My partner and I booked 2 weeks 3 star AOA in Sunny Beach, first 2 weeks of September 2005, ending up in the Pomorie.

Initially, we were pleasantly surprised with the hotel, the room was small and very clean but there would have been major problems if there'd been 3 of us - you would not have been able to open the balcony door with the sofa bed in use and there wouldn't have been enough room to do anything. However, the room was fine for just the two of us. We were at the back of the hotel on the top floor and our room was directly at the top and to the side of the stairs - unfortunately, we could hear everyone clambering up the stairs all hours of the night, kids playing football on the stairs (at 3 & 4am), shouting, balling, doors banging, etc.

One regular occurrence, at around 4am, was someone stumbling noisily up the stairs, proceeding to bang loudly on her hotel room door yelling "Ange" at the top of her voice. After about 15 minutes, she would give up and toddle off to get reception to let her in - obviously Ange was asleep in a drunken stupor and her mate couldn't wake her up, no matter how loudly she yelled or banged on the door, however, she did manage to wake up everyone else in the near vicinity. Unfortunately, every piece of noise seems to amplify and travel - I am not sure whether this applies to every room or whether the stairwell created a tunnel to amplify the noise just to the rooms situated either side - the music from the pool bar actually sounded louder in our room than it did if you were standing next to the speaker. Anyway, we were out most of the day and we decided that we would just have to drink lots of alcohol in order to block out the noise at night!

Breakfast was OK but we only made it down in time about 5 times (having had little sleep the night before and/or being hungover!) There were fruits, cereals, salads, bread, ice-cream, juice and plenty of tea and coffee. Hot food consisted of fried & boiled eggs, ham, frankfurters, beans & other strange looking foods that we didn't try. Obviously, there wasn't a "proper" English breakfast - you are not in England but it wasn't too bad and a lot better than some we heard of. It's a bit of a free-for-all in the restaurant - some people don't have any manners and just push in and there is a toasting machine that you have to queue up for, unfortunately, people stand and put their toast through 2, 3 or 4 times to get it toasted to the right colour, instead of just making do with once and giving someone else a chance. Sunbeds & parasols were 5 lev each and sunbed covers were another 4 lev. If we'd have bought the whole lot every day, it would have cost over a £100 and I don't agree with guests paying for sunbeds when you have already paid to stay in the hotel, so we just bought lilos - far more comfortable than the sunbeds anyway.

We didn't find Bulgaria as cheap as we'd heard and we certainly didn't have any trouble spending our money - prices seem to have increased dramatically - we'd heard that the mini train to Nessebar was 0.50 lev in August 2004, which has now increased to 2 lev and the boat (which you are on for literally 5 minutes is 10 lev each, one way). Some people had paid the equivalent of £40 for a taxi from Nessebar to Sunny Beach (10 min drive - if that), you can walk it in half an hour to 45 minutes, it's a nice walk and Nessebar is well worth a visit and is a much nicer place than Sunny Beach. We also paid the hotel about £40 for a safe for 2 weeks which is more than we've ever paid anywhere else.

The local beer was 1.80 lev in the hotel bar, which is the cheapest we came across and you got 2 during "happy hour" - 6pm to midnight. My other half was quite happy with the local beer but I like Bailey's, sparkling wine, Guinness & cocktails (usually the dearest on the menu) and we could easily get through the equivalent of £50 a night. We didn't want to stay in the hotel bar all night so we went bar hopping (nearby and in the "trendier" bars on the sea front) and found that a lot of bars excluded things like local & imported beers, wines, spirits and liquors and, of course, they were more expensive the trendier the bar got. I think if you are happy sticking to the local beer and are willing to sniff out all the happy hours and cheap bars (or stay in the hotel bar), you could have a very cheap holiday but, personally, that's not what we like to do on holiday.

Another reason for not staying in the hotel bar - too many kids running around unsupervised, causing a nuisance while mum and dad are happily ignoring them and getting slowly sloshed. Toilets in most of the bars and restaurants leave a lot to be desired and ladies - take loo roll out with you. In one bar I had to clean vomit of the toilet before I could use it and there is never any loo roll anywhere. If I hadn't been desperate to go, and a little bit tipsy, I would have walked out. Oh, and you have to pay to go the toilet, just about everywhere, apart from the hotel.

The beach seemed really nice a fist but, on closer inspection, it's covered in "fag" ends, empty pop bottles and all kinds of rubbish, including condoms. They clean around the sun loungers at night but don't do the rest of the beach. I've no idea why people can't put their rubbish and fag ends in the bin at the end of the day but, unfortunately, this problem is going to get worse as the resort gets busier and needs addressing locally.

We had some very nice food; the restaurants all quite similar really, however, we found the food in the Bulgara, which is behind the Pomorie, exceptional. The "touts" outside bars and restaurants are a complete pain and seem to be more persistent/aggressive than anywhere else, as are the stall holders and beggars. One particular young beggar was verbally abusive, and used to kick and spit at people who refused to give him money. We also did not find many of these "friendly" Bulgarians, in fact, some were just downright rude and intimidating. On the whole, we just felt like we were constantly being harassed and gouged for money. The fake designer gear is still relatively cheap to buy, there are some very good artists and I liked a lot of the local art, unfortunately, I didn't feel comfortable browsing as they were on you as soon as you were in the shop. As for keeping yourself and your family safe and well, keeping your valuables safe and changing money, etc - you should use common sense and caution, the same you would anywhere else.

The weather was very cloudy for the first couple of days, then it cleared and was OK for sunbathing for about 7 or 8 days, and the last 2 days consisted of cloud, thunderstorms and downpours. It also goes very cold at night-time, although the flip side is you don't need air con or a fan in September.

It seems to me that Sunny Beach, in general, is failing to keep up with the increasing tourist trade/demand somewhat. Prices are going up too quickly and too steeply, and do not correspond to the quality, standards and cleanliness, etc the resort currently offers, and when you also take into account the changeable weather, I think a lot of people will be put off from returning - us included.

Despite not being too enamoured with Sunny Beach, we enjoyed our holiday and always will wherever we are - it's a new experience and another place we've visited. I think that if you want a cheap holiday and are happy to stay in the hotel or cheaper bars (although, not for much longer I daresay), or if you are in your 20's and want to go bar hopping & clubbing, etc you'll have a great time and Sunny Beach is the place for you. However, if you've been there/done that and are now looking for something different, maybe a bit of culture, etc - give Sunny Beach a miss.

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Hotel Pomorie - Sunny Beach

Operator and Date: (Balkan Discounts) Balkan - August 2005