Balaklava today
In the early 2000s Balaklava was already more than a working port and a former secret submarine base of the Black Sea Fleet. Period houses along the waterfront were being restored, the Golden Symbol hotel with its own harbour had opened, and the place was taking on the look of a resort.
The harbourmaster at the Golden Symbol, himself a former submariner, would tell visitors about the maze of tunnels in the hillside where Soviet submarines hid unobserved. After the base was declassified, tours of the former facility became possible. Crewing a submarine was dangerous work, and memorials to sailors and commanders remained in the town.
Unlike elsewhere in Crimea, restaurants in Balaklava were usually called tavernas - a reference to the Archipelago Greeks from the islands who settled this stretch of coast under Catherine the Great. At the start of the Crimean War a Greek battalion tried to hold back the British occupation of Balaklava on the commanding heights where the ruins of the Genoese fortress of Cembalo overlook the town. Among the locals were families with Greek names who traced their ancestry to that period.
On the ground floor of the Golden Symbol stood the restaurant The Gavan; along the waterfront there were seafood places with Crimean, Georgian and French wines and an English menu, as well as many tavernas.
The Aquamarine diving centre offered scuba diving along the coast, and from the Golden Symbol boat trips ran - from sea fishing to dolphin watching.
There were swimming beaches along the Balaklava inlet. Locals advised walking farther, past the Genoese fortress, to the beach that faces the open sea, or reaching wild beaches and sea caves under the cliffs by boat - places accessible only from the water.
Balaklava is small: Sevastopol is about 15 km away through rolling country and vineyards. From here one could explore the Crimean War battlefields in a day, or visit Tauric Chersonesus.
Crimea is temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. For now it is not a place for tourism.