Отличный отель, ОТВРАТИТЕЛЬНЫЙ туроператор "Альф". ОСТЕРЕГАЙТЕСЬ !!! Great hotel, DISGUSTING tour operator Alf. BEWARE!!!

I read a couple of positive reviews about this hotel and decided to stay in it. The hotel is good, everything is clean and pleasant, the staff is polite and friendly, many speak Russian a little bit, almost everyone speaks good English. My room was rather modest but comfortable, with a balcony, a small fridge and air conditioning, the only drawback was a WELL VERY small TV. The bathroom has a bathtub. The rooms were cleaned every day, but the bed and towels were changed only once during the week. The all inclusive food is just amazing! Breakfasts are somewhat monotonous (3-4 types of inexpensive sausage, 2-3 types of cheese, eggs, milk, all kinds of desserts), but lunches and dinners are simply gorgeous (2 types of first courses, stewed chicken, pork, fish, several types of salads and several types of desserts). The bar has a lot of drinks, but free only local production. From non-alcoholic ones - real Pepsi, 7ap and two types of Mirinda.
There is free Wi-Fi in the lobby. THERE IS NO INTERNET IN THE ROOMS, although the description says that there is. It’s frankly far from the sea and the path is inconvenient and winding, but from time to time there is a “tourist train” that can overcome most of the way. There are outdoor and indoor pools. I have never seen anyone in the closed one, and the way to the open one is not very convenient and confusing (apparently, for this reason, it is also almost always empty there, even despite the presence of another bar). In the very town of St. Konstantin and Elena have a lot of untidy territories (almost all are fenced), which developers have not yet reached. A separate topic is CURRENCY EXCHANGE. On large tables, local exchangers write the rate of 1.95 lev for 1 euro, but on the receipt they count at 1.57, which is 20% (! ) lower.
Knowing about these “jokes” from previous reviews, I purposefully bought Euro houses in small denomination banknotes so that, if necessary, converting them only in small amounts at an unfavorable exchange rate would not “hit” a significant difference. For myself, I found the following options: buy something you need in a street shop for a euro and get change for 1.90 (and Varna even for 2.0), but they take only small bills (5-10 euros); also guides of the “correct” tour operators come to the hotel, you can also agree with them to change at 1.90-1.94; go to Varna and change there in an honest exchanger (by the way, as soon as I got off the bus there, a guy of gypsy-non-Russian appearance immediately ran up to me and offered to buy euros or rubles at an unrealistically high exchange rate, and when I refused, he offered me to buy MARIJUANA (! ) right at the bus stop). At the local market you can buy all sorts of excursion souvenirs. In general, the rest was MORE than satisfied!

I recommend to everyone!
Unprecedented good ratio of high quality and low price! In Bulgaria, the price / quality ratio is even better than in Turkey (after this, I won’t even go to Crimea for free, and not for the money that is ripped off people there). In general, you can and should go there!

But only if your tour operator is not Alf, but the carrier is Perot.

And now about everything in order.
I ordered a ticket on the website "vacation. com". As a registered and subscribed user for the current promotion, I should have received a $20 discount on the tour. I ordered a ticket with all-inclusive meals and round-trip bus travel (301 euros + visa 35 euros) on May 30, leaving Kyiv on June 8 (that is, 9 days before the intended departure). It was on a Monday morning. I phoned the nearest travel agent in my city and immediately took the prepayment with all the necessary documents.
The travel agent contacted the tour operator of this voucher (it turned out to be the Society with Unlimited Irresponsibility "Tourist Operator ALF", Kyiv, lane Mikhailovsky 12) and then it all started ...
First, the tour operator told my travel agent that there were no free vouchers to this hotel, which the travel agent told me by phone and offered to pick up something similar in cost and content. After some time, the travel agent called me again and said that the tour operator contacted her again and said that there were still places in the hotel, but the price was indicated on the site without a fare (although the option to select the option "travel is paid separately" was there and the price , in this case, was about 240 euros). For travel, the tour operator offered to pay another 35 euros. Total, 301+35+35=371. The travel agent suggested continuing to look for an alternative tour.

In the evening, she contacted me again and said that Alfa decided that the price of 301 euros still included bus travel, but now we had to wait for confirmation of the booking. On Wednesday afternoon, the tour operator contacted me and said that "ALF" is silent, and time is running out, they say, let's still look for a normal ticket from normal operators. I agreed. In the evening (on the same Wednesday), the travel agent contacted me again and said that the “ALF tour operator” deigned to inform her that the hotel reservation was still confirmed, moreover, on Tuesday, but they reported it only now. The invoice for payment was also put up only on Wednesday evening. It was already too late to send the documents that day, so they were sent already on Thursday.
On Thursday, another “joyful” (or rather nasty) news awaited me: “ALF tour operator” happily announces that with a probability of 90%, there will not be enough time to get a visa in the “normal” mode and asks for another 35 euros for an “urgent” one. As a matter of urgency, the travel agent transferred his 35 euros to Alfa, so that I could pay her later, if the visa was really urgent. My indignation knew no bounds! I quickly found the phone numbers of this "tour operator" and began to call. I called for the first time and heard in the receiver “Hello. ". By the method of inquiry, I found out that I still got into the “ALFA tour operator”, described my question / claim and they told me that they were switching me to a manager, after which there was an 11-minute silence on the other end of the wire. I called again, this time on a different phone, and again “Hello. »By a leading question, I again found out that I got to the right place after all.
This time I already asked the director, to which they answered that she was not there, and no one knows when she will be. After some time, I called again and, lo and behold, I heard in the receiver: "Hello, tour operator Alf. " I again explained the essence of the matter and again they were going to switch me to the manager. This time I flatly refused and demanded the director, threatening that if they didn’t give me the director, then in the morning I would come to them myself. The director showed up right away. It turned out to be a lady, about 40 years old (judging by her voice), who at first listened to my complaints, and then went on a “counterattack”, they say, where did I get so much negativity and who and what caused it. Then she tried to reassure me, saying that with a 90% probability the visa would be regular and I wouldn’t have to pay anything extra. Finally, I asked about the discount promised to me on the site, and she mockingly answered me that they do not give any discounts, and what the site says there does not apply to them.
On Monday (a week after the start of this whole epic), my travel agent called me and said that ALPHA employees had contacted her and said that all the documents were ready and I had to pick them up on Tuesday, since there is no time to send them by courier. On Tuesday morning I was already with them. I didn’t have to explain for a long time who I was, but they told me that they didn’t have my documents, since they were at the embassy. I left there in complete confusion, called my travel agent and told her all the new details. She contacted Alf again and tried to find out why the hell I was called a day earlier. From the fifth time she succeeded, but they answered that the employee who informed her that my documents were ready was not there today and there was no one to ask responsibility from. I was furious! Already a hundred times regretted that I did not take some other tour to some other country!

At ten minutes to seven in the evening, they called me from Alfa and said that I could pick up my documents, they were already ready, but they only work until 6 pm. And they also said that my bus does not leave at 7 am, as was agreed a few days ago, but at 9. I have never seen or heard such mockery of my customers anywhere and ever! As a free service, they offered to bring my documents to the bus. After all this, even standing by the bus, I was not sure that I would go somewhere. But still he left. The same bus. My documents were brought to the place of departure 40 minutes before departure.
Now a few words about transport. We traveled in a one and a half deck Vanttool bus, which had a sticker on it indicating the presence of hot drinks, air conditioning, a video salon and a toilet. Just to say that this bus is UNSUITABLE for long trips is to give him a chic compliment!
Judge for yourself: the air conditioner has only 2 modes: “On” and “Off”, and not all places have “Off” (for the night everyone dressed what someone had warmer), the toilet and the “video salon” have only “Off” mode (that is, they did not work), they began to pour tea (and even then only at the request) only closer to Bulgaria. There was enough leg room only for children, and even then not for everyone. Even the ladies of average height had a problem with legroom all the way, not to mention the men, under 1.90m tall. We passed 5 (! ) border controls and all at night (however, it’s impossible to sleep or just sit on such seats anyway). Romanians shook the most, they even climbed bags and not always in the presence of their owners. One lady was found with several packs of cigarettes, in excess of the allowable amount (which is 40 pieces, that is, 2 packs). With these cigarettes, we were stuck there for more than an hour. In Romania, we stopped at large gas stations, but ONLY their nat.
currency (lei), so I could not buy anything there. In Bulgaria, along the route of the bus, we were gradually transferred to cars belonging to the same transport company as the bus, and were taken directly to the hotels. On the way back to me, "Perota" was looking for me not where it was agreed, but in my hotel. It is not clear why the hell I dragged my things on foot 2 kilometers? This time the bus turned out to be “DAF”, simply chic - almost new and spacious, but again without a toilet. In general, going by bus is WELL VERY tiring. A day there, a day back. It was worth taking a ticket with an air flight.