The Black Sea coast has only three consistent beaches, all with a good reputation but less and less exploited for tourism due to the economic difficulties experienced by the possessing countries. The most northerly of them is that of Ukraine, located in the Crimean peninsula. Former summer residence of the tsars, taken over by the communists and turned into a protocol location, Crimea is where Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to divide the world after the Second World War and Gorbachev was arrested by the putschist generals in 1991 ; territory administered by the Romanians at the time of Antonescu, today the entire peninsula is the subject of a velvet dispute between Ukraine, on whose territory the peninsula is located, and Russia, which has here the most important war fleet from the Black Sea. Crimea is at most a tourist area of domestic tourist interest for Ukraine, Russia and, at most, the CIS states.
The southernmost beach of the Black Sea is the Bulgarian one, around the city of Varna. The tourist area starts from the border with Romania, almost immediately after Vama Veche and continues with the large resorts of Durankulak and Şabla. Other great Bulgarian beach resorts and points of interest are Rusalka, Balchik, Albena, Riviera, Varna and St. Constantine and Elena resort; but the most famous objective is the "Golden Sands", with a fame that beat Europe, with small threads of noble metal, insufficient for gold mining but with delightful effects in the shine of the sand.
The other countries that have access to the Black Sea, starting with Turkey, the latest tourist empire, continuing with Azerbaijan or Russia, have a mountainous coastline, with caves and steep cliffs, unsuitable to be exploited as beaches.
The wealth of a single county
Half of Romania's hotels are only open three months a year. They are located in one county, Constanța, the patron of all local beaches. The other county with access to the Black Sea, Tulcea, enjoys very new lands, such as the mouths of the Danube, clogged estuaries or rocky and messy cliffs.
From north to south, and somewhat in chronological order, the Romanian beaches are: Mamaia, Constanța ("Three Slippers" beach), the two Eforii, Costinești, Olimp, Neptun, Jupiter - Cap Aurora, Venus, Saturn, Mangalia and Vama Veche . With a multi-millenary history (the Prezident hotel in Mangalia is built on top of the walls of the ancient Greek citadel of Callatis whose ruins can be visited as an archaeological site at the zero level of the hotel), Romania's coastal region is one of the most diverse influences and vestiges: Greek, Roman, Genoese, Byzantine, Turkish, Tatar, Ukrainian. The tourist exploitation of the beaches dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, the first resort being Mamaia. Located at the same latitude as the famous Cote d'Azur (the cities of Mangalia and Monte Carlo are the same distance from the Equator), the Romanian coast had its heyday in the 70s-80s when most of the hotels were built (and even entire resorts) and the unofficial language on the coast was Italian. Like the groups of foreign tourists vying for a patch of sand for the beach, the predominant language spoken in the resorts of Constanta was by turns Swedish, French (sometimes with a Belgian accent), German, then Czech, Polish and sometimes even Russian.
Even though there were years when the coast operated at the maximum load rate and for a "rest ticket" sometimes healthy cells were needed, the business was not too great given the way of working in the CAER countries. The Czech Republic, at one time the most consistent supplier of customers, paid not in currency but in steel. Other countries in the area paid with other goods. Through this policy, the money never returned to tourism, for new investments or at least for the maintenance of existing capacities, a situation aggravated after 1990 when practically the resorts were left without owners, exploited without any perspective. Hotels and tourist facilities have gradually depreciated so that at the moment things practically have to be taken from the beginning. The good signs, such as the careful care of the sand, a practically unprecedented initiative, are faced for now by the image defects accumulated, starting with the state of the infrastructures and ending with the image defect itself, the one inaugurated at the end of the 80s when the communist party banned that the restaurants, including the restaurants and discotheques in the resorts, should be closed at 10 p.m. "Many foreign tourists, who returned late from day trips, remained without food. What more can I talk about fun?", says the manager of one of the hotels.
see also:
Beach images - the most beautiful beaches in the world (photo-video gallery): Hawaii, Bahamas, Caribbean, Greece, Turkey, Spain
Photo and video gallery on beaches in Europe and America
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