Booked our annual holiday with Bulkan Holidays, in hindsight, not a good idea. When we arrived at Bourgas airport (over an hour late) it was pouring with rain, not a problem until we were dropped off at the hotel and had to wade through wet sand and cement to get to the Hotel reception.
Our first impressions on arrival were how clean and modern the hotel was.
According to the brochure some of the facilities were, Nightclub and poolside bar, neither of which were open during our stay, it also says hotel shops, these were still being built/ finished. The brochure also says that your room has a mini-bar or as we found an empty fridge, it has sat tv, sadly only one English speaking channel and that was BBC world news. It states you have a safe in the room but this is charged at 42Lv per week( £15 approx). Also be prepared to pay for Fitness centre, Sauna and Jacuzzi.
When booking you can pay extra for a guaranteed sea view, we only saw about 8 rooms that didnt have sea views, unless you include the studio apartments that are still being built, hence the wet sand and cement we encountered on arrival.
The Bulkan Rep does not visit the Arsena you have to go to the hotel next door where he/she visits every other day for half an hour 18:30-19:00.
Back to the hotel. The room we had was large and very comfortable with twin beds and a fold-up sofa bed and cleaned daily. The restaurant was a bit small but you can sit outside weather permitting. English breakfast available every day (buffet style), staff were friendly and polite. Restaurant offered a good menu for evening and lunchtime meals.
Reception staff were all friendly but seemed to lack training in parts of there job, especially if they had to use the computer system, paying bills etc.
One member of the bar staff seemed to know what they were doing and happy to do it but the other two, in our opinion were not much good, and you could almost guarantee they would never have any change so you were always waiting whilst they went in search of some. Practice makes perfect and as it was the start of the season when we were there hopefully by the end of the season they will all be experts at what they do.
The pool area was a sun trap from sun rise to sun set so ideal for those of us that like to go home with tan, but the pool water was very cold, again the start of the season.
Old Nessebar town is a must for everybody. Old cobbled streets lined with shops and stalls offering everything you could need. We would definately recommend the Hemingway restaurant as one of the best we ate in, and you must try the Lamb.
As for Sunny Beach great for a day visit once or twice. Ideal for the young but not so for the older person as its a long promanade with golf carts and electric scooters wizzing past all the time day and night.
Our last memories of Bulgaria and Bulkan Holidays will be the 7 1/2 hour delay without any imformation or Bulkan Rep to tell us what was happening.
