The heart of any resort town and village is its embankment. After all, it is here that summer boils, it is here that tourist life is buzzing, it is on the seafront in the evening light up their lights discos and beckon tourists with their flavors of restaurants and cafeterias, which are sprinkled all along the sea coast. The village of Gurzuf is not an exception: wherever travelers wander during the day, in whatever corners of this picturesque village they did not wander, it is only the first star to appear in the sky, as resort visitors immediately flock to the Gurzuf embankment — so inviting and so colorful.
If the Crimean peninsula once held a competition for the best promenade south coastal villages, the «heart» of Gurzuf would certainly win it. Getting on the embankment of this village, sometimes marvel at how so many entertainments could fit into such a small space. Nevertheless, Gurzuf embankment to this day remains a treasure chest: there are miniature donkeys, trampolines, slot machines, wax figures exhibition, living statues, souvenir shops, and tents offering to taste a variety of viands from the sea, such as fried with onions rapans or seafood kebabs.
By the way, it was here, near the Black Sea, which in Gurzuf is not black at all, but the very blue, in 1978 the famous guys from the cult boyband «Mashina Vremeni» played. Later, somewhere in the mid-nineties, the frontman of the band Andrei Makarevich returned to this paradisiacal corner and lifted an ancient amphora from the bottom of the sea. Another would have taken the find with great pleasure, and smiling Makarevich presented it to the Yalta Historical and Literary Museum.
Gurzufskaya embankment begins with the health resort of the same name with the village. It is here, behind an openwork fence lurks sanatorium «Gurzuf», whose park is a monument of garden and park architecture of the XIX century. Palm alley, which escorts travelers to the former hotel called «Bellevue», brings oriental motifs and thoughts of hot distant countries. What to speak about exoticism in its purest form — a banana grove — an unprecedented phenomenon in Ukraine!
Gurzufskaya embankment is surrounded by evergreen and ever-young cypresses. Here is also a lifeguard and boat station of the village. The question «how much to walk to the sea?» in Gurzuf can not be asked at all, because the natives will still answer you «five minutes». And even if the way will take a little more, the time of the walk to the seafront will fly by instantly. Under the shadow of cypresses it is easy to breathe and just as easy to dream. There is a pier on the Gurzufskaya embankment, where excursion ships and even voyage motor ships are usually moored. Anyone can jump into a boat, paying a few gold coins to the cashier’s office, and the boat will take him to any attraction of Ukraine, nestled on the Crimean coast.
Gurzuf embankment is also favored by fishermen, who prefer to catch sea creatures right from the shore. If suddenly one of the locals will tell you that the fish nowadays bites even on an empty hook, do not doubt, it is not a joke. In certain summer periods, without bait, you can catch herring, mackerel and luffar. Those who do not want to spend hours looking at the azure surface of the sea and sit with a fishing rod in hand, we advise you to go to the nearest restaurant, which are on the waterfront a great number. Believe me, there is nothing better than sitting in the company of your best friends, eating boiled crabs, drinking this deliciousness with beer and watching the transparent waves tenderly and gently turn over the pebbles, languishing under the hot July sun on the shore of the Gurzuf embankment against the background of a stunning view of Bear Mountain Ayu-Dag and its faithful companions the Adalary Rocks — the world-famous sights of Crimea.