Lovely friendly hotel.
Transfer about 20 minutes from the airport. Make sure you take a pen to fill out the visa form upon entry, and also upon exit.
Like other reviews the hotel is a bit dated but it is not noticeable.
The a la carte options are free, you can choose the Italian, or the Bulgarian one by the pool. We did the Italian. It’s a bit misleading, we chose one of each item from the menu as the chap booking it with us said we could. We had soup, a HUMONGOUS Caesar salad, pizza, steak, and tiramisu. (we had presumed they would be smaller meals).
But be warned, each item is probably big enough to feed a few. It was a shame we hadn’t realised this upon booking, as a lot of food went to waste. We actually cancelled the pizzas as everybody was going to get a 12” pizza. You can upgrade to other items on the menu and expensive wine if you want.
The staff make this hotel what it is, they are so accommodating. The dining room staff are second to none. Mohammed the dining manager decorated the table for my wife’s birthday and he couldn’t do more. There were 9 of us so after a few days he started setting the same table so no one else could take the table.
The wine is palatable and the lager is some form of Stellar. Unfortunately, the measures of both wine and lager are small to say the least. As the day went on, you would end up with a paper cup. It actually became a bit tiresome repeatedly walking back and forth to the bar to get a 1/3rd of a pint. Trivial some would say but at an all-inclusive hotel, the alcohol should be more generous. After time we just stopped drinking.. Spirits are more than generous!
One thing we found a bit disappointing, the pool shuts at 16:45 so they can chuck the chlorine in. So, your day is ended at this point and although it goes dark shortly after, we felt we couldn’t sit around the pool and ventured back to the room.
We booked a speedboat trip with Jamal and we had such a blast going out to the reef to snorkel and then to the lagoon on the return. Don’t be shy get out and do it, you won’t be disappointed. The English the reps speak is impressive so chatting to them about normal everyday stuff was enjoyable.
Room aircon was perfectly cold and room maintained to a clean standard. We found the aircon in the restaurant wasn’t used much and with all the solar gain from the huge glazing panels overlooking the pool, it became warm to say the least.
Plenty of food choice and outside there is always good choices. The beach bar with the snacks and similar to the pool bar were ok for a one-off trip. If you were here for 2 weeks, I think you would get bored of eating the same.
The staff work tirelessly hard to wait on you, so take a few quid to tip them as it means the world to them.
