house after Sofia, was opened in 1925; and the Ayazmoto Park, Bulgaria's first European-style city park, was opened in 1895. The city also houses the Museum of Religions and the Museum of Neolithic Dwellings.

The city is situated on the banks of the Bedechka River, on the southern outskirts of the Sarnena Sredna Gora, a southern pass into the Stara Zagora Plain, the eastern part of the Upper Thracian Plain, at an average altitude of 196 m. It is 234 km from the capital, Sofia, by paved road, 250 km by rail, 102 km from Plovdiv, 288 km from Varna, and 172 km from Burgas.

The city's climate is transitionally continental due to the influence of the Black Sea. In winter, the weather is milder and warmer than in cities on the Thracian Plain because Sredna Gora protects it from the cold northerly and northeasterly winds. The region is home to exotic tree species rarely found in Bulgaria: magnolias, cedars, figs, laurels, pomegranates, almonds, dates, and cypresses. The average annual temperature is 12.9 °C (average January +1 °C and average July +23.9 °C), and the average annual rainfall is 598 mm. About 16 km northwest of Stara Zagora are the Stara Zagora Mineral Baths, and about 15 km north of the city, in the village of Yagoda, there is another mineral spring.