Home

Seatside resorts
in Bulgaria:
 
St Vlas village
Nesebar
Primorsko
Kiten

Bulgaria  photo


Travel across  the Europe by car:

Albania
 
Bulgaria
 
Balkan
 
Turkey
 
Romania
 
Hungaria
 
Finland
 
Norway
 
Sweden

Lithuania

Latvia

Estonia

 

The vacation at The Sunny Beach brought us a disillusion. Some unpleasantness are described and numbered down here in the text. If you are planning the vacation at The Sunny Beach, you definitely need to read this! This information won’t be given to you by any travel agency!

Bulgaria keeps putting their prices up.  Services’ prices and prices for food are getting up, no matter if the quality changes. The advertisements are telling the untruth, and there are more ways how to rip you off, not exactly the fair way! If you order some pizza, it can happen that you get a pizza with 10 cm diameter.
 
1. Everything is charged for!
We are leaving our hotel and we are sitting at the beautiful deck chair. There is a ship boy welcoming us with a sentence “10 leva” (the Bulgarian currency, 1 leva = 0,50 € ). It’s almost an evening so, therefore, we are going to the beach. We are hearing “15 leva” (8 €) immediatelly while we are coming to the deck chair.  The ship boy is not giving up, even thou many people had left.

2. The little bloodsuckers in the sea
I am swimming in the sea realizing something is itching and tickling me on many places of my body. It seems like it’s an ant or a mosquito. It feels really unpleasant, I am trying to look for some jellyfish, but I can’t see any. It came out like a little sucker – 1-2 cm long sucker or an earthworm with some horns it. It’s enough to be in no motion for a few second and all of them are anchored on my body. The only defend is to be in the motion. I am backing back to the shore. Helen and Katie are asking me about the water. I am just being quite. It’s nothing new, these animate being have existed for a long time in the Black Sea. The right moment for them comes when it’s around 30 degrees in the sea, then they are existing for one or two days. After that, there is no new generation for a while.

3.   3. The argument fight in the exchange office
We were running off the Bulgarian money. I could have gone to the ATM but instead of that. I went to the Exchange Office. Outside, I saw the exchange rate 1,90 leva / € so I came inside and talk to that lady. I gave her 100 €. She whisked a pen and a paper. The paper needed a signed from me. She was hiding a piece on the paper while I was about to sign it. She didn’t want to give up the paper so I tore the paper away. Oh yeah, I can see the point now. Instead of getting 190 leva I should have gotten only 150 leva (difference 20 €).

I went like “no ma’am, the exchange rate is different outside.” I am turning aside to the wall, where is another Exchange rate form. I am like “Okay, I have enough of your crap, I want my money back.” And she went like “No way, only 150 leva.” I kept telling her like 5 times; it seemed to look like a gramophone plate repeating over and over. I am telling her I haven’t singed any paper yet, there was no trade created and I want my money back. The lady is laughing at me and then just ignoring. She is being hardened, she had definitely went thru some training “how to rip the tourists off.” Now she’s calling her friend while she’s fixing her fake nail. I’ve got enough.
I am calling Helen, she is coming right after. We are two against only one and we are changing our posture into determinate assaulted tone of our voice. I am trying if my last trump gonna work. I am making up a story about me being a famous novelist whose stories are read by so many readers. She became nervous suddenly. I am knocking on her partition window now. She is still unyielding. The last chance for me – I am calling the 112 – I am telling her. I am pretty sure they will call me out, but I am really calling and showing her the number on my phone display. She throw the greenback on me and called me “you’re stupid!”
We left. There was a group of people watching us.

To be accurate, all the big billboards are showing the exchange rate “we sell” - when you want to buy the Eurocurrency – everyone doesn’t have to know this column. The Exchange rate column for selling leva is empty. The sellers can rightfully arguments that the Exchange rate outside is for the other case, unpleasantly, it’s not a fair dealing with human being!

4.  Most of the Exchange Offices rip off 
During a short walk we had registered three cases where a customer didn’t agree and was arguing with the seller. Everyone gave it up, even a German exchanging 500 € (diifference 100 €). I felt sorry for that three younger Hungarians, they didn’t last too long and were beat up. As bigger Exchange rates outside, that smaller latter that exchange rates inside!
We traded our money over at the hotel Exchange office. I showed them my greenback first waiting for them to write a number on a piece of paper and handle it to me. We trade at the exchange rate of 1.90 leva / € which is absolutely common in banks and some hotels. Can you imagine trading money from some moneychanger on the street? There were too many of them applying for us.

5. Get outta here!
It happened somehow like this. We parked our car right on the parking lot in front of our hotel.
“you cannot park here” that far-from-handsome guy barked at us
“we are the hotel guests” and I was lifting up our luggage
“gimme your car keys” we got some private stuff in there so I stood stiff
“get ya outta here” he reacted
We locked our car and left to the reception. “ma calling the tow-away” he was despaired and following us. At the reception, they claimed that without any key given, I cannot park at their parking lot. The free parking was one of the reasons we have chosen that hotel. This situation is so common in the US, even thou I had no trust in them here. I noticed the other day how the boys are enjoying their life using guests’ keys to re-park uselessly their cars.

6. We are not giving you any ticket
We pulled our car over at the close you-gotta-pay parking lot with a boom gate. Beforehand, we had to pay 30 leva (15 €). They refused to give me any ticket (it turned out to happen kind of often in Bulgaria). We were arguing for a few minutes and I considered my parking possibilities and beatenly left without any ticket. If our car wouldn’t be staying here tomorrow, I couldn’t be doing anything.

7.  Cut down your expenses
Our hotel looked normal from the outside, but had really small and derelict rooms.
Three of our beds took up too much space, therefore, we had to fold our stay into a vertical column. Our modest furniture still could’ve remembered the era of Todor Zivkov.

I was afraid to lean on the rusty handrail on the balcony, it was so noisy out there, the alarms didn’t shut up even in a night. The musty super small bathroom without any window and aspiration on the three meter square included super small a washbasin, a toilet, and a shower corner without any shower curtain. This hotel was like a bad hangover, a big mistake, even thou the price was low (30 € per night / room). Leveling the money we have had a really nice lodging in Bulgaria before.

8. The wifi goes only with a drink
I am turning the computer on in the hotel room and any internet service is found, even thou the leaflet promised that.
We are going down and Helen is asking the receptionist. “Do all the hotel rooms have such a horrible bathroom as that ours?” The receptionist lowers her shoulders and says “yes.” It was told us the internet connection is caught only close to the reception. Our notebook got caught only close to the bar. We are sitting at the bar and the waitress is coming – “what would you like to drink?”
The question is whether we should stay or try to look for another hotel. This hotel does have a wheelchair so we push Katie on it who had just twisted out her ankle! The decision is set – we are staying in this hotel!

9.  Happy Hours
We got lured on the billboard with the Happy Hour words. Two drinks for the price of one. Just 5 leva and two drinks – we cannot miss this event. They are translating their drink list for us and we are pointing at the Mojicho. It felt to be really refreshing in the heat. I am looking at the drink list in detail and we won’t pay 5 leva but 15! How is that?
A little group of people sitting right next to us became to be noisy and that two ladies were refusing to pay 15! They are leading the waitress toward the billboard on the street, where is written 5 with a chalk. I am listening carefully and I can’t believe it. “it’s not our fault that someone had erased the One number! (15-5). She is charging them 15 anyway, she is not fixing the billboard on the street and the coffee bar is getting more full. Everyone wants a Happy Hours.

There can be a good holiday over at The Sunny Beach, but you gotta be ready for the fact that Bulgarians don’t see a nice guest out of you, but a walking wallet.

Did I discourage you from The Sunny Beach? If yeah, then I can recommend you Primorsko. The swimming conditions are the best in the upper part of Primorsko.
The commercialism is not that widened in these summers resorts, you’re gonna feel welcome everywhere and you’re not gonna get that ripped off as much as on The Sunny Beach.

The Sunny Beach – 8 kilometers long stripe with over than 120 hotels along the sea, sandy beach wide 30-60 meters, some water attractions, all the kind of rentals, sandy dunes, neat parks, …
It’s the main Bulgarian summer resort in the Burgas area. There is a busy road leading along the first line of hotels, well-kept colonnades and stores.
The construction doesn’t stand out of any typical architecture and many hotels seem to look like a high-rise apartment building.
The farther from the beach you go, the worse the surroundings look like. Like 400 meters away from the sea, there is a busy main road surrounded by more likely worse hotels and flooded areas with dusty trash. Extraordinarily, you can find absolutely new hotels out there, parks with green oasis and backyards irrigated by water fountains.

Differences in comparing with Jadran sea:
The color of the sea – the sea is darker here, less see-thru, but kinda clean
The saltiness – on the lower lever, means doesn’t carry a body weight that much
The sand – more likely than anything else, the sea grass and jellyfish does appear rarely
The drop to the sea – lower, mild, you can reach the bottom easily even from the distance of 60 meters, suitable for children

   

Pay attention to the yellow flag. It has happened to us too many times that wind had brought someone with a water chair away to the sea. They hang the yellow flag out when the wind direction goes towards the sea. You can swim when that happens but all the water chairs are banned in the water!
Ship boys are very considered about your paying. If you sit in the shade in thoughts he’s not coming, you’re wrong. They will charge you 7 leva. Plus, if there are any deck chairs, you are expecting to pay 5 for each!
In the gap site, you can easily wide you blanket up and hide yourself under the parasol. 

   
 
You can get you some snack at the booth for a really pleasant and acceptable price. You can enrich your summer time with having some frappe and sitting in the shade. All the prices at The Sunny Beach are on the same financial level as in the Czech Republic, as it always goes, something is more expensive, but you can get you something really cheapo. But all this is regarding the main summer resort, if you don’t wanna loose the whole your budget from the wallet let’s move a little aside where the prices are more convenience.

There is a lot of placed like renting the Segway and some electrical scooters (the pictures on the left). You can ride that for a half an hour with payment of 7 leva. The whole hour will costs you double. We used the rental twice. We used our passport as the deposit and the second time we left them nothing. Just a simple leaning forward, and the Segway moves on. I found that really interesting and I got surprised when I found out the Segway is possible to speed up to 30 kilometers per hour. Unsurprisingly, it’s addictive as a drug; who does tries once, wants forever. We zigzagged around the cars, we were going thru the parks and thru the walking zones, we also rode thru the promenade. We almost got on the sea shore and we were lost for a few minutes, also, because the hotels resorts look so similar.

   
 
There’s tons of super expensive and luxury cars bragging on the roads. And as younger driver, that music goes louder. You can hear the non-pausing music from all the corners. You can hear it from bars, from cars, from restaurants, stores and souvenirs shop.