Your rating of this hotel:
10.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms:
10.0
Service:
10.0
Cleanliness:
10.0
Food:
10.0
Amenities:
10.0
The review will be long, because before leaving we read reviews on various sites, including negative ones, but we did not notice 80% of the negative points in the hotel, which were written in reviews on various sites! Those people either lie halfway, or they have too high demands... In general, whoever is really interested will read it, will not be too lazy.
I traveled with my husband and daughter at the age of 3 years and 9 months from 10 to 19 September 2018.
ACCOMMODATION: To begin with, we bought the tour without a tour operator, and we ourselves booked a hotel on Ostrovka (it was 20-30 percent cheaper there than at Booking), we ourselves bought tickets for the Pobeda airline, travel insurance, visas through an agency . The choice fell on Bulgaria, since we were in all other budget countries, and besides, this year Greece and Bulgaria were cheap destinations from Moscow, but we need to go to Greece to take prints to Moscow, and we were too lazy, so we stopped at Bulgaria. It was more expensive to buy through tour operators, so we booked everything ourselves.
At the airport, we were met for free by a representative from the hotel with a sign (transfer from the airport is free, but you have to get back yourself), got into a minivan and quickly drove to Golden Sands for free, the driver spoke excellent Russian and told us the sights of Varna. We arrived around 2:15 pm and were seated immediately. The room was just super, with a sea view! Not two-room, but large, like a studio apartment (it was twice the size of the garden view rooms, and the garden view rooms are worse renovated). The furniture is absolutely normal, only the beds are separate and the sheets are too small for them. Someone wrote that dirty laundry is not true! Linen was clean, towels too! Pillows are small but comfortable, duvets are also light and warm. For a child, a folding sofa, quite comfortable. TV flat, Russian channels 3 or more. The kitchen has an electric kettle, glasses and mugs, but we didn't use it. There is also a refrigerator, and it is free, a safe is also free. Plumbing is new, there is a hair dryer. Cleaning every day, wet or not - I don't know. But the beds were made. Towels were changed (for this you need to throw them on the floor). Linen was changed once per vacation, the child was changed more often - when we ask. We could also easily change it - just ask the cleaning lady, well, or throw the sheet on the floor. The cleaners are very nice and polite. Made figurines from towels for my daughter. Towels are all with an embroidered logo. In the bath soap, gels, shampoos, balm, shower cap, ear sticks. In the closet there is a spoon for shoes, thread with a needle, a sponge for shoes. All this with a logo. Someone wrote that the tiles on the floor/walls of the bath are cheap, industrial - well, I don't know, in my opinion the tiles are normal. . . The balcony is very large, the view is beautiful. Panoramic window to the floor. In the evening, the music in the hotel is not until late, the animation also ends early, there is no noise from the promenade, so there was no noise in the rooms (which we read about in other reviews) !! ! Plastic windows do the job well! Once, only one company in the bar listened to their music, danced, but they did not cause us any inconvenience, and they did not have much fun. I also read that the rooms are cardboard and you can hear the neighbors - this is not true! Here's my word of honor - neither the neighbors from below, nor from above, nor from the sides could be heard! Only in the morning you can hear people walking down the corridor through the door, but that didn't bother us either. By the way - it was the end of the season, but the hotel was packed! Despite the fact that many neighboring hotels were already either closed or sparsely populated. The only thing that upset us was that due to the end of the season, there was only one children's animator left, and she spoke exclusively in English. (I'm attaching a photo of the room, I apologize for the mess). There is a clothes dryer on the balcony. There is air conditioning in the room, but we didn't use it. And, not least, WIFI is free throughout the territory! The room catches too well, watched u-tube on the phone without any problems.
WEATHER, SEA and BEACH: Until September 10, the tours were very expensive, so we had to go on the 10th. The weather for the first few days was cloudy but warm. The sea seemed to us warm for the entire period of rest (24-25 degrees), this is probably because the water temperature was the same as the air temperature, and sometimes even higher than the air. It rained once, but at the time when the child was sleeping and we were in the room, it also quickly ended. In the morning we went to the sea until lunch, and during the day we sunbathed by the pool, there were enough sunbeds (by the way, they are normal and comfortable), but it was autumn, so at 5 pm the sun was hiding behind the hotel. The first days there were no waves - the water was perfectly clear, like in Montenegro! Then there were waves, and one day there was even a storm, so we just stood in the water. When the waves, the water changes color, becomes turquoise (my mother was in Golden Sands in June, their water was already azure, I am attaching a photo. We didn’t have such a saturated color anymore, the water was just a beautiful mint shade after the storm). I recommend a beach place - go to the beach where the main entrance is, at the Ferris Wheel, go along the sand a little to the right, to the German bar (Keningbier or something, I forgot the name), and near it turn to the sea and lie down on a free strip along the sea. This place is convenient with children, there are no stones, the entry is gentle, not deep right away, a child with a circle or in a vest can easily splash there alone. There are small pebbles and shells at the entrance to the sea, but special shoes are not needed. A couple of times there were blue jellyfish and once a "wire" (read about them on the internet). Rescuers, by the way, were in their places (and even then not on the tower) only in a storm. The beaches are quite clean, certainly not comparable with our Krasnodar Territory, and the sea, in my opinion, is much cleaner in Bulgaria. Once we walked with my daughter (1.5-2 km) to the beach of the Riviera Hotel. It's a bit far to go, and 500 meters on the sand. The sea is cleaner there. Some kind of pipe flows into the sea and everyone is sitting there, like a source of some kind. The hotel does not look 5 * at all, and the beach is dirtier there, but there is plenty of space, lie where you want. Sunset is not for children - I stepped over the reclaimed step near the shore, and the depth immediately up to the neck... By the way, beach towels at the hotel are free of charge, you can go to the sea with them.
ANIMATION: Animation every day except Monday. During the day I didn’t notice the animation, well, this is probably due to the end of the season. The children's club (room) (I don't attach the photo, it's on the camera) is small, but they mostly worked outside by the pool, set tables and chairs, drew with paints, pencils, felt-tip pens. Every day there is some theme in the kids club - either cooking day or Indian day, but I don’t know how it manifested itself, because. we visited the kids club only twice for half an hour in the evening, my daughter simply painted. In the evening there is a mini disco for children. Adult animation in the evenings, at the exit from the hotel to the pool, we liked it, different every day, mostly dance groups, once there was a magician, as well as watching a movie in the fresh air. Well, in general, not Turkey / Egypt / Tunisia, but everyone liked it. The staff at the hotel is friendly, and in general, people in Bulgaria are also friendly. There are a lot of foreigners both in the hotel and in Golden Sands. Russians are either few or none at all. Russian speakers are Ukrainians, Moldovans, Belarusians. And also full of Romanians, Poles, Germans, Belgians, British (yes, in short, the entire European Union from Scandinavia and the Baltic states to the southern countries). This is a family hotel with lots of kids. The guests are mostly couples with children and the elderly. And in general, there are few young people in Golden Sands, it is rather a family resort. Although there are plenty of entertainment, bars, clubs on the promenade.
FOOD: We liked everything. Breakfasts are monotonous, but this is the case everywhere, since people around the world do not have very varied breakfast food. And for lunch and dinner, the menu is about the same, but cooked differently. A lot of salads (only some sour dressings), a lot of vegetables, various cuts of sausages (sausages are delicious, not like in Arab countries), cheeses (delicious), olives, salted fish and more. A lot of meat dishes, the meat is soft, literally melts. It happened, of course, that the dishes did not work out for them, but this is rare. Chicken, fish. Once there was even a seafood dish, there were tiny octopuses, mussels, squids. Twice they served a whole lamb, the cook poured it into the plates. There were rolls. Chicken, vegetable, meat soups, not grated, but quite tasty and similar to homemade; I never ate soups in hotels, but in Bulgaria I ate them with pleasure. For breakfast pancakes (which can be smeared with delicious nutella) and scrambled eggs, standing in line is quite a bit. A LOT of different fruits. Yoghurts. Compotes with lots of berries. Juices are similar to yupis, but quite normal. A large abundance of coffee machines with various coffee and cocoa, which made me very, very happy. A lot of sweets, but for me they were cloying, so I ate only a few of them. For breakfast, by the way, very tasty buns. Lots of different breads, there is a toaster. The beer is ok but non-alcoholic. I didn’t drink cocktails, I didn’t try wine either. There are devices with the type of "frozen" juice, pink is very tasty. There are always different cookies in the lobby - you go to the room, grab a cookie and pour some coffee)) In the afternoon there is always something to eat by the pool - french fries, natural chips, pizza, grilled sausages, vegetables, burgers, boiled corn, nuggets. There is a children's menu, but it's basically the same as for adults. Kashi were. Lots of different breakfast cereals with milk. There were musicians in the restaurant once for dinner, great. There was enough space for everyone. Sometimes we ate at the outdoor bar. The waiters speak Russian, they seem to be from Ukraine. I didn't see any dirty dishes! And the waiters tried to clean the tables after the departed guests quickly, but the hotel is packed, so not everything is as fast as the visitors want, but still the waiters tried and were very friendly. When the restaurant was closing, it was clear from the street windows that they cleaned it thoroughly, they even washed leather and suede sofas with special means. Once we went to a restaurant a la carte for free, you need to sign up with the manager in the hotel lobby. Every day a huge amount of ice cream, my daughter was delighted, and we, adults, too. Take as much as you want. By the way, we calmly took food from the restaurant to the rooms, and no one forbade us to take it out, although the sign says that this is prohibited. In principle, in the hotel and about smoking everywhere there are signs that it is impossible, but everyone smokes.
EXCURSIONS: We did not go anywhere, because in June my mother went to Balchik, to Kaliakra, to Driven Stones, so I saw everything in her photo. And we did not go to the southern resorts because of the child. We went for a walk in Varna. The free shuttle from the hotel to the shopping center in Varna no longer ran, the end of the season, so we went ourselves. Climb up along the road for 600-700 meters and there will be a Travel stop, take the 409 bus there, it runs every 15 minutes, it costs 3 leva per adult (free for children), a suitcase costs 1 lev. It goes through the whole Varna, so you can go anywhere for a walk. The same bus goes to the airport, so it is very convenient there with transport, there is even a bus website where you can see the schedule, numbers, routes and more. When we arrived at the stop, the bus left, but we were lucky - some uncle drove up (by the way, he also has an excellent knowledge of the Russian language. In Bulgaria, many speak Russian and understand it) in a minibus and took everyone for the same 3 left (free for children) to the city center, without stopping))) We went out at the Cathedral, there was some kind of holiday, so there were a lot of priests in expensive cars, and there was a service in the Cathedral, they sing beautifully, a lot of people, the cathedral is very beautiful inside. Then from the cathedral we went along the pedestrian street and reached the Seaside Park. It is very large, we passed only 1/4 of it, my daughter was naughty, so we did not reach the zoo. (By the way, Varna still has a planetarium, a dolphinarium, an aquarium and many museums), the hotel gives a free map. We got to the children's section of the park, where you can ride a catamaran and a bunch of rides. There was some kind of holiday, various children's groups performed on the stage. From there, it was a stone's throw to the bus stop, where we boarded the 409 and returned to the hotel for dinner. We liked Varna.
We left the hotel in the morning, our flight was at 11:45. We had breakfast, took some with us and went to the bus stop. We got on the 409 and drove to the airport itself (the journey took an hour, because there were a few traffic jams).
If you have any questions - you can ask. It was evident from the faces of those around that people were satisfied with the hotel. In addition, it was packed, and this is at the end of the season, I think this is still an indicator that the price-quality ratio of the hotel is ideal. (Of course, taking into account the fact that the ruble does not cost anything at all and has fallen by half, so the prices for holidays abroad are now insane and do not correspond to the real price, but there's nothing to be done about it....Economy (((
Our family (and everyone who saw our photos and videos) liked the rest in this hotel and in Golden Sands! And, believe me, this is not advertising, but honest impressions and feedback. Honestly, I don’t recommend a vacation in our south to you, neither in terms of service, nor in terms of the quality of hotels, food, sea... Many consider Bulgaria to be a scoop, I don’t know....apparently, they were unlucky with hotels. We did not notice any owl in Bulgaria. Here is our south - this is a scoop. And I always considered the Black Sea terrible, dirty, justifying its name, but in the Golden Sands the sea is not at all like the Black Sea, it is beautiful in color and quite clean, and when there are no waves, it is generally transparent.
I traveled with my husband and daughter at the age of 3 years and 9 months from 10 to 19 September 2018.
ACCOMMODATION: To begin with, we bought the tour without a tour operator, and we ourselves booked a hotel on Ostrovka (it was 20-30 percent cheaper there than at Booking), we ourselves bought tickets for the Pobeda airline, travel insurance, visas through an agency . The choice fell on Bulgaria, since we were in all other budget countries, and besides, this year Greece and Bulgaria were cheap destinations from Moscow, but we need to go to Greece to take prints to Moscow, and we were too lazy, so we stopped at Bulgaria. It was more expensive to buy through tour operators, so we booked everything ourselves.
At the airport, we were met for free by a representative from the hotel with a sign (transfer from the airport is free, but you have to get back yourself), got into a minivan and quickly drove to Golden Sands for free, the driver spoke excellent Russian and told us the sights of Varna. We arrived around 2:15 pm and were seated immediately. The room was just super, with a sea view! Not two-room, but large, like a studio apartment (it was twice the size of the garden view rooms, and the garden view rooms are worse renovated). The furniture is absolutely normal, only the beds are separate and the sheets are too small for them. Someone wrote that dirty laundry is not true! Linen was clean, towels too! Pillows are small but comfortable, duvets are also light and warm. For a child, a folding sofa, quite comfortable. TV flat, Russian channels 3 or more. The kitchen has an electric kettle, glasses and mugs, but we didn't use it. There is also a refrigerator, and it is free, a safe is also free. Plumbing is new, there is a hair dryer. Cleaning every day, wet or not - I don't know. But the beds were made. Towels were changed (for this you need to throw them on the floor). Linen was changed once per vacation, the child was changed more often - when we ask. We could also easily change it - just ask the cleaning lady, well, or throw the sheet on the floor. The cleaners are very nice and polite. Made figurines from towels for my daughter. Towels are all with an embroidered logo. In the bath soap, gels, shampoos, balm, shower cap, ear sticks. In the closet there is a spoon for shoes, thread with a needle, a sponge for shoes. All this with a logo. Someone wrote that the tiles on the floor/walls of the bath are cheap, industrial - well, I don't know, in my opinion the tiles are normal. . . The balcony is very large, the view is beautiful. Panoramic window to the floor. In the evening, the music in the hotel is not until late, the animation also ends early, there is no noise from the promenade, so there was no noise in the rooms (which we read about in other reviews) !! ! Plastic windows do the job well! Once, only one company in the bar listened to their music, danced, but they did not cause us any inconvenience, and they did not have much fun. I also read that the rooms are cardboard and you can hear the neighbors - this is not true! Here's my word of honor - neither the neighbors from below, nor from above, nor from the sides could be heard! Only in the morning you can hear people walking down the corridor through the door, but that didn't bother us either. By the way - it was the end of the season, but the hotel was packed! Despite the fact that many neighboring hotels were already either closed or sparsely populated. The only thing that upset us was that due to the end of the season, there was only one children's animator left, and she spoke exclusively in English. (I'm attaching a photo of the room, I apologize for the mess). There is a clothes dryer on the balcony. There is air conditioning in the room, but we didn't use it. And, not least, WIFI is free throughout the territory! The room catches too well, watched u-tube on the phone without any problems.
WEATHER, SEA and BEACH: Until September 10, the tours were very expensive, so we had to go on the 10th. The weather for the first few days was cloudy but warm. The sea seemed to us warm for the entire period of rest (24-25 degrees), this is probably because the water temperature was the same as the air temperature, and sometimes even higher than the air. It rained once, but at the time when the child was sleeping and we were in the room, it also quickly ended. In the morning we went to the sea until lunch, and during the day we sunbathed by the pool, there were enough sunbeds (by the way, they are normal and comfortable), but it was autumn, so at 5 pm the sun was hiding behind the hotel. The first days there were no waves - the water was perfectly clear, like in Montenegro! Then there were waves, and one day there was even a storm, so we just stood in the water. When the waves, the water changes color, becomes turquoise (my mother was in Golden Sands in June, their water was already azure, I am attaching a photo. We didn’t have such a saturated color anymore, the water was just a beautiful mint shade after the storm). I recommend a beach place - go to the beach where the main entrance is, at the Ferris Wheel, go along the sand a little to the right, to the German bar (Keningbier or something, I forgot the name), and near it turn to the sea and lie down on a free strip along the sea. This place is convenient with children, there are no stones, the entry is gentle, not deep right away, a child with a circle or in a vest can easily splash there alone. There are small pebbles and shells at the entrance to the sea, but special shoes are not needed. A couple of times there were blue jellyfish and once a "wire" (read about them on the internet). Rescuers, by the way, were in their places (and even then not on the tower) only in a storm. The beaches are quite clean, certainly not comparable with our Krasnodar Territory, and the sea, in my opinion, is much cleaner in Bulgaria. Once we walked with my daughter (1.5-2 km) to the beach of the Riviera Hotel. It's a bit far to go, and 500 meters on the sand. The sea is cleaner there. Some kind of pipe flows into the sea and everyone is sitting there, like a source of some kind. The hotel does not look 5 * at all, and the beach is dirtier there, but there is plenty of space, lie where you want. Sunset is not for children - I stepped over the reclaimed step near the shore, and the depth immediately up to the neck... By the way, beach towels at the hotel are free of charge, you can go to the sea with them.
ANIMATION: Animation every day except Monday. During the day I didn’t notice the animation, well, this is probably due to the end of the season. The children's club (room) (I don't attach the photo, it's on the camera) is small, but they mostly worked outside by the pool, set tables and chairs, drew with paints, pencils, felt-tip pens. Every day there is some theme in the kids club - either cooking day or Indian day, but I don’t know how it manifested itself, because. we visited the kids club only twice for half an hour in the evening, my daughter simply painted. In the evening there is a mini disco for children. Adult animation in the evenings, at the exit from the hotel to the pool, we liked it, different every day, mostly dance groups, once there was a magician, as well as watching a movie in the fresh air. Well, in general, not Turkey / Egypt / Tunisia, but everyone liked it. The staff at the hotel is friendly, and in general, people in Bulgaria are also friendly. There are a lot of foreigners both in the hotel and in Golden Sands. Russians are either few or none at all. Russian speakers are Ukrainians, Moldovans, Belarusians. And also full of Romanians, Poles, Germans, Belgians, British (yes, in short, the entire European Union from Scandinavia and the Baltic states to the southern countries). This is a family hotel with lots of kids. The guests are mostly couples with children and the elderly. And in general, there are few young people in Golden Sands, it is rather a family resort. Although there are plenty of entertainment, bars, clubs on the promenade.
FOOD: We liked everything. Breakfasts are monotonous, but this is the case everywhere, since people around the world do not have very varied breakfast food. And for lunch and dinner, the menu is about the same, but cooked differently. A lot of salads (only some sour dressings), a lot of vegetables, various cuts of sausages (sausages are delicious, not like in Arab countries), cheeses (delicious), olives, salted fish and more. A lot of meat dishes, the meat is soft, literally melts. It happened, of course, that the dishes did not work out for them, but this is rare. Chicken, fish. Once there was even a seafood dish, there were tiny octopuses, mussels, squids. Twice they served a whole lamb, the cook poured it into the plates. There were rolls. Chicken, vegetable, meat soups, not grated, but quite tasty and similar to homemade; I never ate soups in hotels, but in Bulgaria I ate them with pleasure. For breakfast pancakes (which can be smeared with delicious nutella) and scrambled eggs, standing in line is quite a bit. A LOT of different fruits. Yoghurts. Compotes with lots of berries. Juices are similar to yupis, but quite normal. A large abundance of coffee machines with various coffee and cocoa, which made me very, very happy. A lot of sweets, but for me they were cloying, so I ate only a few of them. For breakfast, by the way, very tasty buns. Lots of different breads, there is a toaster. The beer is ok but non-alcoholic. I didn’t drink cocktails, I didn’t try wine either. There are devices with the type of "frozen" juice, pink is very tasty. There are always different cookies in the lobby - you go to the room, grab a cookie and pour some coffee)) In the afternoon there is always something to eat by the pool - french fries, natural chips, pizza, grilled sausages, vegetables, burgers, boiled corn, nuggets. There is a children's menu, but it's basically the same as for adults. Kashi were. Lots of different breakfast cereals with milk. There were musicians in the restaurant once for dinner, great. There was enough space for everyone. Sometimes we ate at the outdoor bar. The waiters speak Russian, they seem to be from Ukraine. I didn't see any dirty dishes! And the waiters tried to clean the tables after the departed guests quickly, but the hotel is packed, so not everything is as fast as the visitors want, but still the waiters tried and were very friendly. When the restaurant was closing, it was clear from the street windows that they cleaned it thoroughly, they even washed leather and suede sofas with special means. Once we went to a restaurant a la carte for free, you need to sign up with the manager in the hotel lobby. Every day a huge amount of ice cream, my daughter was delighted, and we, adults, too. Take as much as you want. By the way, we calmly took food from the restaurant to the rooms, and no one forbade us to take it out, although the sign says that this is prohibited. In principle, in the hotel and about smoking everywhere there are signs that it is impossible, but everyone smokes.
EXCURSIONS: We did not go anywhere, because in June my mother went to Balchik, to Kaliakra, to Driven Stones, so I saw everything in her photo. And we did not go to the southern resorts because of the child. We went for a walk in Varna. The free shuttle from the hotel to the shopping center in Varna no longer ran, the end of the season, so we went ourselves. Climb up along the road for 600-700 meters and there will be a Travel stop, take the 409 bus there, it runs every 15 minutes, it costs 3 leva per adult (free for children), a suitcase costs 1 lev. It goes through the whole Varna, so you can go anywhere for a walk. The same bus goes to the airport, so it is very convenient there with transport, there is even a bus website where you can see the schedule, numbers, routes and more. When we arrived at the stop, the bus left, but we were lucky - some uncle drove up (by the way, he also has an excellent knowledge of the Russian language. In Bulgaria, many speak Russian and understand it) in a minibus and took everyone for the same 3 left (free for children) to the city center, without stopping))) We went out at the Cathedral, there was some kind of holiday, so there were a lot of priests in expensive cars, and there was a service in the Cathedral, they sing beautifully, a lot of people, the cathedral is very beautiful inside. Then from the cathedral we went along the pedestrian street and reached the Seaside Park. It is very large, we passed only 1/4 of it, my daughter was naughty, so we did not reach the zoo. (By the way, Varna still has a planetarium, a dolphinarium, an aquarium and many museums), the hotel gives a free map. We got to the children's section of the park, where you can ride a catamaran and a bunch of rides. There was some kind of holiday, various children's groups performed on the stage. From there, it was a stone's throw to the bus stop, where we boarded the 409 and returned to the hotel for dinner. We liked Varna.
We left the hotel in the morning, our flight was at 11:45. We had breakfast, took some with us and went to the bus stop. We got on the 409 and drove to the airport itself (the journey took an hour, because there were a few traffic jams).
If you have any questions - you can ask. It was evident from the faces of those around that people were satisfied with the hotel. In addition, it was packed, and this is at the end of the season, I think this is still an indicator that the price-quality ratio of the hotel is ideal. (Of course, taking into account the fact that the ruble does not cost anything at all and has fallen by half, so the prices for holidays abroad are now insane and do not correspond to the real price, but there's nothing to be done about it....Economy (((
Our family (and everyone who saw our photos and videos) liked the rest in this hotel and in Golden Sands! And, believe me, this is not advertising, but honest impressions and feedback. Honestly, I don’t recommend a vacation in our south to you, neither in terms of service, nor in terms of the quality of hotels, food, sea... Many consider Bulgaria to be a scoop, I don’t know....apparently, they were unlucky with hotels. We did not notice any owl in Bulgaria. Here is our south - this is a scoop. And I always considered the Black Sea terrible, dirty, justifying its name, but in the Golden Sands the sea is not at all like the Black Sea, it is beautiful in color and quite clean, and when there are no waves, it is generally transparent.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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