Sozopol, Burgas and the south coast
Most towns on this coast keep two beaches, and they are not interchangeable
One city, two old stone towns, a village built from nothing, and small bays where rivers come out.
Something lost along this coast can usually be worked with, and what decides it is how small a piece of ground you can hand over. From Chernomorets down to Sinemorets almost every town sits on its own bay with sand on more than one side, so the town name gets you half way and the beach name most of the rest.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch or phone in Sozopol, Burgas and the south coast with a metal detectorist who can search there. Burgas is the city at the top of the run, Sozopol and Chernomorets the old stone towns below it, and Dyuni, Primorsko, Kiten, Lozenets and Sinemorets the smaller places south of them.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach your beach, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
Name the town, then name its beach
Two sentences get a surprising distance here. The first says which town, the second which of its beaches, or which part of the park if you were in Burgas. After that, name something on the shore that has not moved since: a hotel entrance, a bar, a set of steps.
Send a photograph of the actual ring, watch or bracelet. If part of the day was in the sea rather than on the sand, say so. What you write is what whoever goes out is given.
Places we cover in Sozopol, Burgas and the south coast
- Burgas Central Beach and the city lighthouse
- The Sea Garden in Burgas and its coastal alley
- The parapet terrace above the bridge and the port
- Chernomorets and its central bay
- The campsite beach south of Chernomorets
- Gradina beach between Chernomorets and Sozopol
- Sozopol central beach and Harmani beach
- Kavatsite bay and its campsites
- Smokinya beach
- Dyuni, its alleys and its harbour
- Alepu, the Drivers' Beach
- Arkutino beach and lagoon
- The Ropotamo reserve and river mouth
- Primorsko North Beach
- Primorsko South Beach in the Devil's Bay
- Perla beach north of Primorsko
- Kiten, the Atliman bay beach and Urdoviza
- Lozenets central beach, Oasis and Coral
- Sinemorets and the Veleka beach
- Silistar beach
Seven stops between the Burgas lighthouse and Silistar
A city beach, two stone towns, campsite sands, then the river mouths.
Burgas, the Central Beach and the Sea Garden
The Central Beach runs close to two kilometres of golden sand and reaches thirty metres wide, with the city lighthouse at one end and the Sea Garden along the top of it.
Chernomorets and the sand running on towards Sozopol
Chernomorets sits in a small sheltered bay beside its own centre. Its beach is soft golden sand over shallow water, and the campsite beach south of it is no wider than 25 metres, with rocks and forest around it and St Ivan island in view. Gradina, between the town and Sozopol, runs three to four kilometres.
Sozopol, the central beach and Harmani
Sozopol stands on a rocky peninsula with the Medni Rid ridge curving round behind the town. The central beach is the 500 metres of sand between the old town and the new, and Harmani, over in the New Town, is the long wide one.
Kavatsite, Smokinya and the village at Dyuni
South of Sozopol the coast opens into the large Kavatsite bay, with the Veselie and Kavatsite campsites on it. Smokinya lies three to three and a half kilometres from the town, soft golden sand backed by dunes and pine woods. Dyuni, six kilometres from Sozopol, was built in 1986 in the style of the old Bulgarian villages, and everything from the last house down to the harbour is narrow alleys and terraces.
Alepu, Arkutino and the Ropotamo
Just south of Dyuni, Alepu, known as the Drivers' Beach, is one of the wildest stretches on the south coast, and the old coast road runs almost onto the sand, with the Alepu marsh behind it. Past Cape Humata, Arkutino beach is fine golden sand ringed by high dunes, looking out to Snake Island, with the freshwater Arkutino lagoon behind it. The Ropotamo reserve around them takes in the mouth of the river, longoz forest, dunes and rocky shore.
Primorsko, the Devil's Bay and Perla
The North Beach is the largest and most popular of the town's two, wide fine golden sand with a gentle slope into the sea. The South Beach lies in the Devil's Bay and runs over two kilometres, reached from the centre across a rope bridge over the Dyavolska. Perla is three kilometres north of the centre, carrying on from the North Beach into a quieter bay of fine sand with forest almost to the shore.
Kiten, Lozenets and the Veleka at Sinemorets
Kiten has two beaches in separate bays: Atliman at the head of the bay north of the town, closed in by rocky shore and forest, and Urdoviza, which runs from the port peninsula to the mouth of the Karaagach. Lozenets comes next, between Kiten and Tsarevo, its central beach wide, with Oasis a kilometre south and Coral to the northwest. At Sinemorets the Veleka beach is a sandspit at the north end of the village, river on one side and sea on the other. Silistar, farther south towards Rezovo, is a wild beach of fine golden sand and clear, shallow water, ringed by forest and rocky capes, with the Silistar river coming in at its north end.
Wherever you have got to with this by now
You are still in the country
Then today is worth more than tomorrow. Put down the beach, the building and the order of the afternoon while you can still walk back over it. That note is what whoever goes out works from.
You are already home
People write to us weeks after the holiday and it is still worth doing. Send whatever you wrote or photographed at the time, and anything the family remembers differently.
You half expect to be told it is hopeless
Sometimes it is, and you will be told so plainly rather than left to work it out. Far more often the answer turns on which beach, which is why the beach name keeps coming up here.
You want the figure before anything else happens
It comes back in the first reply, alongside what we would do at the spot you have described. Until you tell us to go ahead, this is only a conversation.
Rivers, pairs of beaches and warm water
The things that decide where a search here would actually start.
Three rivers come out onto these beaches
The Karaagach reaches the sea at the southern end of the Kiten beach that carries its name. The Dyavolska comes out at Primorsko, where a rope bridge takes you over it onto the South Beach, and the water there is cloudier at times because of it. At Sinemorets the Veleka runs behind the beach, so one side of that sand is river and the other sea.
Most of these towns own two beaches rather than one
Kiten has Atliman and Urdoviza, Primorsko the North Beach and the Devil's Bay, Sozopol the central beach and Harmani, and Lozenets three names to choose between. Which one you were on is worth more to us than which town.
People stay in the water a long time here
The sea is warm in summer, and the entry at Primorsko and at Chernomorets is shallow and gentle. If you went in, where you turned round is worth as much to us as where you waded in.
Questions about Sozopol, Burgas and the south coast
The engagement ring came off in shallow water at Primorsko.
Start with which side of the river you were on. The North Beach is the bigger of the two, fine golden sand with a gentle slope into the water. The South Beach is in the Devil's Bay, reached from the centre over the rope bridge across the Dyavolska. Then say how far out you had gone.
A chain went missing on the central beach at Sozopol, or at Harmani later that day.
Then there are two pieces of ground, and the order of the day says which comes first. The central beach is the stretch of sand between the old town and the new, and Harmani, in the New Town, is the long wide one. Say where you sat on each, whether you swam, and when you last felt the chain.
My phone is somewhere in the Sea Garden at Burgas.
The park runs more than five kilometres along the city front, so the name on its own is still not a place. The nearest fixed thing is what helps: the terrace the city calls the parapet, the Sea Casino, the open air stage known as the Ohlyuva, or the Flora domes.
We swam at Kiten and cannot agree which beach the watch was lost on.
They sit in two different bays, which usually settles it. Atliman is at the head of the bay north of the town, closed in by rocky shore and forest. Urdoviza, the south beach, runs about 1.4 kilometres from the port peninsula down to the mouth of the Karaagach. Forest behind you or a river in front of you is enough.
A bracelet is missing from the day we spent at the Veleka.
Say which water you went into. That beach is a sandspit at the north end of Sinemorets, river on one side and sea on the other, 700 to 800 metres depending on how high the river is running. The rock at its southern end that people call the Indian is the marker to count from. If it went into the river channel itself, that is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
The wedding band is still at Chernomorets and our flight is tonight.
Write the beach down before you pack, and correct it from the gate if more comes back to you. There are two: the central beach, about 550 metres long and up to 60 metres wide in the small bay by the town centre, and the campsite beach to the south, no wider than 25 metres. Which one, and how far along it, goes in the first line.
We moved between beaches at Lozenets and an Oura ring is missing.
Lozenets has three of them to separate first. The central beach is 650 to 700 metres long and up to 90 metres wide, Oasis is about a kilometre south towards Tsarevo, and Coral is over to the northwest. Put the days in order with one of those three against each.
Sozopol, Burgas and the south coast
Two sentences are enough to open with
The town, the beach, the day it happened, and a photograph of the thing itself.
WhatsApp is the quickest way in. What comes back will name the beach we think you mean, say how we would work it, and give you the figure. Then it waits for you.