Your rating of this hotel:
9.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms:
10.0
Service:
10.0
Cleanliness:
9.0
Food:
9.0
Amenities:
9.0
We have been going to Bulgaria with my wife for 2 years in a row. In 2009 we visited the amazing Nessebar at the Marina Palace 4 * hotel, and in 2010 we visited the quiet and green St. Constantine and Elena at the Atlant 3 * + hotel. The person who said that having visited Bulgaria, either you will love forever, or you will experience disappointment from this resort, was right. Therefore, until you try to go there, it is useless to read reviews like this, do not feel the spirit of this country. I was really hooked by this country, it surprisingly combines new European ways of life and simple good-natured people who are not yet devoid of Soviet culture and rich local traditions intertwined with the centuries-old history of this people. Having returned from there a few months ago, I still miss it and, in order to indulge in memories, I turn on the webcam of my favorite restaurant Zarnitsa in Nessebar, the city cameras of Varna, or just stripes of beaches.
But anyway, let's get closer to the topic.
Since I came here for the second time, when choosing a hotel and resort, I already had an idea of what I needed and what to look for. And the requirements were:
1. Not a remote village, so that there was no problem where to take a walk in the evening and there were no problems with large, inexpensive shops
2. So that with all this, at night, sleep well and in silence, and not under a disco or a highway under the windows
3. The proximity of the sea and a normal beach with a gentle approach (so as not to climb into the hotel in a twisting mountain, where while you climb up the tongue on your shoulder, at least go to swim again)
4. The quality of the hotel, category from 3 * and the possibility of choosing the BB option in it (breakfast only)
5. Not an expensive resort in general (meaning prices for food, souvenirs, etc. )
6. The most important thing is the travel budget. Under all of the above conditions, a minimum price was needed
Well, now I want to tell you in more detail what I ended up with.
1. The resort is really big and very green, in places on the outskirts even overgrown.
From end to end, about 30-40 minutes on foot, and then the hotels of another Sunny Day resort immediately begin. From the hotel to the shopping street, go for 8-10 minutes (700m on Google) by the shortest path past a fenced wasteland of 150 meters (which apparently was prepared for the construction of a new hotel), then along the parking lot of the Grand Hotel Varna, past the court, skirting the Grand Hotel from the side, and then along the path through the square towards the meadow with attractions. But this is during the day. At night, the wife refused to go through the dark wasteland, although people go there at any time (do not think, the street itself past the hotel towards the exit from the resort is very well lit and not deserted almost at any time, so this is normal). If you had to return late, then we walked past the Gloria, Rositsa and Mistral hotel (which for some reason did not work), it is always light and crowded there.
At first, such omissions in the resort are alarming, especially compared to Nessebar, which is more polished in this regard, but then you even begin to like such quiet, always shady corners, especially when the sun bakes strongly outside, and you want to go to the center. The hotel is very well located in the middle between the center and the outskirts of the resort. Although on some forums they write that this is bad, but I found only one plus:
a) Close to the bus stop "Marek" for a trip to Varna (on the highway). Literally 8-10 minutes on foot (650 m) and we are already waiting for the bus. Tourists who live in the center of the resort, of course, go much further.
Although there is a stop in the center of the resort, only a few buses run there, which, for example, do not go to Vladislav Varnenchik Boulevard, where the largest shopping centers are concentrated (Grand Mall Varna, Mall Varna, for example, Avtogar stop) and a lot of smaller shops, so that if you want to get there, then either from the center of Varna on foot (from the Morsko Oko stop, it seems, 20-25 minutes on foot), or with a transfer. The fare is not very cheap, to the Grand Mall 1.60 levs per person (they give, by the way, 2 tickets for 0.80 levs each and many foreign passengers at first do not understand why they asked for 2 tickets, and the conductor gives 4 and try to explain that they don’t need so much) . It’s bad for many conductors with Russian, to put it mildly, but they always managed to explain where to drop me off (although one conductor came across who explained to us very well in Russian where to get off and how to go further where we need to).
b) There are many small shops on the way to the bus stop, where everything is several times cheaper than in the center, so almost everyone bought goods there.
c) Close to a very good restaurant Biju. Outwardly, he looks modest, but the food is excellent and very, very not expensive.
d) Complete rest at night. An excellent sleep without music and songs under the windows is guaranteed.
2. Already wrote, at night it is excellent and away from noisy establishments and in people at the same time. A train with tourists runs until late, at which a stop is right in front of the hotel and couples walk along the street. All the more violent youth live closer to the center and buzz in the same place. No noise.
3. Really about 250-300m to the sea (literally 3-5 minutes, we walked in the same swimming trunks). The approaches are excellent, from the hotel in a straight line in the shade of trees past the neighboring hotel, then a small ladder down and the showers on the beach already begin. Beach for 4. Not very huge, quite clean.
The only minus in the water there are some huge boulders, but you can see them, they almost come to the surface and they are smooth (children climbed on them and jumped into the water). There were no jellyfish at all. We went to other beaches, in the end we liked only the one near Sunny Day, but the people there are dark, they sit on each other's heads.
4. Upon arrival, we received a corner room on the ground floor overlooking the pool, and there was a garden and trees in front of the windows. At first, they were upset and decided to change it in a couple of days, but as it turned out, the location, on the contrary, was very successful, in the higher rooms at night from the street you can see everything in full view of what is happening there, if the owner forgot to curtain the windows, everything is immediately hidden from prying eyes. The hotel is new. The rooms are really large with centralized air conditioning, and as many as three large windows, not how much shabby, furniture and plumbing is also in excellent condition. Service for 3+.
Towels were changed every other day or two, and bedding once a week. Soap, toilet paper and shampoo when they were about to run out. It was embarrassing that sometimes they were cleaned, but the bed was not made very neatly, and it seems that they didn’t do wet cleaning in the room every day, but oh well, we didn’t get dirty and this is already nitpicking. In general, no frills, what you paid is what you got : ) The maids are friendly, always smiling and saying hello. Russian at the reception is not important for the girls, but you can explain yourself (3 times I tried to explain that we don’t have clothespins on the balcony, as a result I climbed onto the neighbor’s balcony and took half of it when they left, although in all stores they sold a whole bunch of rubles for 10 : ), but we are Russian people : )). There is free wi-fi throughout the hotel, for which special thanks. There was the usual continental breakfast with the usual variety, sometimes they even gave pancakes. Everything is tasty, but monotonous. In general, as in all other hotels.
You can also eat on the street territory of the restaurant, where there is also a wonderful pond with fish and waterfalls, near which we usually sat down. In general, the hotel fully justifies the modest money that they want for it and all their honest 3 * +.
5. Prices for souvenirs and food at the resort are subjectively almost the same as in Nessebar in 2009. There are a lot of restaurants, but there are no really cheap ones, as they were in Nessebar (but I wouldn’t go there, their dubious quality can be seen from a mile away). Bijou, the Monastery hut (here, in addition to good food, they also sing well in the evening), Oasis (near the bus stop) and the cafe next to it (I forgot the name) are not very bad establishments. But Kopitoto was decidedly not liked, however, many scold him.
Evening show program there (dancing on hot coals) for those who have never seen this before, since the second time will be no longer interesting, before that they first sing (not bad enough), and after a very long time they dance some national dances under wildly rattling music, very tiring. At the same time, the darkness of the people sits in the hall. The best places where you can see the stage take 2-3 hours before the show, but it turned out to be useless, because when the charcoal dance show starts, the whole crowd breaks and pushes to take a closer look and stands in front of the front tables with a dense wall. We arrived an hour before and found a table just outside the restaurant. But the worst part is the food. The restaurant is not very cheap, while they brought us completely unprepared half-baked meat and burnt black potatoes. During the holidays, we went to Golden Sands several times (to pick up tourists on excursions and once on our own) and that's where I was amazed at the prices.
In 90% of cases, the same souvenir products cost 2 times more than ours. Prices in restaurants are also noticeably higher. Only at the very edge of the resort I found a tent with more or less reasonable prices.
6. The total cost of the tour was one of the cheapest offers from the resort among 3 * hotels. I also liked the Gloria hotel (by the way, there is one of the best exchange rates in the entire resort at the reception), constant animation, closer to the center, but further from the sea. Right in the center there is Julio Curie, but inside the troughs in the hall there is still one and the restaurants with bars are too close and noisy. From the Russian side they chose Lanta-Tour, from the Bulgarian side I forgot the name of the tour operator, but there was a Bulgarian-Ukrainian guide Ivan. There are no complaints about the tour operators, everything was fine (they arrived late in the evening and the guide who took us to the hotel even changed our money from euros to levs, since nothing was working anymore).
Whoever travels to Lanta, please note that all documents (insurance, electronic tickets, etc. ) must be issued to you by a local travel agency in electronic form or printed out (Lanta-Tour sends them all immediately after payment). They only bring your passport to the airport! Our agency did not know about this and slowed down until the last day, although this nuance is clearly written on the Lanta-Tour website.
P. S. Well, I would like to say a few words about excursions. Naturally, excursions directly from the tour operator are more expensive, but they are also of better quality. New buses, more interesting and richer program and more intelligible guides.
A large sightseeing tour of Varna with a visit to churches, a historical museum and other interesting places, as well as wine tasting. Quite interesting in general (although we went on excursions around Varna for the second time), but the museum is boring for me, and the prices for wine (compared to the palace in Balchik are higher). But it's definitely worth going.
We traveled with our guide.
Aladzha Monastery. Also with your guide. A very interesting excursion. I advise.
Cape Kaliakra + Balchik. For some reason, this tour did not get enough people from our guide and it was canceled. I had to buy on the shopping street. We paid 2 times cheaper, but got a rather muddy quiet-voiced guide, a rather old bus and a slightly reduced program. We bought in the same tent where they offer cars for rent, perhaps others would have been better. The tour itself is generally super, one of the best! I don't understand why there were no applicants.
Also, our guide offered an interesting excursion for 2 days through the whole of Bulgaria, but expensive. The toad was not strangled : )
But anyway, let's get closer to the topic.
Since I came here for the second time, when choosing a hotel and resort, I already had an idea of what I needed and what to look for. And the requirements were:
1. Not a remote village, so that there was no problem where to take a walk in the evening and there were no problems with large, inexpensive shops
2. So that with all this, at night, sleep well and in silence, and not under a disco or a highway under the windows
3. The proximity of the sea and a normal beach with a gentle approach (so as not to climb into the hotel in a twisting mountain, where while you climb up the tongue on your shoulder, at least go to swim again)
4. The quality of the hotel, category from 3 * and the possibility of choosing the BB option in it (breakfast only)
5. Not an expensive resort in general (meaning prices for food, souvenirs, etc. )
6. The most important thing is the travel budget. Under all of the above conditions, a minimum price was needed
Well, now I want to tell you in more detail what I ended up with.
1. The resort is really big and very green, in places on the outskirts even overgrown.
From end to end, about 30-40 minutes on foot, and then the hotels of another Sunny Day resort immediately begin. From the hotel to the shopping street, go for 8-10 minutes (700m on Google) by the shortest path past a fenced wasteland of 150 meters (which apparently was prepared for the construction of a new hotel), then along the parking lot of the Grand Hotel Varna, past the court, skirting the Grand Hotel from the side, and then along the path through the square towards the meadow with attractions. But this is during the day. At night, the wife refused to go through the dark wasteland, although people go there at any time (do not think, the street itself past the hotel towards the exit from the resort is very well lit and not deserted almost at any time, so this is normal). If you had to return late, then we walked past the Gloria, Rositsa and Mistral hotel (which for some reason did not work), it is always light and crowded there.
At first, such omissions in the resort are alarming, especially compared to Nessebar, which is more polished in this regard, but then you even begin to like such quiet, always shady corners, especially when the sun bakes strongly outside, and you want to go to the center. The hotel is very well located in the middle between the center and the outskirts of the resort. Although on some forums they write that this is bad, but I found only one plus:
a) Close to the bus stop "Marek" for a trip to Varna (on the highway). Literally 8-10 minutes on foot (650 m) and we are already waiting for the bus. Tourists who live in the center of the resort, of course, go much further.
Although there is a stop in the center of the resort, only a few buses run there, which, for example, do not go to Vladislav Varnenchik Boulevard, where the largest shopping centers are concentrated (Grand Mall Varna, Mall Varna, for example, Avtogar stop) and a lot of smaller shops, so that if you want to get there, then either from the center of Varna on foot (from the Morsko Oko stop, it seems, 20-25 minutes on foot), or with a transfer. The fare is not very cheap, to the Grand Mall 1.60 levs per person (they give, by the way, 2 tickets for 0.80 levs each and many foreign passengers at first do not understand why they asked for 2 tickets, and the conductor gives 4 and try to explain that they don’t need so much) . It’s bad for many conductors with Russian, to put it mildly, but they always managed to explain where to drop me off (although one conductor came across who explained to us very well in Russian where to get off and how to go further where we need to).
b) There are many small shops on the way to the bus stop, where everything is several times cheaper than in the center, so almost everyone bought goods there.
c) Close to a very good restaurant Biju. Outwardly, he looks modest, but the food is excellent and very, very not expensive.
d) Complete rest at night. An excellent sleep without music and songs under the windows is guaranteed.
2. Already wrote, at night it is excellent and away from noisy establishments and in people at the same time. A train with tourists runs until late, at which a stop is right in front of the hotel and couples walk along the street. All the more violent youth live closer to the center and buzz in the same place. No noise.
3. Really about 250-300m to the sea (literally 3-5 minutes, we walked in the same swimming trunks). The approaches are excellent, from the hotel in a straight line in the shade of trees past the neighboring hotel, then a small ladder down and the showers on the beach already begin. Beach for 4. Not very huge, quite clean.
The only minus in the water there are some huge boulders, but you can see them, they almost come to the surface and they are smooth (children climbed on them and jumped into the water). There were no jellyfish at all. We went to other beaches, in the end we liked only the one near Sunny Day, but the people there are dark, they sit on each other's heads.
4. Upon arrival, we received a corner room on the ground floor overlooking the pool, and there was a garden and trees in front of the windows. At first, they were upset and decided to change it in a couple of days, but as it turned out, the location, on the contrary, was very successful, in the higher rooms at night from the street you can see everything in full view of what is happening there, if the owner forgot to curtain the windows, everything is immediately hidden from prying eyes. The hotel is new. The rooms are really large with centralized air conditioning, and as many as three large windows, not how much shabby, furniture and plumbing is also in excellent condition. Service for 3+.
Towels were changed every other day or two, and bedding once a week. Soap, toilet paper and shampoo when they were about to run out. It was embarrassing that sometimes they were cleaned, but the bed was not made very neatly, and it seems that they didn’t do wet cleaning in the room every day, but oh well, we didn’t get dirty and this is already nitpicking. In general, no frills, what you paid is what you got : ) The maids are friendly, always smiling and saying hello. Russian at the reception is not important for the girls, but you can explain yourself (3 times I tried to explain that we don’t have clothespins on the balcony, as a result I climbed onto the neighbor’s balcony and took half of it when they left, although in all stores they sold a whole bunch of rubles for 10 : ), but we are Russian people : )). There is free wi-fi throughout the hotel, for which special thanks. There was the usual continental breakfast with the usual variety, sometimes they even gave pancakes. Everything is tasty, but monotonous. In general, as in all other hotels.
You can also eat on the street territory of the restaurant, where there is also a wonderful pond with fish and waterfalls, near which we usually sat down. In general, the hotel fully justifies the modest money that they want for it and all their honest 3 * +.
5. Prices for souvenirs and food at the resort are subjectively almost the same as in Nessebar in 2009. There are a lot of restaurants, but there are no really cheap ones, as they were in Nessebar (but I wouldn’t go there, their dubious quality can be seen from a mile away). Bijou, the Monastery hut (here, in addition to good food, they also sing well in the evening), Oasis (near the bus stop) and the cafe next to it (I forgot the name) are not very bad establishments. But Kopitoto was decidedly not liked, however, many scold him.
Evening show program there (dancing on hot coals) for those who have never seen this before, since the second time will be no longer interesting, before that they first sing (not bad enough), and after a very long time they dance some national dances under wildly rattling music, very tiring. At the same time, the darkness of the people sits in the hall. The best places where you can see the stage take 2-3 hours before the show, but it turned out to be useless, because when the charcoal dance show starts, the whole crowd breaks and pushes to take a closer look and stands in front of the front tables with a dense wall. We arrived an hour before and found a table just outside the restaurant. But the worst part is the food. The restaurant is not very cheap, while they brought us completely unprepared half-baked meat and burnt black potatoes. During the holidays, we went to Golden Sands several times (to pick up tourists on excursions and once on our own) and that's where I was amazed at the prices.
In 90% of cases, the same souvenir products cost 2 times more than ours. Prices in restaurants are also noticeably higher. Only at the very edge of the resort I found a tent with more or less reasonable prices.
6. The total cost of the tour was one of the cheapest offers from the resort among 3 * hotels. I also liked the Gloria hotel (by the way, there is one of the best exchange rates in the entire resort at the reception), constant animation, closer to the center, but further from the sea. Right in the center there is Julio Curie, but inside the troughs in the hall there is still one and the restaurants with bars are too close and noisy. From the Russian side they chose Lanta-Tour, from the Bulgarian side I forgot the name of the tour operator, but there was a Bulgarian-Ukrainian guide Ivan. There are no complaints about the tour operators, everything was fine (they arrived late in the evening and the guide who took us to the hotel even changed our money from euros to levs, since nothing was working anymore).
Whoever travels to Lanta, please note that all documents (insurance, electronic tickets, etc. ) must be issued to you by a local travel agency in electronic form or printed out (Lanta-Tour sends them all immediately after payment). They only bring your passport to the airport! Our agency did not know about this and slowed down until the last day, although this nuance is clearly written on the Lanta-Tour website.
P. S. Well, I would like to say a few words about excursions. Naturally, excursions directly from the tour operator are more expensive, but they are also of better quality. New buses, more interesting and richer program and more intelligible guides.
A large sightseeing tour of Varna with a visit to churches, a historical museum and other interesting places, as well as wine tasting. Quite interesting in general (although we went on excursions around Varna for the second time), but the museum is boring for me, and the prices for wine (compared to the palace in Balchik are higher). But it's definitely worth going.
We traveled with our guide.
Aladzha Monastery. Also with your guide. A very interesting excursion. I advise.
Cape Kaliakra + Balchik. For some reason, this tour did not get enough people from our guide and it was canceled. I had to buy on the shopping street. We paid 2 times cheaper, but got a rather muddy quiet-voiced guide, a rather old bus and a slightly reduced program. We bought in the same tent where they offer cars for rent, perhaps others would have been better. The tour itself is generally super, one of the best! I don't understand why there were no applicants.
Also, our guide offered an interesting excursion for 2 days through the whole of Bulgaria, but expensive. The toad was not strangled : )
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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