Preslav Hotel
Tprekata ( Between Varna and ST Konstantine ) Bulgaria

My family and I stayed at the Preslav during the last week of august and the first week of September 2004. This webpage is the result of that stay and I hope some may find it usefull. This site does not describe the Preslav Hotel in Golden sands resort to which I have never been and can't comment on. So i'l begin.

We arrived by coach at 1am and were recieved with a friendly warm reception. Although the first impression told us we were entering a garage door and not a hotel we soon found that inside was a small, nice looking hotel with a pool at the front.

Breakfast
First morning found us at the breakfast table with other guests and we found a good selection to chose from including typical English bacon and eggs, local breakfast and German breakfast.The Tea was the best i have tasted outside of England and there was plenty to chose from and enough to fill you up for the day.

Exploring
The hotel is situated on a very very steep hill and you must go up or down then back up again. This is not a hotel for Elderly, infirm, disabled or anyone who is not strong and confident on there feet. The brochure described a shuttle service yet the only bus left the hotel at 10.45 am and returned at 3.45 pm every day. Other methods of transport available are local taxis or walking.

If you do walk then the road is very steep and the frequent storms leave rocks and debris in the road. A number of people at the hotel had twisted ankles or fall injuries from the road.

The local beach is described as 700 meters away and this is probably correct. To get to it you have to get down the hill, cross the major dual carriagway that follows the coast to Varna City, chose one of the paths that drops into the woods, cross your fingers and hope you have found the correct path and that the terrain is not to steep or rocky and then begin your ankle twisting, knee wrecking descent to the beach. There are no bins on the beach which is littered with bottles, nappies, food and lots of other rubbish.The ascent back to the hotel takes three times as long as getting there due to the 700m very steep climb in scorching heat.

An alternative to the local beach is the morning shuttle bus which takes you to St Konstantine and its very clean, busy and nice beach where you can use the resorts facilitys. If you miss the hotels bus then you can walk down the hill to the dual carriagways and hop on a local bus which comes every 5 minutes and is very cheap.

Evening Meal
What a massive difference between evening meal and breakfast. We ate at the hotel once and decided to eat out from then on. Cleanliness is ok as this is the only country I have been to and not had an upset tummy but the quality of food and lack of imagination will leave you wanting to try some of the other local eating spots. The Bulgarian do some wonderfull things with potatoes so when I ordered sauteed potatoes with cheese and recieved french fries with grated cheese I laughed though I had no grounds for argument. If you go up the hill from the hotel for 300 meters you come to Simons Bar on the right he is the perfect host and will feed you some great cheap food and drink, then its downhill all the way to the hotel. If you downhill from the hotel and turn left then there is a fantastic hotel whith a wonderfull restaraunt. St Konstantine has a large number of restaurants to chose from.

The Bar
Everything costs less in Bulgaria and that includes the drinks. The Preslav hotel charges the most for its drinks in the area though still value in comparison to British prices .
The music in the bar is dictated by which barstaff is on duty. It ranges from local bulgarian to hard core dance music with some pop thrown in for good measure. The volume was either very low of deafening. One of the barstaff was found on a number of occasions to be washing his hair in the bar sink and drying his hair and face with the bar towels. A complaint had to be put in when we found him cleaning his ears with the bar towels. After the complaint was made then his grooming habits did improve though he did sneeze into his hands and wipe his hands on his T shirt. For the two weeks we stayed at the Preslav most of the guests didn't stay in the hotel for the evening.

The Rooms
Simple, Clean and functional. TV in the room with an English channel. No hot water and a maid service on a "when can be bothered" basis. Bins emptied and loo roll replaced after some simple begging and groveling to hotel management. We did get a large number of insect bites on the holiday yet saw no mosquitos. Fleas were found on the bed linin though could these have been sand fleas that we brought back from the local beach ????????????????????

The Pool
Clean and not too deep with a shallow kiddies area. Not skimmed too often and the outdoor jaccuzi got very dirty. Full of toys for the kids though not monitored in any way.

Facilities
There is a safe that can be hired in Reception that is manned 24 hours. We searched for the billiard table, table tennis and darts but found none. After enquiring about the indoor jaccuzi and sauna we were shown the new beautifull jaccuzi but were told they needed a few hours notice to get it ready and they would charge 18 leva for there trouble.

Final word of warning
On our last day in the hotel while waiting for the transfer to the airport a huge block of masonary fell from the top of the hotel onto the path below. There was no apparant reason for the masonary to fall so i took it as an indication that the hotel is old and the build quality poor. After this incident we couldn't help but look for further evidence of crumbling masonry and found a few spots that had fallen or were ready to fall.The staff cleared up the debris and carried on with there day as though nothing had happened.

conclusion

A poorly run hotel in a bad location staffed by some nice people.Possible risk of death from falling cinder blocks and rendering.

If you have any questions regarding the hotel Preslav then don't hesitate to drop me a line Here