Отдых на курорте Золотые пески Rest in Golden Sands resort

My husband and I rested in BlueSky in late July - early August 2012. Impressions are ambiguous, there are both pluses and minuses in service, food, living conditions at the hotel and, in general, the Golden Sands resort. When we first arrived at about 10 am, we were told that our room was not ready, they say they only check in at 12:00. We obediently waited 2 hours, leaving things in the staff room. During this time, we managed to go to the sea, going down several stone stairs (not very steep and not so long) to the embankment. What was our disappointment when we saw the edge of the coast and the sea, just teeming with people! I have never seen such a rush at sea. There was no need to talk about a place where you can put your towel, not to mention how to lie comfortably on the sand. The sand was not cleaned very carefully, so you could easily see cigarette butts, plastic bottles, and thrown out deflated circles or mattresses, etc. in it. Later, we discovered the beach of the Riviera Hotel and went only there (there are no waves, the water is cleaner, and most importantly, there are fewer people! ). Along the way, we decided to change money in a yellow exchange kiosk on the embankment (there are no bank branches as such in the resort, at least we did not find them). The euro-leva exchange rate was set at 1 to 1.95 on the scoreboard. We check with the guy in English: if we give 1 euro, then you give us 1.95 leva. He says yes. We give him 50 euros (thank God, not more), but he does not give us the entire amount in leva that we expected. It turns out that somewhere behind the door below, at the level of the legs, there is another scoreboard and there the rate is not 1.95, but 1.57. We say we will not sign this exchange check. Then he signs it himself and, in response to our request for a refund, says that the exchange operation has been completed, and if something does not suit you, “go the same policy! ” (Which, by the way, you won't find there during the day with fire). During the rest, we have seen more than once how a bunch of angry people deceived by these money changers crowded near such stalls. The police arrive, allegedly try to figure it out, listen to the victims, and then shrug their shoulders and say that they cannot do anything and leave (it can be seen that they share the money stolen in this way with the police).
After the financial vicissitudes, we returned at the agreed time to the hotel. We are informed that the room is still not ready, and why did we only think that it would be possible to check in at 12 o'clock? - check-in only after 14:00. In addition, we can’t have lunch either, since lunch ends exactly before 14:00. After our conversation turned to raised tones, we were led to see if our number was ready. It was on the third floor on the sunny side overlooking the pool. The room is very small, dirty, the beds were under the walls with the letter "g". It seemed that there was not enough space for anything else, except for them and small bedside tables. The balcony was very tiny, only one person could fit on it. We say that we did not sign up for this, the bed should be double, etc. We were told that this number was occupied and when it was free, we could move there. We urged to do something and did not agree with such alignments. With a sour face, the administrator finally showed us a relatively normal room (which suddenly turned out to be no longer occupied), on the third floor, on the shady side, with two beds pushed together, a normal balcony, much more comfortable and cleaner. Its only drawback was the bathroom, in which the water from the shower poured directly onto the toilet and the doors, which swelled from this. As for the food in this hotel, it is quite monotonous, a lot of fatty and fried food, such a fast food. But at the same time, vegetables and fruits are given in sufficient quantities. At the bar you can take sweet soda, local alcoholic drinks, coffee from the machine. The rooms were cleaned every day, towels were changed every other day, bed linen - once every 5 days, so we had not a single complaint about cleaning. The pool was also good, medium in size, with adult and children's compartments, clean, in principle, there were enough sun loungers for everyone. There were no noisy companies that interfered with sleep.
It is better to change money in Varna (for 1 euro they gave 1.93 leva), which can be reached by taking the city bus number 409 (the fare is 3 leva); the journey takes approximately 40 minutes. This city has both bazaars and large shopping centers with good prices.

Separately, about taxi drivers - if you decide to take a car, then you don’t need to pay the driver right away, but only when he takes you to a predetermined place, otherwise he won’t listen, write off everything for “translation difficulties”, say that he won’t go to the center , it is a stone's throw from the main shopping center and the like.
Summing up, I concluded for myself that the next time I’m going to Bulgaria, I’ll definitely go not at the height of the season and definitely not to Bluesky, since there are a lot of other more worthy and interesting hotels on the coast, all the more it’s always nice to discover something new ; -)