Beaches
Crimea has 517 km of clean beaches - mostly small pebbles although there is black volcanic sand at Morskoye and Sudak in the east and silver sand at Yevpatoria in the west. Many beaches are public, and the private ones owned by hotels and sanatoria are usually open to non-patrons at a price of around 3 hryvnias (£0.40p or $0.56 cents) per day. There are naturist beaches near Koktebel in the east.
The main tourist beaches have opportunities for pedalo, jet-skiing, yachting and speed-boating, sea fishing, para-gliding, flights in microlite aircraft and a range of other pursuits, in addition to sea cruises along the coast. Wind-surfing is still developing and good quality boards and sails may not be easily available, but there is a windsurfing club in Feodosia at the eastern end of the peninsula.
The road which runs along the coast from Feodosia to Sevastopol in the west is one of the most beautiful drives in the world. For much of the journey you're looking out over the sea from the mountains which slope down to the shoreline and the views are spectacular.
The rocky Black Sea bays are ideal for scuba diving, and there are many centres along the coast. Balaklava is a favourite, where there is a large underwater reef. From there you can also dive to the underwater ruins of Khersoness, where part of the Byzantine city was swamped by rising sea levels.
