Good hotel Dolce Vita

Written: 1 july 2013
Travel time: 14 — 28 june 2013
Your rating of this hotel:
7.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Hotel Dolce Vita is a worthy hotel in Golden Sands due to its location, service and the fact that the hotel is only 2 years old. Although the assessment of 9.7 (which was on Turpravda at the beginning of the summer) I think is too big for him. My rating on a 10-point system is a solid 7, as there are also small comments on the hotel, as discussed below.
Rested - from June 14 to June 28, mother and child 8.5 years old.
Tour operator - News Travel. A huge claim to the tour operator - we were not warned about the change in the time of departure of the plane from Donetsk. E-tickets were in our hands two days before departure. To be honest, it didn’t even occur to me to check the Internet the day before departure (it will be a science for the future). The original departure time was 8:15 a. m. ; Arriving at the airport for 2 hours, that is, at 6 am, we were surprised to find on the scoreboard the departure time of 13.15. It turned out that the day before departure, the time has changed. After talking with the manager of the travel agency, it turned out that the representatives of the tour operator did not warn the travel agency either. At the same time, there were 4-5 families like us. All other passengers of the plane arrived on the flight by 13.15, that is, they knew about the change. In addition, when registering, I noticed that people had the correct time in their electronic tickets. To be honest, I don't understand why we did this. In addition, on the plane of the Roza Vetrov (Windrose) company, it turned out that we were flying without food (we were not warned about this either). Considering that we drove from Burgas to Golden Sands for 3 hours and arrived at the hotel at about seven in the evening, you can imagine how hungry my child was.

Location is a big plus for the hotel. It is located at the very beginning of Golden Sands - near the resort complex Riviera. The length of the entire Golden Sands resort is about 5 km. And from the hotel to the center of Golden Sands is about 2 km, but this distance is not felt, as there are several streets for walking with cafes, shopping arcades, entertainment for children, etc. In time, it is no more than 10 minutes walk. For 14 days of rest, we did not get tired of walking from the hotel along the entire embankment of Golden Sands every evening. We reached the last hotel at the end of Golden Sands - Berlin Golden Beach and back. Funny trains run along the embankment, on which you can also ride along several routes of the resort. Near the hotel there is a bus stop to Varna, 40 minutes by bus to the city, 20 minutes by taxi. The fact that the hotel is not located in the very center of the resort is a huge plus, since in the center of the resort there are many noisy bars and cafes on the street with entertainment all night. And in Dolce Vita at night it is quiet and calm.
The beach and the sea - the hotel does not have its own beach, just like many hotels in Golden Sands do not have it. All beaches in the resort are municipal and free. You have to pay for a sunbed and an umbrella. Almost on all beaches the price is the same - 8 levs for an umbrella + 8 levs for a sunbed (this is about 4 euros + 4 euros). Not a cheap pleasure, especially if someone needs to pay for each family member, and the family is large. For two weeks of rest, a tidy sum accumulates only for this cost item, so you need to take this into account when traveling. You can not pay for a sunbed and an umbrella - no one is forcing you, BUT there is a nuance: all the sunbeds on the beaches are right next to the sea in 8 rows, and the free zone without sunbeds begins BEHIND them. In addition, there are NO shadows on the free zones. To relax with a child, a shade is definitely needed and not everyone wants to lie behind 8 rows away from the sea, so sunbeds with umbrellas were needed, at least for us.
As I already wrote, Dolce Vita is located right next to the Riviera - it is a resort complex separate from Golden Sands, consisting of 5 hotels (of different stars) and which almost alone HAS its own BEACH - with free sunbeds and umbrellas for its vacationers. For NOT their vacationers, everything is of course paid. Sunbed - 7 levs, umbrella - 10 levs. Total 17 leva (approximately 8-9 euros for 1 set). The Riviera resort complex is boring in terms of entertainment, but simply gorgeous in terms of the beach and the sea (especially compared to the city beaches of Golden Sands themselves, where it is very noisy and crowded). The Riviera beach is a five minute walk from the Dolce Vita hotel at a slow pace. The trick of the owners of the Riviera is that they take money for a sunbed and an umbrella at the entrance to the territory of the complex. That is, without paying for a sunbed with an umbrella, you will not get to the territory of the Riviera. And it’s beautiful there: a park, trees, good air, squirrels run and jump. The beach is just wonderful. Here the sunbeds are not by the sea, but a little further away. And the sea is a free zone. Very clean beach. There are outdoor pools. There is another nuance. Those who pass through security immediately get to the beach of one of the Riviera hotels (if I'm not mistaken, Lotus), and stay there. And if you go a little to the right, you can see another beach, which seemed even better to me (this is the beach of the Riviera 5 * hotel itself). If you do not pay at the entrance to the Riviera, then you can get to the same beach bypassing: from one side and the other, about 15 minutes walk. Then you can only rest in the free zone. On the beaches of the Riviera, there are sulfur-hydrogen springs in several places.
The territory of the hotel is very well-groomed, beautiful, clean and small. But I have not seen hotels with a large territory in Golden Sands - this is not Turkey.

Comparison of Turkey and Bulgaria - if you don't want to spoil your vacation, don't compare. In fact, I’ll make a reservation right away, having rested last year in Turkey in a wonderful hotel, for which I didn’t have a single comment at all, having arrived in Bulgaria, I began to evaluate everything through a comparison of holidays in Turkey. And in the early days, sadness began to roll in. But when I realized that TURKEY is not BULGARIA and they cannot be compared by any parameters (neither the hotel, nor the service, nor the animation, nor the food), then immediately everything fell into place and the rest went like clockwork. Therefore, I advise you to compare holidays in Bulgaria only with other holidays in Bulgaria, or you can compare it with Crimea)))) (I mean, of course, not the nature of Crimea, which is better neither in Turkey nor in Bulgaria, but only Crimea service). Then in general the rest will seem super-duper. The only thing in which Bulgaria is much better than Turkey for me is the climate. If in Turkey last year in June the air temperature was +37, the water in the pool was +33, the water in the sea was +27, it was unbearably hard to walk, because even in the evening the skin was covered with perspiration, and the bed was always damp from the humidity of the air; then exactly on the same dates in June this year in Bulgaria the air temperature was +28 + 29, the water temperature in the pool was +25, the water temperature in the sea was different - from +18 to +22, but the sea is still wonderful. I don’t know how anyone, but for me this climate is beyond competition.
There are three swimming pools in the hotel. Two outdoors, one indoors - I have never seen anyone swim in it, as the weather has been great all day and the water in the outdoor pools is warm. I liked the pools, the child too. There was always a place for sunbeds at any time of the day. Towels are provided right there at the pool. You can change whenever you want, but everything is recorded. The first comment about the hotel: the sunbeds are of poor quality - the fabric is frayed, perforated on so many sunbeds, you sit on it and fall down. The second remark to the hotel: I really did not like the work of the attendants at the pool. On the table between the sunbeds, a filled, smelly ashtray and empty, dirty glasses may not be removed for 2 hours. Tables during the day are not wiped at all. I doubt that they wipe themselves in the evening, because they are constantly dirty. Since there were many windy days, all the plastic dishes left on the tables constantly flew between the sunbeds. The pool has islands with palm trees surrounded by glass partitions in several places, in addition, the glass wall of the bar also borders the pool. So all the glass surfaces are always in terrible streaks. It is clear that the spray from the pool is flying around, but during the entire rest I once saw that one employee was wiping it with a mop like a blunder. For the most part, it all looked ugly.
Settlement: we went with a bang! Very quickly, without any delay and without any additional payments, we were settled in a wonderful room on the 7th floor with a gorgeous view of the sea, the pool and the restaurant. I give a certificate: sea view from odd numbers (at least so on the 7th floor). The other side of the hotel faces the road, probably the view is worse there. But we were lucky, thanks to the girls at the reception. What I didn’t like is the third remark to the hotel – upon check-in we were not told that you can take bottled drinking water at the reception as needed. We accidentally found out about this on the day of departure)))). And we drink a lot of water, each time we had to fill a small bottle in the bar from the water cooler, which is not very convenient. For some reason, bottled water is hidden under the reception desk, if you ask, they will give, do not ask - no one will tell you that there is such a service. We asked our compatriots, everyone found out about it by chance: someone saw how others were taking, someone heard, etc. Why this is such a secret and why they don’t talk about it during the settlement remained a mystery to me.
Room: excellent spacious with a modern design (like the entire hotel as a whole)! A bed with an orthopedic mattress, two bedside tables, a table, a spacious large closet with a dozen trempels. An important nuance for me - the presence of an iron in the hotel - is given upon request at the reception for a signature))) with a plastic cup for the iron))). There is a mini-bar in the room - but empty (((. There is a safe - but paid ((((we did not use either one or the other. There are no bathrobe slippers. Bath accessories: 1 shampoo, 1 shower gel, 1 small soap for each. The quality leaves much to be desired. I did not like either the gel, or especially the shampoo. Girls, I advise you to take at least conditioner with you, the hair does not comb through after the shampoo, it is not pleasant to the touch, there is no smell at all. A good balcony in each room with a wrought-iron table and two chairs. Take ropes and clothespins with you. I forgot, so I dried everything in the room on a chair, the nights were windy, everything flew away. There are no nets on the door to the balcony, but there are thick curtains hanging on the window and thinner (but also dense) curtains, with which I covered the open door as a protection for the night from insects. Good shower, good washbasin, but the trouble is the same as all hotels have bad drains that quickly become clogged, probably with sand. The toilet had a broken seat. There was air conditioning, but we only turned it on a couple of times, the nights were pleasant without it. The key to the room is electronic, so it will not work to get cold, leaving and pulling out the key, everything turns off.

Restaurant: since we can’t compare with Turkey)))) everything is fine. You won't be left hungry. The choice is large and varied. There is a certain monotony in the choice of dishes for breakfast. Breakfast is purely continental. For 14 days, of course, we were fed up with the same omelettes, toasts and ham, but we really liked the coffee brewed in teapots. It seemed not enough yoghurts - only 2 types, usually in Bulgaria they met a larger selection even in the worst hotels. And I really didn’t like the cheeses - some kind of cheap fake. In one of the reviews here I read about freshly squeezed juices - this was not even close, neither in the restaurant nor in the bars. Only UPI in the vending machine, as well as Pepsi, Sprite, tonic. Alcohol: local beer, one kind of white table wine, one kind of red table wine. The wine tastes good, cool, from the barrel, but I noticed that sometimes my head hurt after it. For lunch there were always 2 soups - one regular, one cream soup. Soups changed every day. Meat always: beef, chicken, pork. There was always fish too. Side dishes: rice, young boiled potatoes, french fries, pasta. Lots of vegetables! Sweets and fruits always. Dinners were often themed, the most variety of dishes was at dinner. In general, I can’t say that everything was delicious. But they were always full. In addition, they signed up once for a visit to a restaurant of Bulgarian cuisine. Very full and fatty meals. It's interesting to visit once. Fourth comment on the hotel: dishes in the main restaurant! I often found it unpleasant to eat from it. Lots of chipped cups, and absolutely disgusting spoons and forks. Of course, they are not aluminum, but they are made of such poor metal that the edges of the spoons scratch your fingers, if you run your hand around in a circle, your lips can easily be scratched. In addition, there are no normal teaspoons or dessert spoons. What they call a teaspoon is a slightly smaller tablespoon. Barely fits in a cup of tea))))
Bars: in the hotel lobby (from 10 am to 11 pm), the second in the concert hall - where the animators spend evening entertainment (in the evening), the third - at the pool (from 10 to 17). In addition to drinks, the pool bar also has food all day long, some people didn’t even go for lunch, because the bar always had pizza, vegetables, hamburgers, french fries at lunchtime. There was always ice cream, fruit and pastries.
Animation: well, here it is impossible not to compare with Turkey)))) Here it seems to have been (the animators crowded around the territory), but compared to Turkey it was not. It's just ridiculous, well, Bulgarian girls and boys do not know how to ignite the resting people like the Turks. Sooo boring, grown-up - nothing at all. There is no music on the territory, something is sometimes heard quietly from the bar. I went to the pool a couple of times for water aerobics. I was amazed: the first time I was in aerobics without music. Each time later, when the animators were asked again if there would be music, they answered - no, we have a quiet hotel, people relax. This is the fifth comment to the hotel!!! ! What kind of nonsense?? ? That is, the screaming German youth (more on that below) does not interfere with rest, but did the music interfere with someone for 15 minutes during the disco? In general, no more than 5 people were recruited for aqua aerobics. In addition, the boy spent her terribly needy and uninteresting. In addition to water aerobics, there was water volleyball. And ALL animation!! ! In the evening, the same animators danced, sang and joked in the comedy club style on the stage.
Children's animation is still all right. But sometimes it bothered me when, smiling sweetly, they constantly stop the child in the pool and say to each child 10 times a day: “Beautifulaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh Let's go with naaaaami. My daughter sometimes participated: there was an Indian day, there was a picnic, there was drawing pictures on the face. Well, in my opinion, not so hot, although she liked it.

Yes, by the way, the sixth remark on the hotel - to the animators! All animation - both daytime and evening - in German. Despite the fact that when they go and invite, for example, to aerobics, they communicate perfectly in Russian, but the animation itself is only in German. Again, I will compare with Turkey, the animator managed to pronounce the same phrase in at least five languages, while amusing everyone to the groovy music.
Attitude towards Russians: very often in reviews (even for this hotel) I meet negative on this topic. It seems to me that only those vacationers who initially go on vacation with the idea that they are treated badly, worse than others, face this. I don't know, I didn't notice anything. The entire service staff is just trained to smile. They only see that you looked at him, the first reaction is a smile for all 32 - this applies to receptionists, and waiters, and bartenders, and animators and everyone else, they are constantly smiling, no matter what language you speak with them. Almost everyone speaks Russian (well, not counting the remark that I wrote above on animation). I have never met ill-will in my address and have not seen Russian-speakers treated rudely (the only time I saw how politely and persistently and already without a smile they asked our bellied, pot-bellied uncle with a naked, thick torso in shorts to leave the restaurant, who did not want to understand why can't you go to a restaurant in just shorts)))). Well, yes, maybe they behave with the Germans even more oilily, but the treatment that was enough for me was enough: sympathetic, friendly, smiling, what else do you need?
Living in the hotel: according to my observations - Russian-speaking somewhere around 30%, Germans - 60%, others - 10%. We arrived in mid-June - there were a lot of German pensioners - those who travel often know that they can be seen from a mile away)))). They are very typical. There were almost no German youth. But starting from June 25, the German youth threw down. Everyone comes in groups of several people. There were many companies of young guys, they immediately figured out their young girls, it was interesting to watch how they all get to know each other at the pool and then light up at night with already huge companies. We were lucky, we did not have such neighbors as in the previous review. And we observed noisy companies only by the pool. But we also heard about such cases, as described in the previous review, from our compatriots, who even had to contact the reception with complaints. They (the young Germans) are somehow very shameless, noisy, selfish. It seems that they deeply do not care about everything around. It cannot be said that they are ill-mannered or boors, no, I don’t even know how to properly characterize their behavior. Example: a lot of people are swimming in the pool, including children. A man of 5 guys falls into the pool, jumps in and dives with bombs and starts playing ball in the water. The ball is thrown by hand with all the dope, trying to hit each other. The game is quite aggressive, noisy, fun. The ball or spray from the ball, of course, also hits other swimmers, the Germans, for each such hit, each time smile sweetly with all their mouths, they always say SORI, and continue to play without reducing their valiant pressure at all. The pool is gradually emptying, because it becomes impossible to be in it. Everyone is waiting for 20-year-old children to play enough. There are signs everywhere in the pool that diving is prohibited. When a child, even under the supervision of his parents, quietly learns to dive from the side (I don’t see anything terrible here when the parents are nearby and the depth allows), then the pool keeper immediately rushes, waves his arms and makes a bunch of comments. When a German uncle flies into the pool with a run, from all over, splashing water on all the sun loungers, the pool keeper ALWAYS, without exception, turns his back to the pool and pretends not to see. It's funny to watch.
Excursions: we were in the water park - very old, only 5 slides, not counting Malyshov's. Much worse than in Nessebar or Sunny Beach.

We went to the Ethno-restaurant Bolgarskaya Derevnya: dinner, show program, dancing on coals. Once we went on the same excursion from Sunny Beach, we liked it much more there. There was a potter's wheel for the children, where they could mold a jug with their own hands, there was a goat that could be fed, there were games for the children. All this was not here. C grade on a 5-point system.
Phew, like everything. I spent 2 hours on this review, but I don't mind. I myself choose hotels, first of all, starting from reviews, for me they are very important. Therefore, I hope that my review will be useful to someone.
I advise the hotel to everyone, despite the above comments. By and large, they did not spoil our holiday. And the best hotel (at least in appearance) I did not see in the RFP. Have a good holiday everyone!
Translated automatically from Russian. View original