за красивым фасадом скрывается правда behind a beautiful facade hides the truth

Before I ended up in Bulgaria, my knowledge about this country was limited only by the fact that people there live in poverty, the main income is tourism. This suggested that the service in hotels should be at its best, at least in 4 or 5 *** hotels. Elenite struck me with its design and architecture - it was painfully different from neighboring hotels and apartments and the surrounding poverty. But as it turned out, this is just a beautiful picture that hides a completely rotten service.
But everything is in order. Captivate is a settlement consisting of the Royal Palace, Andalusia, Atrium, Royal Castle, Royal Bay hotels, as well as a dozen villas and apartments (which, by the way, are for sale). We rested in Andalusia 4 * + all inclusive. We were forced to take all inclusive for two reasons, firstly, this hotel only works according to this scheme, and secondly, with a small child of 2.5 years old, it should have been convenient.
The holiday didn't start well. In the room overlooking the sea, the nightstand was broken, the toilet seat was broken, there were no hangers for towels in the bathroom, there were no beds - instead of them there were 2 mattresses stacked on top of each other and covered with torn rags, worse than in hospitals. But these are all such trifles compared to what happened later.

We went for dinner (buffet) and saw a huge line of hungry people with plates in their hands. Well, there is nothing to do - we stood in this line, with grief in half we found a nook to sit down. The food was disgusting throughout the rest - the products are not fresh and the cheapest, with the exception of fruits and vegetables. Thus, it was not surprising that I stood at the toilet all night with terrible poisoning (sorry for the details), and all this can and would be attributed to a weak body, if not for a couple more poisonings with me, my mother and other guests .
But if you want to live, know how to spin. This proverb has firmly entered our everyday life during these two weeks of rest. We have learned to survive in the truest sense of the word, Robinson would envy, and the theory of natural selection would be happy for exhibits like us.
To lie on the sunbeds, I got up at 7-30 in the morning and ran with a towel to fight for a place in the sun. This is a terrible savagery, but absolutely everyone did it - the herd feeling cannot be defeated. Although I’ll be honest, it’s not about Russian tourists, of course there were many all-inclusive lovers, but there was a clear bias in the number of tourists and the number of sunbeds and tables in the hotel. Somehow time passed, we turned into animals and survived, but now it's time for the Sozopol a la carte restaurant. How the girl at the reception didn’t just praise him for us, with whom we signed up for all 3 restaurants on the territory of Elenite. Sozopol is a restaurant of Bulgarian cuisine, which we could not eat. I would like to believe that the food just did not suit us. In Sozopol, a man played the bagpipe - it's interesting to listen to, but the children are all afraid and we had to endure ours until this bagpipe finishes playing. The next trip was to Taliana, this is not a restaurant at all, because the service itself and the buffet does not fit in my head with the word restaurant, but the food is acceptable, but nothing more. Fatty and peppery meat, French fries and tomatoes with cucumbers - that's the menu for you. But everything is known in comparison, and we were convinced of this when we went to the so-called pride of Elenite - a restaurant of Mediterranean cuisine. We put it on the last day to say goodbye to Bulgaria. It all started with the fact that we waited for 20 minutes to take our order, and the menu consists of 12 dishes, including desserts, salads, soups, fish. Finally, the order was accepted, salads and appetizers were brought. I would like to pay special attention to snacks. Mom ordered crab rolls on a plate of butter. They brought her defrosted crab sticks! It's just crazy, well, for us at least. The fish was definitely defrosted. The evening was completely ruined. In general, do not think that food will be prepared for you only after ordering. All this is prepared in advance, you just need to put it on a plate.
I will jump from the topic of food to the topic of service. I myself approached the cleaners and grew their gels and shampoos, as well as toilet paper, and this is 4+! Cleaned mediocre, towels and sheets as already said - torn. Animators and lifeguards are very intrusive and ill-mannered, although the waiters are not distinguished by politeness. But words are words, and actions speak for themselves. The caretaker of the water park, for my refusal to spend time with him on the sunny beach, doused me with ice-cold water with his friend - and I just said that I didn’t want to go anywhere !!

Regarding the beach, we can say that the sand is quite clean, there are not many stones, but the entrance to the water is disgusting, I broke all my legs, and during the surf, algae envelop your body like wires until you swim away to the depth, a trifle, but not pleasant.
If we talk about entertainment, then there are a lot of them on the territory of the hotel, mainly for small children from 4 years old. If you are looking for peace and the absence of large crowds of people, parties, if you want to get into the sea of ​ ​ ​ ​ harmony, then this place is not for you.
From travels, my family and I got out to Nessebar by boat and taxi. Taxis are very expensive, but with a child there is no other choice. So to the unassembled and back we paid about 70 leva, which is 1500 rubles, it takes about 20 minutes to drive - it's a little expensive. But there is something to see, although do not count on beautiful photographs - everything is crowded with cars and shops with Turkish consumer goods and fakes, so do not count on shopping either. although you can eat deliciously without difficulty. Many cozy restaurants and terraces with private cuisine, in August take flounder - it is usually freshly caught.
We were in Sunny Beach. A place where you don't want to come back. There are many attractions for children, which is a plus, but the place itself is not pleasant, there are probably more people than in China, the streets smell like a public toilet. But if you are young and want to go to parties, then the flag is in your hands, you will find everything you need there.
In general, Elenite is really the best place in Bulgaria for children, good climate, warm sea, but everything is known in comparison. Compared to Sunny Beach, Elenite seems like a paradise, but in fact, Elenite is a dummy with a beautiful facade, if you have the opportunity to go to Spain or to another place, you should use this opportunity.
I want to be objective and focus my attention on the fact that we lived in Andalusia, as in other hotels, I don’t know.