Хороший отель Good hotel

As always, I will be brief : ). Bulgaria was chosen as a place for a summer holiday for the first time this year due to well-known reasons that close Turkey and Egypt, where my family and I had vacationed before, so I will mostly compare with them. Before the start of the holiday, there were quite serious fears that in contrast the impressions would be weaker, in addition, some acquaintances frightened them with a scoop and a low level of service (like the Bulgarians are lazy, do nothing, etc. ), but in general, the fears were not confirmed - the rest was a success no worse.
During our arrival (we rested from August 11 to 20), the air temperature was about +25 degrees (water +22, for comparison, and Antalya at the same time +29), by the evening of the first day it started to rain, which still knocked it down. As a result, we spent the first and second days of rest in light jackets or sweaters (who had what), which slightly spoiled the impression and sowed fears that this would continue.
However, the next day the temperature returned to +25, and by the end of the rest it gradually reached +31. The temperature of the water in the sea and pools (of course, not heated: ) ) the first days of rest was subjectively low - I only had enough for a couple of races from the slides, then I had to go to warm up. There were few people in the sea and the water park, maybe 1/4 of the usual number on a sunny day. After a sauna, it would be just right for such water, but climbing into it after standing in line for a hill in the breeze is somehow not very good. By the way, it was quite windy all the days of rest, yellow and red flags hung on the sea, there was a wave, but this did not interfere with swimming (during the last rest in Krasnomorsk it would be generally difficult without wind, because the air was under +40, and here it was unpleasant to get out of the sea, the child was freezing, although he was sitting in the sea more than me : ) ).

For the most part, we spent the first couple of days getting acquainted with the territory and infrastructure, because.
it’s simply not possible to get around everything in 15 minutes - the territory is large, only along the coast about 1 km - you can walk slowly. I liked the territory: a lot of greenery, everything is well-groomed (the staff collects dry leaves, waters / mows the lawns), there are fountains and tiled paths, everything is illuminated with lanterns at night. In one of the Turkish hotels where we were before, all the pine trees were numbered, because they were considered some kind of local property under protection, but here this is a common occurrence, provided that they are different and not the same as in the surrounding forests (I'm not a specialist in greenery, so by eye and without breeds, species and varieties: )). In addition to pines, cypresses, junipers, magnolias, figs, arborvitae and much more were seen. There were also palm trees, but closer to the sea, some in tubs, which, apparently, are removed in the heat for the winter. In general, nature does not differ much from Crimean or Krasnodar.
On the territory closer to the Romana-villas there are apple trees, pomegranates, peaches, grapes - everything bears fruit, exactly according to Zadornov : ). One day I took a picture of a bunch of grapes in the backlight and did not notice the half-naked girls sunbathing behind it (it happens like this : ) ) - it almost turned out to be an international scandal : ), but everything worked out - it didn’t go beyond smiles.
We arrived at the hotel at about 12 noon - the transfer from Burgas Airport to the hotel did not differ much from what is in other countries. On the way, we were told a little about the incidents of the Bulgarian language (mountain - forest, mother - T-shirt, right - straight, etc. ), local history, sights and culinary traditions (tarator, sach). All visitors are dropped off the bus in front of the fountain at the Royal Park, then an electric car picks them up and takes them along the upper road (the farthest from the sea) to the entrance to the central building of our villas (where the reception, restaurant, confectionery, etc.

) - after a couple of days everything turns out to be simple, but at first impression we were driven by diesels through the surrounding bushes : ). In general, electric cars should be noted separately - they scurry around the territory of the complex day and night, taking and bringing vacationers and luggage. There are no exhausts from them, they work quite quietly and do not interfere much, you just need to make sure that they do not sneak up unnoticed from behind or emerge from behind the bushes. In general, Elenite is the last one on the road from Burgas, an asphalt road goes to it in the direction of Nessebar - Sunny Beach - Sveti Vlas - Elenite, then it breaks off, so there is no through car traffic nearby at all - the environment is at its best!
At the reception, we were a little unpleasantly surprised by the fact that they would not immediately check into the rooms, they offered to leave the luggage in a special room and go to rest, which we did.
The room is shared, does not close, there is no security or at least supervision, however, there were no incidents during our stay, even though at least 20-30 vacationers arrived / departed per day. Some of them quickly changed clothes and ran to the sea - we just dropped our things and went to the confectionery, where we had a bite of delicious cupcakes and cakes with coffee. In general, I would note the confectionery separately - the chefs working there are just great! The confectionery is open all day (until 22-00), i. e. they work decently, while everything is fresh and tasty. Prior to this, a couple of hotels in Turkey where we were also had pastry shops, but they only worked for a limited time and food was quickly taken away from them. In addition, in Turkey there is often a large variety of buns, they are multi-colored, but most of them are somehow tasteless (with the possible exception of kunafa) - but here I liked almost everything!
Very tasty eclairs with good cream and powdered sugar in almost unlimited quantities (although people quickly take them away - you need to seize the moment, they appear several times a day), airy muffins (I bake them myself periodically and I know the jambs of this process - there were no them), rolls, cakes, etc. I am indifferent to cookies and something like gingerbread in chocolate icing, but the child carried it with pleasure. So who loves sweets - you are here!
Wi-Fi is available almost throughout the territory, there are many networks, but it is closed, apparently a chipboard, there is open access only near the reception.

Considering the number of vacationers (there are more than 400 villas in the complex, and this is more than 1000 vacationers, all with smartphones, tablets and laptops), the Internet barely works, you can hardly sit on social networks, but large packages are transferred with difficulty, even during peak hours 2/3 of the pings do not pass, so web surfing at this time will not succeed, you don't have to try. However, even here you can find a way out: a couple of times when you had to sit on the Internet for work (where would you be without her beloved on vacation : ))), I got up at 7-00 - at that time 5-10 people sit in the lobby at most - Internet just flies. Another window appears after lunch somewhere around 16-00 - either everyone disagrees on water procedures in the sea / water park, or for a healing afternoon nap, but you can get on the Internet : ).
Check-in at the hotel rooms takes place strictly at 14-00 - this was the case with us, and apparently with other just-arrivals, who every day dozed in the lobby on sofas in clothes other than beach clothes.
We asked, and they gave us the key to the room (238, if anyone is interested) a little earlier than expected, we loaded the electric car with our luggage and drove to our new home. Separately, I want to note that at the same time there were no screams, no bribes, no strange behavior of the staff (like I don’t understand yours and at the same time a smile of 32 teeth, as often happens with Arabs) - polite girls worked with a bang. During the rest, I watched them with half an eye - well done, respect, they find them somewhere! In total, during the rest, I counted about 5 different girls and one guy at the reception - everyone is very, very polite, smiling, fluent in at least Russian, English and German (not counting Bulgarian and other languages ​ ​ ​ ​ that I can’t classify by ear) .
In previous hotels, it often happened that even a mixture of Russian, English and gestures did not always have a common language - since when I was in Egypt there was a funny story about how a vacationer tried unsuccessfully to explain that he needed scissors : ) - here I don’t never seen.
In the room, everything is generally standard: one room, a small corridor, a bathroom, a balcony, two beds pushed together, a couple of wardrobes, a folding armchair for a child, bedside tables, a mirror, a refrigerator, an air conditioner, a water heater, a hairdryer, a TV. The conder was turned on once for a couple of minutes when checking in - then it was simply not needed, because the house is located between the trees most of the day in the shade. The refrigerator, like the hair dryer, did not work for us, but we didn’t really need them - we didn’t raise the alarm with shouts to the whole Elenite about this : ).

2 sockets did not work yet, however, we completely managed the rest (look carefully, they are located around the perimeter of the room and not everything is visible - some may be under the table or behind the beds). The room is tidy, renovated, without any blunders, but also without any frills in the Art Nouveau style. On the balcony there is a plastic table and a couple of chairs - you can sit in the evening. Of the annoying unpleasant little things - our sink was poorly washed off and in the end the shower fixture in the wall finally fell off, otherwise the room was flawless. Some vacationers with us complained that the rooms were damp and there was a smell of mold - on their conscience, I didn’t see it myself, we didn’t have this. And the people are ready to compose stories not only on order, but also on their own intent: ) - on my collective farm the floor in the barn is marble, and it is washed 3 times a day, and here they bred, understand, unsanitary conditions - ants all around: ).
Outside the reception, the staff is generally less educated in terms of languages ​ ​ - not everyone understands Russian and English, but no less polite. I didn’t get into the soul of anyone, but I have a suspicion that some of them are most likely students and came for the summer to work part-time. The intelligent ones ended up at the reception, and the stupid ones got to mow the lawns or guard the slide in the water park. Or maybe not, I don't know : ).
The food in the main restaurant is close to excellent, if not excellent. It is favorably distinguished from the Arab countries by the presence of pork: in the morning it is fried and very tasty bacon (and not pure fat, but with meat - we have something similar sold in soaked or smoked form and is not cheap), sausages (natural, not soy ), for lunch and dinner - meat in pieces in a stew, mixed with potatoes / carrots / mushrooms in the form of a roast (or sacha, as you like), cutlets close to homemade, pork soup with pieces of meat.
Several times there were fried pork ribs - the people met them with great enthusiasm, I am one of them! At EVERY meal, there were dishes of pork, beef, and chicken - explanatory pictures above them. Dishes are different (such as fried, boiled, stewed). Somewhere in a day there was fish - baked sole or something similar to fried herring, squid rings in batter. Almost all the time there was marinated fish, who loves (both big and small like anchovies). From the side dishes: fries (always), a couple of times there was mashed potatoes (it’s a pity that not more often, I would never exchange potatoes for any pasta : ) ), rice / pasta with alternation, canned corn, boiled or pickled cauliflower from time to time , fried eggplants, scrambled eggs for breakfast (mixed with pieces, I didn’t like it, I prefer whipped with milk and evenly fried like a casserole), whole boiled eggs on a hill of salt, cottage cheese / cheese.

Also all the time chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, salads from fresh cabbage or beets (also fresh, not boiled, apparently so that vitamins do not kill! : ) ), a couple of times there was a salad with crab sticks, olives / black olives. For breakfast, pancakes with various jams (there was dark red - blueberry or something, citrus, feihuy : ) ) or something like Nutella, sour cream or freshly prepared yogurt with pieces of fruit. From sauces: ketchup, mayonnaise (more viscous than ours, although it tastes almost the same), almost no spicy mustard. Periodically there were hot hot peppers, which I really like. You can take packaged pâ té s, processed cheese and butter. There are 2 types of soups for every lunch and dinner, different on different days. There were mashed soups (onion, potato, tomato), pork and chicken soup with noodles, once there was a very tasty fish soup, in which, to our surprise, apart from crab sticks, shrimp, mussels and squid were floating in pieces.
There are spices for soups, both spicy and not. Several times there was a tarator - a Bulgarian cold soup with sour milk with cucumbers (and it would also have a shmat of lard and a liter of jelly, so that later you can say with confidence that you weakened from the last pie eaten : ) ). Mine never dared to try it, I ate with pleasure and, most importantly, without harm to the gastrointestinal tract : ) - in the heat it is the very thing, almost like our okroshka, which also not all foreigners understand. Hot dogs are made on the beach, the leftovers from which you can feed almost tame seagulls in the evening. True, hot dogs are quite straightforward: a bun + fried sausage + a sauce of ketchup, mayonnaise or mustard to choose from, plus a tomato and some kind of greens like salad + fries - a minor omission in my opinion.
I was very pleased with the variety of fruits: in addition to almost standard apples, which almost no one ate, there were pears (to be fair, just a couple of times), and plums, and watermelon with melon, and bananas, and grapes, and oranges, and even peaches ( the latter are taken apart in the first place, so it is better to start hunting for them immediately after the start of the feeding time : )). Strange, but there were no apricots. A separate significant plus is multi-colored ice cream, which is available in unlimited quantities all day long - you come up and put as much as you want into a crispy cone! In bars, you can ask for a mix of smoothies (great and Russian can be - finely ground fruit ice: ) ) - the child really liked this thing.
From non-alcoholic drinks, everything is generally standard: Jupe-shaped “juices” from vending machines, cola, coffee / cocoa. Tea from bags of different varieties (10 pieces to choose from), milk from bags or warmed.

Separately, I liked the attitude towards alcohol - they pour almost everything that you ask for and as much as you ask, you can bring it to your room and, for example, sit on the balcony in the evening. Before that, in other hotels, we have repeatedly encountered situations where either the drink was, but over, or poured at the bottom of a plastic cup, or given no more than 2-3 cups in one hand - this is not so - drink, at least get drunk, although surprisingly I have never seen drunk people (neither ours, who are starting to get a bullock, nor the Germans, who rush into the pool with wild cries, nor the golden youth). There is definitely light beer all the time (regular, Shumensky, you can forget about any non-filtering or dark beer - apparently the Bulgarians do not have a beer culture, like we have or the same Germans / Czechs), good red / white wine and strong alcohol: whiskey, gin, rum, rakia. They make good cocktails.
In fairness, if you go outside the hotel territory to the deer through the gate at which buses enter and go to the left, you can find a shop where you can buy very good varieties of wine from the local Dionysus factory for a little more than 200 rubles / liter. There's also a nice girl gives you a try before you buy. A little further in the supermarket you can buy wine, brandy, mastic, and everything else in glass. In the vicinity of the hotel and in neighboring towns, you can have a delicious and inexpensive meal in a cafe, and here (my wife and I and a child of 6 years old) it cost from a belly with beer and brandy in the region of 30–50 leva (1 lev = 36 rubles) for one once. Rakia in cafes we came across colorless, like our vodka, easy to drink and has a very pleasant smell of grape wine. The hotel brandy is different, greenish (perhaps plum, although I don't know for sure), its smell is not so pleasant (and what does our vodka have? : ) ), but it is drunk just as easily and naturally.
There was a bit of a lack of drinks on the beach - for them you have to either go to the pastry shop or the pool bar next to the playground, but it's not very far.
Ala carte restaurants are not impressed, as in other and other hotels. The food is 90% the same as in the main restaurant. A couple of incidents came out in the Mediterranean. We asked for a seafood salad, a pretty polite girl honestly warned that it was not available and instead brought us a “dish” of lettuce leaves with canned fish mashed with a fork. According to a similar strategy, instead of rolls (and I thought ... ) they brought 4 crab sticks, poured with ketchup and mayonnaise! I don’t know who prevented them from wrapping them in rice with nori and putting a piece of cucumber or fish. Or do not write on the menu, because there was enough other food in it with a margin.

They didn’t become rude and scandalous about this, everything was compensated by rakia, very tasty fish soup and fried fish (bream was written on the menu, we already began to be afraid that it wasn’t there either and instead the waitress would just let us go fofan, but we were wrong : ) , although the bream is apparently marine, it differs from our "land" bream). The child was brought apple juice (namely juice, not UPI). So if suddenly you didn’t get into a la carte, I wouldn’t get upset about this much, in the main restaurant it’s no worse.
The entrance to the sea is on pebbles, although there is imported sand on the beach (who wants real sand, I recommend the beach at the beginning of Sveti Vlas). However, the pebbles are different everywhere: if you go down in the very center or on the periphery, then the stones are large, the size of a couple of fists - it’s problematic to go into the sea without special shoes on them - the wife was knocked over by a wave and she could not take her vertical position back for a long time, fortunately she did without injuries.
But if you move to the left behind the house with boats in the direction of hot dogs, there are small pebbles and entering the sea does not cause problems. About 20 meters from the shore there is a shoal with a knee-deep depth, on it, like seals, vacationers warm themselves, with strong winds and waves, rescuers drive them closer to the shore. One day there was a wave, a bunch of algae washed up on the shore, which were also on the shore, exuding a very specific smell, and a dense carpet in the water. However, in the morning the next day, the beach was absolutely clean - apparently the staff fussed and quickly removed it all (I don’t know how, because according to my estimates, this was the evacuation of at least several dozen cars of sea kale) - well done!
Around the hotel area on one side there are shops, on all the others there are mountains covered with forests.

Dirt roads lead to the mountains, along which the locals occasionally ride motorcycles and which you can walk along (they were at the height of Kutsuyan, 249 m, from the Castle side and walked towards Sveti Vlas - there is an apiary in the forest, be careful). We did not find shops within 4 km along these paths, although some Internet resources assured the opposite, there are a couple of springs in the direction of Kutsuyan. From the top of the mountains you can take good panoramas and just take pictures - I recommend it! Blackberries grow around the trails, though we hardly saw black berries, apparently someone is eating them (bears? : ) ). We didn’t see deer, we didn’t see wild boars either, in some places birds run through the forest under the trees and rustle leaves.
There is a good water park on the territory (separately for children and adults): there are both calm slides, and all sorts of pipes with a toilet bowl and buns.
The wife and especially the child were satisfied, although I would like more (I like extreme sports more than they do), on the way to the hotel steeper slides were also visible. When descending into the toilet, I strongly recommend using a mat, because the speed is decent, protruding parts of the body can be injured on the joints. When descending, it is better to keep your hands locked on your chest. At the first attempt, he didn’t do it himself, instinctively grabbed the edges of the rug and tore his knuckles on his left hand (centrifugal force rules), as if he was hitting someone in the face : ). The funny thing is that this was watched by a man who had just arrived, who, having seen my bloodied hand, did not go in the end. I even smeared it on my face a little, without noticing it right away - I obviously frightened him very much. But in fact, it's okay: the girls did artificial respiration, chest therapy and affectionately sent them to ride further with their knees in the ass (just kidding: )).
They don’t seem to let children under 12 years old on the toilet and buns, but the girls watching the process turn a blind eye to this, children ride on the toilet without problems and whoever wants - squatting, head first, although I wouldn’t do that (if of course you are interested in the result of the descent). On a bun, I would not risk children, because on one of the descents I myself did not firmly grasp the handles with my hands and bounced out of the bun. The staff apparently understands this and does not let children in here. The pools below are monitored - there were no serious incidents during the rest. If anything, an ambulance is on duty all the time on the territory of the hotel - I have never seen anything like this before.

The people on the territory rest to the eyeballs, according to my estimates, several thousand people (a small town! ), But all this happens without tension - in principle, everything is enough.
Sometimes there were problems with a place in the restaurant, but for 2 minutes of unhurried walking between the tables you could always find a free one - the attendants work very cheerfully. And if you come exactly at the time of the start of the meal or an hour after it, most likely there will be no problems at all. There were no problems at all with the availability of food or utensils, the food starts to be removed 15 minutes before the end of the meal, so over time it is better not to delay visiting the restaurant. From time to time there were problems with the availability of free sunbeds near the sea and in the water park, but again they are resolved quite quickly - you can grab one sunbed, then pull up another one or two in it. The problems would be less if some bad people did not leave "their" sunbeds in reserve for the whole day, without coming to them themselves, and not allowing others to use them.
There is a sign on the beach that directly warns that this is not necessary, but in my opinion the hotel administration needs to act even harder.
Several times, as it usually happens, I had to hear that everything in the hotel is bad - dirty, the food is bad, the staff is rude, etc. - I wanted to come up and enter into a discussion in a rude manner. However, a pig (or Klava Butylkina: ) ), as you know, will find dirt everywhere. We had small complaints about the quality of cleaning in the room (the cleaning lady approached this moment formally), we were given only 3 sets of soap and soap accessories (shampoo and K) and it was enough back to back, although usually they were also able to take them with us for souvenirs. However, the towels were changed, even the beds were made! In general, our vacation was a success, I can rate it at 5 with a slight minus, we were satisfied! Many thanks to the hotel staff for this!

PS. In conclusion, I cannot ignore one political moment.

Many non-Russians rest in the hotel: Ukrainians, Poles, Germans, Dutch, Bulgarians, maybe someone else. Given the geographical proximity of western Ukraine and the current political situation, there were certain concerns, but they were not confirmed. Indeed, many cars with Ukrainian numbers were noticed around the neighborhood, but I never heard Ukrainian speech, apparently the Russian language still rules. And there were no conflicts, which is great! Kievan Rus and Tartaria were common, there is nothing to share here, you need to live together and relax with positive!