We arrived after midnight and were assigned an extremely small room which was suppose to accommodate up to 3 adults. I asked my wife not to fully unpack because I was going to address the size of this room in the morning with the staff. We also noticed that the fridge was not cleaned out and food was left by previous guests and therefore we questioned the staff as to their cleaning practice. In the morning we addressed our issues with the front desk and escalated them to the manager. The staff speaks English extremely limited. Most of the staff are working youth on a temporary visa from Eastern European countries. We do admire their intent to communicate. They were always polite and attempted to accommodate us, however there was the language barrier. The manager with somewhat better English understood our issues and upgraded us to a two bedroom apartment.
On first glance we were pleasantly surprised at the second room. However, after moving in we noticed that the air conditioning was very ineffective due to its capacity and location in only one room. The balcony faced south with a good view of the river, beach and partial view of the swimming pool. Unfortunately the sun was beating through the balcony windows into both rooms from sunrise to sunset. It was also so bright in the rooms because the combination curtains/drapes were ineffective. The shower in the room was spraying water all over but never where you pointed it and the drain was extremely slow. Furthermore, the toilet seat was broken. The beds were very comfortable but the nightstands with lamps were unplugged and there were no outlets in close proximity to plug them in. The refrigerator in one room was working well but in the other room there was no outlet to plug the other refrigerator. The resident engineer did fix the shower but the drain in the shower had to be addressed several times, just like the toilet seat before a commercially acceptable repair was completed to our satisfaction. We did not address the electrical outlets nor the air conditioning issue due to our observation of the maintenance crew being somewhat incompetent to fix simple items as well as wasting our time and become frustrated with their repairs.
The food was part of the all inclusive package. Specifically, it was Bulgarian cuisine with hardly any diversification. Every day the food was the same and did not agree with our Western taste. The alcohol drinks/cocktails were local spirited and awful tasting. The bar tenders served their local alcohol which was very different tasting than what we westerners are used to.
To our surprise not on a regular basis but there was a server that cooked snacks which consisted of local sausages, pizza and french fries straight out of the kitchen. These snacks were very good!
The location of the hotel was described as 80 meters from the beach which was accurate. However, this was misleading because there was a river between the hotel and the beach. The only way to access to the beach was going to a bridge to get across which took about 15 minutes minimum and a distance of at least 500 meters. There was a gentleman with a raft that was available to get across the river from the hotel to the beach. Although it was "free" tipping was only appropriate and welcomed. He was available from morning to 6 pm and was closed for lunch break between noon and 1 pm.
The hotel had one swimming pool which did not seem to be heated. Although other reviews addressed that the pool was small, there were only a few "swimmers" in it at any time. Most were sunbathing on a chaise or under an umbrella.
The beach was fantastic. Although a gradual descent into the water, the sand was great, seashells at the base of the water and temperature about 60 degrees. The water was crystal clear. The water was mildly saline (salinity of human tears) in the Black Sea and hardly oxygenated which resulted in hardly any marine life. There were hardly any waves. Extremely calm. Beach chaises as well as umbrellas were an extra cost and also not cheap at 12 USD per day for two chaises and an umbrella.
In summary an OK hotel for the price, however the rating of 4 stars is unjustifiable! Any excursions and tours are not included and the travel to Sozopol, Nessebar or to Burgas Airport are over an hour due to tour or transfer buses picking up passengers along the way to the final destinations. The tours are somewhat expensive but interesting. We are tourists that are more interested in the culture, people and history of the country.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC