Ulitsa Chernomorska heads from the bus station into the town centre, where steps behind the Dobrotitsa hotel descend to a fourteenth-century Turkish hammam containing the town museum (summer Tues-Sun 8am-noon & 1-6pm; winter hours unpredictable). Exhibits within tell of the local noble Balik, who set up an independent principality based on Kavarna in the 1340s, extending his power southwards as far as the River Kamchiya. His son Dobrotitsa wrested independence from his nominal suzerains the Bulgarian tsars, and severed links with the Târnovo patriarchate, accepting the writ of Constantinople instead. A couple of blocks west of here lies an Ethnographic Museum (May-Sept Mon-Fri 8am-noon & 2-6pm; Oct-April Mon-Fri 9am-noon & 1-5pm), housed in a former schoolhouse, its classrooms now decorated in the style of a typical small-town family home of the nineteenth century. Among the oddities on display is a mirror framed by fine lacy curtains: the curtains were drawn for forty days in the event of a death in the family.

As for accommodation, the Dobrotitsa , at ul. Chernomorska 22 (tel 0570/2191 or 2398; US$18-36), is a fairly standard two-star hotel , offering plain ensuite rooms, while the Morska zvezda   campsite , on the beach, 2km away, has a wide range of bungalows for about $3 per person; buses leave from just outside the bus station every thirty minutes. For food and drink , your best bet is one of the rough-and-ready grilled fish joints near the beach, or the any of the cafés along ul. Chernomorska.