Tsentralen plazh

Worth a detour

A city beach in the proper sense: nearly two kilometres of sand up to thirty metres wide, directly below the Sea Garden, with the pier in the middle of it and the lighthouse at the far end. It is not the best sand on this coast and it never pretends to be, but you can be on it ten minutes after getting off a train, and that counts for a great deal on a first evening.

Story

Background

The beach runs south from the pier towards the port, with the park on the low cliff above it and stairs and ramps coming down at intervals. It is cleaned daily by machine and lifeguarded in season, and it carries the city's summer programme: beach volleyball and football courts, national tournaments, and the music festivals that take over the sand in July and August.

The practical division is simple. North of the pier is the North Beach, longer and busier, with bars and taverns along it. South of the pier is this, which is quieter, closer to the centre, and ends against the harbour wall. Both have free stretches and concession zones where a lounger and umbrella cost money; the free sand is generally the part furthest from the steps.

Two honest cautions. The water in a bay with a cargo port and a refinery on it is not the clear stuff of the brochures, and it is noticeably better on the northern beaches and at Sarafovo than at the southern end here. And the beach is genuinely urban: there is traffic noise from the coastal road, and in July the stretch nearest the pier is shoulder to shoulder by ten in the morning. Go early, or walk twenty minutes north.