Mangalia and the southern resorts
Neptun's lakes, the path to La Steaguri, and a watch that did not make it to the end
From the hotel, the path runs past two lakes before it reaches the sand, and every part of that walk is a place to look.
At Neptun the hotels stand back from the sea, and the way down to the beach passes Lake Neptun I and Lake Neptun II before it reaches the sand at La Steaguri. If a watch vanished somewhere along that walk, on the beach or in the water, the search starts from which of the three it was, and which end of La Steaguri you swam from.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Mangalia or the southern resorts with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the beach, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
Costinești is on this page, and so are Olimp, Neptun, Jupiter, Cap Aurora, Venus and Saturn, which belong to the town of Mangalia, along with Mangalia itself and the two villages of 2 Mai and Vama Veche by the Bulgarian border.
The hotel to beach route comes first
Check the room, turn out the beach bag and your pockets, then walk the route from the hotel to the sea again at a slow pace. At Neptun it is a fair distance from the hotels to the sand, so there is plenty of ground to cover. On the beach, mark on your phone map where your towel lay. If a picture from that day shows the watch on your wrist, its timestamp proves you still had it at that hour.
Strada Trandafirilor joins Olimp, Neptun and Jupiter and is busy in the evenings with people walking between them, so add any stop you made on it after dark.
Places we cover in Mangalia and the southern resorts
- Mangalia
- Saturn
- The beach between Saturn and Venus
- Venus and its central lake
- Cap Aurora and its promenade
- Jupiter
- Neptun
- Lake Neptun I and Lake Neptun II
- La Steaguri beach, Neptun
- Strada Trandafirilor, Olimp to Jupiter
- Olimp
- Costinești
- Costinești beach and the Evanghelia wreck
- 2 Mai
- The main beach and the small bay at 2 Mai
- Vama Veche
- Vama Veche beach and main street
The sand, the lakes and the villages from Costinești to Vama Veche
North to south, with Costinești first and Vama Veche last.
Costinești and the wreck of the Evanghelia
Costinești is known as the resort of the young, for its nightlife and its fun in the open air, and it hosts camps for pupils and students. The wreck of the Evanghelia lies close to the shore on the northern part of the beach, and boat trips go out to sea from the resort.
Olimp, Neptun and La Steaguri
Neptun sits between the Comorova forest and the beach, and the beach itself divides the sea from two lakes. The walk down from the hotels goes by Lake Neptun I, thick with water lilies, and Lake Neptun II, where swans, gulls and ducks gather. The beach at the end is La Steaguri, which runs north towards Olimp and south towards Jupiter.
Jupiter and Cap Aurora
In Jupiter the tall hotels stand on the seafront, set perpendicular to the shoreline, with lower buildings in the middle of the resort. Cap Aurora lies between Jupiter and Venus, its hotels stepped down towards the sand, with a pedestrian promenade along its seafront.
Venus and Saturn
Venus is built around a lake, with villas and holiday cottages round the water, and its planting turns the whole resort into a botanical garden. Saturn has open-air bars, bars on the beach and amusement parks, and concerts have been held on the beach that separates it from Venus.
Mangalia, the town the resorts belong to
Saturn, Venus, Cap Aurora, Jupiter, Neptun and Olimp are all part of Mangalia. If Mangalia is the only name you have, send the name of the hotel or flat and describe the beach you went down to, and we can place you from there.
2 Mai, the main beach and the small bay
2 Mai is a village of Limanu commune, between Mangalia and Vama Veche. Its main beach has terraces and bars, and the water there deepens fairly quickly. At the edge of the village is a small bay, more secluded than the main beach, where a path follows the coast and the rocks make a seat for looking out at the fishing boats.
Vama Veche
Vama Veche lies on the Black Sea shore close to the border with Bulgaria. Bars and terraces line its main street, and many who come are after parties rather than quiet. Along with 2 Mai, it is a beach where people camp on the sand once the season opens.
How your case is handled
A single thread
Your messages, the brief the detectorist works from and the account of how the search went all pass through one person, in the same WhatsApp chat.
Resort names can wait
No natural feature divides Jupiter from Cap Aurora, so if the resort name escapes you, the hotel or campsite name does the same job.
Boat trips are the hard case
A watch or phone dropped overboard from one of the boats that take visitors out to sea from Costinești is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
Nothing goes ahead until you agree
We explain the costs before any search is booked, and then we wait for your go-ahead.
Shallow in one place, steep in the next
From one resort to the next, the way into the water changes, and two of them have lakes to think about.
Where the water deepens fast
At La Steaguri the water stays shallow towards Olimp and drops more abruptly towards Jupiter, and off the main beach at 2 Mai it gets deep fairly quickly. So your first message should say how deep in you had gone when you noticed.
Two resorts laid out round lakes
Lake Neptun I and Lake Neptun II lie between the hotels at Neptun and the sand, and Venus is built around its own lake. Mention the lake even if you only strolled by it, because it adds a stretch of path and bank to look along.
Questions about Mangalia and the southern resorts
My watch came off in the sea at Neptun. Does it matter which end of La Steaguri I swam from?
It does. The northern part, towards Olimp, is shallow water; the southern part, towards Jupiter, drops more suddenly and has a fair number of stones along the shoreline. Let us know if the water came up to your chest or only your knees, which hotel you came down from, and share a picture you took from your patch of sand.
My phone disappeared somewhere on Costinești beach during a night out.
The Evanghelia, the wreck lying close to the shore on the northern part of Costinești beach, is the first thing to look for in your pictures. It turns up in the photos of nearly every visitor, so a shot from that night with the wreck in the background shows the angle you were at. Then give us the route you took off the sand.
An earring came out in the crowd at a concert on the beach between Saturn and Venus.
In a crowd, the thing to fix is where you yourself were standing. Pin that spot in relation to the stage and the sea, say whether you came and went on the Saturn side or the Venus side, and tell us whether the earring fastens with a post, a hook or a clip.
The wedding band slipped off during a swim off the main beach at 2 Mai.
The water off the main beach at 2 Mai gets deep fairly quickly. Say whether your feet reached the seabed at the moment you noticed, and what on the shore faced you: a terrace, a building or the path down from the village.
We camped on the beach at Vama Veche and a bracelet is missing from the tent.
People pitch tents on the sand at Vama Veche and 2 Mai once the season opens, so begin with where yours stood. Pin it and say how close it was to the water. Bars and terraces fill the main street, so list any you sat at that evening.
The car keys fell somewhere on the rocks at the small bay beside 2 Mai.
That bay is more secluded than the main beach, with a path along the coast and rocks that people perch on to look at the fishing boats. Tell us which rock or which bit of the path you stopped on, whether the keys could have dropped into the water, and the colour and shape of the key ring.
My Oura ring came off somewhere around the lake at Venus.
Venus is laid out around that lake, with villas and holiday cottages on its banks. Mark where on the bank you were, let us know if it could have dropped in the water or only onto the path or the grass, and when you last noticed it on your finger.
A necklace went missing at Cap Aurora, on the beach below the hotels.
Cap Aurora's hotels step down in tiers towards the sand, so the one you came out of places you on the beach below it. Give us the hotel name and the steps or path you took, then mark your sunbathing spot on the map and describe the chain's length and its type of clasp.
Mangalia and the southern resorts
Tell us the resort, even if the spot is still a guess
A rough start is enough. The chat is where the rest of the day gets pieced together.
Message us on WhatsApp with the missing item and the resort or village you stayed in. A pin on the hotel, flat or campsite you walked out from that morning lets us follow your route from there.