Hotel Information: Helios Spa Hotel & Resort 
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| Location | Golden Sands |
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| Description | Location: Golden Sands, at a distance of 250m to the seaside, 150m to the aquapark, 500m to the centre of the resort and 25km to the international Varna airport.
Accommodation: single rooms, double rooms, apartments, all equipped with satellite/cable TV, minibar. |
| Facilities | Point the mouse over an image to see the meaning.
Medical services are available for the guests as well. Sports & Recreation: tennis court, fitness centre, indoor swimming pool, outdoor swimming pool, solarium, sauna, massage, hydrojet. |
| Address | Golden Sands resort |
| Reservation | |
| Visitor Comments |
The same awful food every day, includs a lot of egg-husk in it...
No matter what we asked from the reception - we always received the refusal (we were not allowed to stay in the room for an additional payment after 12:00 on the check-out day, even though we had a flight at 22:25), were not allowed to change the room, and to change the dinner to the lunch.
So, I would not recommend anyone to visit this "hotel", which is supposed to be on the 5* level !!!!!!!!!
My two teenage sons and I stayed in the HELIOS PARK Hotel for 5 nites at the end of our family homeland heritage tour of Bulgaria. So this is really a review of the HELIOS PARK HOTEL in the HELIOS SPA COMPLEX.
Our room WAS spacious.
We had a cement balcony .... with one broken plastic chair.
The double bed was adequate for two.
Included breakfast was adequate - lots of German things - pickled herring, hot dogs - some cheeses and hard boiled eggs - instant coffee and hot water machines - stale bread, fruit flavored juice water, plums and fruit cocktail.
It did have air conditioning....that was a relief.
The 3 pools were great.... except that all deck chairs were taken by 9am, and the pools closed early evening.
Entertainment was interesting. One nite was the hotel daycare kids singing songs. There was an Elvis impersonator nite. Kareokee one night. A fashon show. One night was a lip synked dance show by the staff. And a movie in english, with bulgarian subtitles.
Most of the staff spoke English. Out of the entire staff: One bellhop was helpful and friendly, and showed my 16 year old son all around. One female deskclerk was friendly and helpful.
Bad Points
Our taxi did not even know there was a difference in hotels. He let us off at the Spa Hotel desk. They did not have our reservations and did not offer to help us in any way. Finally, with noses in the air, they moved us off to one side and called for a bellboy from the Park Hotel to escort us down the hill and through a maze of hallways to the Park reception desk. All without a word of explanation or help.
We booked this room far in advance, through a Bulgarian friend who used a Bulgarian travel agency. We provided the same information as we did for our stay in several other 3 star Bulgarian hotels across the country. Let me tell you.... what a difference. This hotel cost at least double what the others did... and was far, far inferior. PLUS.... after we got there they told us that they hadn't charged us enough and wanted MORE money!!!
Our room was moldy and mildewy. In fact the first day we returned to the room midday to find a worker, unannounced, scraping paint onto our toilet kits in the bathroom and painting.... while we had rented the room!!! The room smelled of paint for the rest of our stay!
Access was easily gained by anyone coming down the crowded public stairway via our "balcony"... and in fact my sons got into the room that way once when they did not have a key.
The people in the room next door were very noisy till all hours of the night, although one of them did quiet down when we said something. Found out later that they were staff in the hotel.
The room was for 3 people. The double bed was adequate for two, but the fold out bed for the third was a joke. It was too narrow for anyone... a child would fall out, and it was too small for a teen.
The elevators in the Park Hotel were downright scarey. The were tiny, hot, and stopped between floors - jerking up and down, and sometimes missing floors altogether even though the button was pushed.
Other meals - forget it if you are not on the all-inclusive plan. They aren't set up to take money... even getting a snack at the pool bars proved difficult and time consuming.
Most of the staff spoke English.... but for some reason communication with them still was very difficult. It was hard to get information out of them... and then most of the time it turned out to be wrong information. It was even difficult to get a taxi or pre-arrange anything through the desk. We left tips for staff, food service people, housekeeping... but that did not seem to make any difference in the level of service.
We had a Bulgarian friend trying to call us.... and when she asked for our room number she kept getting the same room number in the SPA hotel.... but no one at the hotel desk would help her get the right room. Another friend could not get directions how to get down to the desk at the Park Hotel...and we ended up having to hike up the hill, through the maze to the Spa Hotel desk.
General Comments
I would never stay in this hotel again. Unfortunate to end our stay in a wonderful country like Bulgaria with this as the finale.