We had building A, as I understand it, apartments were located there; in building B, in my opinion, there were ordinary rooms. And yet, the rest in building B was somewhat different from our A. As it turned out, there are two receptions in Golden Rainbow: the first on the second floor, which can be accessed from the main entrance, and the second in building B. From the side of the Burgas hotel (from the end Golden Rainbow) has a separate entrance - we found it on the second day (there is also an entrance to the hotel restaurant). In a small hall there is some kind of counter, on which it is inconspicuously written - Reception. We did not pay any attention to this and walked there all twelve days for a flight, because. to the main entrance it was necessary to go longer and dodge, and we walked in a straight line along the shops between the Burgas and Golden rainbow hotels. And on the last day, no matter how funny it sounds, I wanted bread somewhere around 22.00 and I decided to dangle from my eighth floor to the supermarket, and in order not to bypass the entire hotel, I decided to go straight to the shopping street through this side exit . I went out, bought some bread, but when I came in, some elderly uncle in a gray vest with pockets stopped me at the reception (no - it was not Wasserman), short, stocky, rather dense build, but, apparently, he had already begun to gain weight, probably a former gendarme or policeman. I flew at full speed through the side door and through the narrow corridors tried to get to my elevator; by the way, there are two of them - for each building there is one (we didn’t know, and on the first day, without suspecting anything, we got on the elevator of building B and went to the eighth floor, and we stood there and couldn’t understand why something visually doesn’t fit with memory mine until they paid attention to the numbers on the doors). So, I’m walking myself, without touching anyone, and suddenly I look people are slowly parting in front of me, and behind me I hear: “Hey, mr, hey mr…”!
I stop, turn around, well, it’s definitely addressing me:
- You are from this hotel.
And I'm like this to him:
- Yes, I am. I am from this hotel!
As far as I understood further, his knowledge of English had ended. And where …. and he began to show and twist the wrist of his right hand... and I guessed - a hotel bracelet. I tried to explain to him that they didn’t give me any bracelet when checking in (it seems that my knowledge of English was also not enough for me), and that damn things are like that and what you require of me. Then he asked me what room I live in. To which I replied that in A801. Yes, at that time another person, a neater-looking worker or manager, came out of the room and listened to our conversation. The one in the vest addressed him in Bulgarian, from which I understood that he had told him that he had detained the malicious offender, i. e. me. The second looked and said:
- So he is from building A - and waved his hand.
The “first vest” did not calm down on this and said something like:
- So the document would be necessary.
And the second waved his hand again, like don't fool your head. From which I understood that I could continue my way to building A and went on. But, the sediment remained. But, in the morning we were already setting off, so we didn’t want to clarify this situation already.
And so, the apartments were chic, well, maybe I'm exaggerating, but in any case excellent. Immediately make a reservation, we took 2 bed room lux apart. In general, the apartments consisted of a fairly large living room combined with a kitchen. There was a chest of drawers, a corner sofa, a cabinet with a TV, a table. The kitchenette included a dining table, a refrigerator, a microwave, a washing machine, an electronically controlled electric stove, an electric kettle, an extractor hood, three frying pans (the same ones - I don’t know why), pots (one large and one small), cups, spoons, plates, etc. . . Each room had its own air conditioner. Two bedrooms, the decoration in them was the same, with the only difference being that one of them had its own bathroom. The second bathroom was in the hallway. The bathrooms, like the bedrooms, were made in the same way. The windows overlooked three sides, except for the front. The balcony was around the perimeter of the apartment and included two small round arenas with a domed roof overlooking the sea and the right side of the hotel (the dunes). By the way, they (dunes) do not spoil the view at all. The general view of the apartment, the renovation and the environment in which we lived was rated by me at 8 points out of 10, but not lower than 7.5 for sure. In some places, of course, traces of the stay of guests are already visible, not very neat and indifferent to other people's property. But, if you do not look closely and do not pick up much, then all this becomes not noticeable.
Upon arrival, in both bathrooms there were different bottles with all sorts of shampoos, balms, hair and body gels, eight in total, two types of each. We practically did not use them - we had everything of our own, but those that used (a couple of bottles) were not updated for us for all twelve days. Towels are changed every three days and bed linen once a week. But with the cleaning here is complete....(poor attitude). Even three or four levs, constantly lying in the living room, did not help, they stupidly did not even take them. They took 4 leva once when they changed the bed. At the same time, it was clear that they simply waved a rag on the floor. They didn't even take out the trash. We put it in bags and left it near the kitchen wall. When we had three packages (one package per day), I took it out into the common corridor and put it in the corner between ours and the neighbor's room. He disappeared from there when we collected 4 packages. After that, they began to take out the garbage, but the neighbor's garbage appeared there. Five-liter empty canisters from drinking water remained standing under the dining table, since there were not many of them - four, and I took out some of them myself to the MSW storage site (the containers were located at the edge of the building from the main entrance). Yes, there was household equipment in the room: a brush and a scoop, so you can sweep the sand in the corridor after the beach yourself so that it doesn’t spread around the apartments. By the way, on the first floor, where there are several office premises next to the rooms, the rooms were cleaned very intensively under the supervision of managers, even with vacuum cleaners where there was carpet in the rooms.
There was another unpleasant moment associated with water. We didn't always have water in our room. I don’t know how it was in other rooms and on other floors, but between 08:00 and 09:00 am and 05:00 pm and 06:00 pm, the water pressure was greatly reduced, up to a complete lack of water. Basically for us it was in the morning. So keep this fact in mind.
There is free internet in the hotel. But on our eighth floor, it could only be heard in the living room near the balcony door and the dining table, but even then the signal was not constant and, let's say, frail. In other places of the hotel, including near the pool and in the bars did not check. Upon arrival, we bought each 3 SIM cards for four of the Telenor operator for 10 lev, which offered 3 GB of 4G Internet traffic and another 3 GB of promotional gift (total 6 GB) for 10 days. Children for two used it for 5 days, watching videos and videos on youtube, my wife and I only used 3 GB in 10 days. It was much more convenient.
There was an elevator and stairs in the building, through which one could go down to the second floor to the reception or to the first floor, from where there was access to the hotel pool and the beach. The elevator, it must be said, had a stupid logic, it stopped on all floors where the call button was pressed, regardless of whether you were driving up or down. Therefore, you always had to explain where you were going, and the caller, on the contrary, asked whether the elevator was going up or down.
Access to the beach was through the pool. The hotel area is very small and cramped. The pool is beautiful, three levels, where water overflows through the walls to each lower level. The deep part of the pool is equipped with seating and the pool bar also has a two-level system that allows you to serve customers who are right in the water. But due to the small area, a very limited number of guests can use the free sun loungers by the pool. I counted sixteen sun loungers and that was it. So for twelve days I never used the sun loungers by the pool, I just didn’t have time - they were occupied from the very morning. So we went to the sea. Sun loungers and umbrellas by the sea cost 10 lev. At other resorts where we were, two sun loungers and an umbrella cost from 20 to 24 leva.
We didn't have food on the tour. So I can't say anything about the hotel restaurant. We had breakfast in our apartment, and dined in numerous cafes that were located near the hotel. I would like to note that on the "SB" cafes do not bother much about cooking. What do I want to say. They brought the order quickly enough, it tasted something mediocre compared to what we tried at other resorts. From which we concluded that, most likely, they had cooked in advance, perhaps something was simply even warmed up (hot dishes). What else, for example, my favorite tarator was without garlic and nuts, and the famous shepherd's salad was without baked pepper, or even without it at all, kebabs had no juiciness, etc. It is possible that a large number of vacationers on Sunny Beach and a large influx of visitors are the reason for such a disgrace (a year ago, one local taxi driver, driving us from St. thousand people). And only in one place, unfortunately, we got to this restaurant only in the middle of the rest, we discovered the cuisine that we are used to seeing in Bulgaria. This is a restaurant at the hotel Seredets (Sredetz) and has the same name. Once again I pay attention that I'm talking about cafes located in the immediate vicinity of the "Golden Rainbow". We began to go there constantly, we all liked it and satisfied all our addictions. Yes, I had to wait a little for the order, but it was worth it, the meat was juicy, not dry, the tarator was with garlic and walnuts, the sheep’s salad included baked peppers and even the menu included Mish Mash, which I have nowhere before, in any cafe I didn't see it on SB. And the prices, as it turned out, are lower there than in neighboring restaurants: for comparison, a dinner for four there cost a lion 10-13 less, all other things being equal. But do not think that this was not the determining factor, although it is also pleasant.
There are many retail outlets in the "SB", there is even a shopping center "Royal Beach Mall", located at the "Royal Beach Barcelo" hotel. Well, a small shopping center with small shops, prices are high, the goods seem to be branded, but only "seemingly". We wandered around there, did not buy anything, but it so happened that our eyes did not fall on anything. There is not a bad shop with perfumes, although the prices are higher than in Burgas. Therefore, we decided to go to Burgas in the shopping center MOL "Galeria". Early Sunday morning around 09.00 we came to the local autogara (bus station). Route number 10 goes to Burgas and express routes every 20 minutes. We just stumbled upon one of them. Photo schedule. A ticket to Burgas (the bus goes to the autogara South) costs 6 lev. From the autogarage South you need to take bus number 11, which will take you to the MOL "GalEria" in 20-25 minutes. No need to go anywhere, we were unloaded right at the bus stop in front of the bus station (see photo). Back, from the MOL "GalEria" stop on the same side by bus number 12. The fare is 1.5 leva. It is important not to confuse here, buses 11 and 12 go in a circle, so go there at 11, back at 12. The buses have an interactive route map on built-in displays under the ceiling and a running electronic line on the scoreboard. Many tourists get on their own, so the conductor (the eye is already trained) herself suggests. The prices in the MOL "GalEria" are also not very low, but the choice is more than at the "SB". We shopped, drank cava with cappuccino, all sorts of cocktails, listened to the whining of the children and moved back. Considering last year's experience of the trip, we decided to return by taxi. Do not immediately enter the offers of taxi drivers near the shopping center, they will break the price. If you want to get to the autogarage SOUTH, then it costs 6 lev, otherwise some ask 15 at once. You can get to SB for 40-45 leva (it’s like bargaining), but not for 60 or 70. So for us, the advantage of bus travel was not significant: for four, the transfer from SB to Burgas 6x4 = 24 lev and moving to MOL "GalEria" 1.5x 4 = 6 lev. Total: 30 lev. We paid 40 lev for a taxi (they immediately asked in which part of the “SB” we live). But faster and more comfortable and immediately to the hotel. We also went to Nessebar, although we rested there a few years ago, but it’s still nice to wander around the old town: many shops, cafes. By the way, there was some kind of holiday on that day and there was a concert on the remains of the old fortress wall. There are many buses going there and directly to Nessebar and with a stop in Ravda and other villages. Schedule at any stop, everything is clear in Bulgarian. It costs 1 lev. Not all buses go to the old town, we went to number 2, it reaches the old town itself, passing the bridge that connects the two parts of Nessebar. Back the same way from the old town. I was lucky, the concert began and the bridge was blocked and the buses did not reach there, I had to go to the new Nessebar. Just before the descent to the bridge, a whole traffic jam formed and everyone stood for a long time, as the vacationers went to the break to the old city, not looking at the vehicles. We took a taxi. Taxi costs 20 lev. But, since taxi drivers are cunning people everywhere, that evening they began to break prices almost twice as high.
In general, I liked the rest. I always tried to avoid large resorts, I wanted silence, but I liked the rest on the "SB" - more fun. The hotel "Golden rainbow vip residence" can be said to be excellent, the location is excellent, decoration, renovation too. Everything would be fine if not for cleaning and some problems with water. I don’t take the pool into account, since we came to relax at the sea, although sometimes we regretted that there were no places. All twelve days in our bay, a green flag was never hung out at the rescue booth. Only yellow or red. It's even more fun when it's red, the sea is like a merry-go-round when you ride the waves. Only gets the whistle of rescuers. But in recent days, mud has begun to nail and riding the waves has become not so pleasant and fun. That's when they thought about the pool, but there are no places.
But, minus - there is no restaurant, breakfast was brought to us from another restaurant, but always cold from the refrigerator. It would be possible to bring cooled, but not ice. Towels seemed to be changed every day, but for some reason not all at once, but one at a time, two at a time , and then they left it in the hallway on the mirror for some reason. The maids did not wash the dishes.
Soap accessories had to be begged for. , And then they are all expired, as we later saw.
That's because of breakfasts and maids and such an assessment.