"Simferopol beach" - this is also the name of the seaside village of Nikolaevka, closest to the Crimean capital, has always been an ordinary, provincial resort. Such a budget option for a holiday at sea. But now, it seems, even the cheapness of this place does not attract vacationers, - writes Maxim Denisov in the column for "Crimea. Realities ".

Local authorities and hoteliers are trying in every possible way to attract tourists to Nikolaevka. At the beginning of last month, for example, they opened an additional suburban route from the Simferopol bus station "Kurortnaya". New Russian buses KAVZ (Kurgan bus plant - auth. ) Launched, apparently, from Sevastopol.

In KAVZiki there are air conditioners, however, those wishing to use them on the road are very few. During one of the morning flights from the bus station "Resort" in a salon with 35 seats, I counted only 12 passengers. And most of them are Simferopol residents and residents of neighboring villages. Looking ahead, I will say that almost the same contingent bought return tickets at the Nikolaevka bus station.

- How are you with the holidaymakers now? - I ask a template question to the saleswoman Olga, who sells souvenirs in Mykolayivka.

"Not enough," confesses the woman.. - Maybe because Turkey was opened. Honestly, I was not particularly interested. In the beginning, the South Coast Fill is filled, and then everything else. We are a bit upset that people do not have much at all. I started trading from the middle of June. We hoped that in July people would still go, but for some reason they did not go.

- And what was the situation last year?.

- A little better. There were people from Moscow, Peter, Vladimir. Although on the weekend more and more from Simferopol come. We are counting on the bridge (through the Kerch Strait - Auth. ), Then the trains will go - you understand.

- And from the mainland of Ukraine people are resting in Mykolaivka?.

- I have not met, I've only seen a few cars passing through with Donetsk, Kiev, Lugansk numbers.

"Have you been working here here for a long time?".

- I also traded in Ukraine. Then, of course, there were more buyers. Russians, it was cheap for Ukraine to rest. Then the trains went. People came to eat fresh fruit here to eat. And now they will think once again what you can buy here. Expensive. Last year our friend from Yamal complained that they have a strawberry there for the same price as the Crimean. In Ukraine there was a ray. [And immediately corrects itself] is easier.

Confirmation of Olga's words about the "high" season in Nikolaevka I find on the beach of the hotel "Savita". At once I will specify: it is actually the central and most comfortable place of the entire beach zone of the village.

Needless to say, Nikolaevka does not abound with natural and historical sights. Strictly speaking, they are practically not there. With the possible exception of a monument to the sailors who died during the Second World War, who in the autumn of 1941 participated in the defense of Sevastopol.

- Six months ago we moved to the Crimea, "says a former resident of Rostov-on-Don. - Nearest sea to us - Mykolaivka. Just the sea - lie down and light up. There is no natural beauty. The beach is miserable, absolutely.

However, to find a more or less acceptable alternative to simple water procedures in Mykolaivka is still possible. For example, you can practice horse riding on horses or ponies. Pleasure will pull by 1000 and 700 rubles (about 430-300 UAH) respectively.

Available catering outside of the existing accommodation - hotels, boarding houses and guest houses - also have. However, customers there on weekdays, as they say, one, two and obchelsya.

A painful topic for the village is the beaches and bank protection structures, more precisely, the emergency and even catastrophic state of the latter. This year from year to year both residents and authorities are compelled to recognize. Of the nearly seven kilometers of the coastline of the village for safe beach recreation no more than 200 meters. In other places, too, you can swim and sunbathe, but already at your own risk. At any time, especially in inclement weather, a narrow strip of pebble beach can be "pulled off" a massive fragment of precipitous clay-sandy shore - with sad consequences for those who are vacationing.

The most dangerous places on the beach with the hanging ellings-"kuratnikami" marked with signs.

Other potential collapses were also covered with a grid.

On a more or less normal concrete support wall and the steps leading to it, only a few local hotels and boarding houses. Instead of the usual bun beaches protected from the destructive waves of a bunch of large stones - cheap and angry.

This, probably, is the entire recent reconstruction of the beach zone, for which a draft of the village council in 2016, according to the so-called ex-head of the local administration Alexei Vanova, was allocated 5.8 million rubles.

For the whole project, not to mention the entire volume of bank protection works, it is necessary much more - about 1 billion rubles.

This sum, by the way, was announced at the last, May meeting of the Parliamentary Committee for the Recreation and Resort Complex and Tourism. "Committee Chairman" Alexei Chernyak "pleased" the so-called administration of the village: a project billion are claimed by six more regions of the peninsula, where the situation with the beaches is not better.

Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Join also the TSN group. Blogs on facebook and follow the updates of the section!.