Four kilometres down the coast from Sozopol, the highway descends towards a long sandy bay backed by three campsites. At the northern end of the bay on the right-hand side of the road is the Smokinite   hotel (tel 05514/2408 or 2471; US$18-36), a slightly down-at-heel concrete holiday complex offering fairly standard ensuite rooms, a few alfresco restaurants and an outdoor swimming pool. Immediately beyond lies KAVATSITE , a vast wooded campsite with an abundance of bungalows (US$9-18), the odd restaurant, and direct access to a huge sweep of sandy beach. The southern reaches of Kavatsite run straight into the more dilapidated Smokinya site (enquire at Kavatsite reception about its bungalows; US$9-18). At the southern end of the bay, the bungalow-less Kâmping Veselie is the most basic of the trio, occupying a wild, dune-punctuated stretch of beach popular with nudists. Coastal bus services will drop off at the entrance to Kavatsite on request, as will the hourly open-sided tourist buses that run between Sozopol and Dyuni in season.

The once-stylish DYUNI HOLIDAY VILLAGE , 4km beyond Kavatsite, was one of the last tourist complexes built on the coast. The resort is divided into a seaside marina and two hillside colonies - Club Pelican , a hotel complex built around an attractive open-air pool, and Alepu , an ensemble of self-catering villas. Accommodation in either is of a reasonable standard, but the surrounding lawns, parklands and walkways have become woefully neglected in recent years. Food and drink in Dyuni is twice as expensive as elsewhere on the south coast, and independent travellers would be better off staying in Sozopol or Kavatsite (from where you can walk to Dyuni along a roadside path). If you do want to stay, the central reception desk (tel 05514/2347, fax 2467, duni@bse.bg ) will book you a room.

Aside from the water sports on offer at the marina, Dyuni's chief attraction is the marvellous sandy beach that extends southwards for 3km, protecting an inland plain of marsh and reed and Lake Alepu , a lagoon surrounded by dunes and sand lilies. The area is vastly popular with beach-hoppers, although it has a tendency to become increasingly litter-strewn as the season progresses - unfortunately, only those portions of the beach within the orbit of Dyuni are regularly cleaned.