Sarafovo

Worth a detour

Sarafovo is a quarter of Burgas rather than a resort: fourteen kilometres north of the centre, with four kilometres of fine sand, water that shelves gently and stays shallow, and a working fishing harbour with restaurants round it. It stays comparatively quiet in August. It is also directly under the airport approach, which is either a curiosity or a nuisance depending on your temperament.

Story

Background

The beach is the reason people come. Four kilometres of it, urban in character but well kept, with lifeguards, sunbeds, pedalos and the rest, and in places sand that is noticeably dark because of its iron and manganese content. The shelving is gradual and there are no sudden drops, which makes it one of the better beaches near the city for small children and weak swimmers.

The harbour is the other half. Sarafovo's boats still fish, and the restaurants along the quay are where people from Burgas drive out to eat on a Friday — not cheap by Bulgarian standards, but the fish is landed rather than imported, and the difference shows. Autumn, when the resorts have closed and the turbot and bluefish are in, is arguably the better season for it.

Under all of this is something older. Parts of a late antique embankment, building remains and architectural fragments from the fourth to sixth centuries lie on the shore and in the shallow water off it, with the ruins of a Christian chapel of the sixth to eleventh centuries identified nearby. The site is listed as archaeological heritage of national significance. Nothing is presented, nothing is signed, and the plans to put walkways and a restored pier over it have been plans for a long time. Snorkellers occasionally find it by accident.