[Travel] Sunny Beach - Bulgaria

[Knocky's Nose]

There are reasonable bars in Alvor, Portugal selling beer at 90c a pint if that’s your thing...........(goodness knows how they stay in business). Lovely small town too with a great choice of hotels, bars and restaurants and a huge sandy beach, all about an hour from Faro.

Don’t know Bulgaria at all but anywhere with a large % of Russian tourists won’t be pleasant in my experience. Worse than the loutish Brits by some distance.

Alvor is lovely. Been there.

I may be generalising, and there may be some wonderful ones - but I've always found Russians on holiday to be a bunch of arrogant, rude, miserable, surly shit-wits.

Bulgarians... I've always found to be hard working, but as straight as the edge of a 50p piece, and affable with it.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

There are reasonable bars in Alvor, Portugal selling beer at 90c a pint if that’s your thing...........(goodness knows how they stay in business). Lovely small town too with a great choice of hotels, bars and restaurants and a huge sandy beach, all about an hour from Faro.

Don’t know Bulgaria at all but anywhere with a large % of Russian tourists won’t be pleasant in my experience. Worse than the loutish Brits by some distance.

Ssshhhh, dont tell everyone

 

[Dorset Seagull]

I agree, Alvor is great.

Its changed a lot in 15 years though and the sleepy fishing village has woken up a bit of late

 

[The Andy Naylor Fan Club]

Alvor is lovely. Been there.

I may be generalising, and there may be some wonderful ones - but I've always found Russians on holiday to be a bunch of arrogant, rude, miserable, surly shit-wits.

Bulgarians... I've always found to be hard working, but as straight as the edge of a 50p piece, and affable with it.

We went on holiday to Salou about 8 years ago. We booked quite a few months in advance and went all inclusive. When we got to our hotel we found out that it was under new ownership and that you now had to pay for your meals and drinks, as they were targeting the Russian Market. Fortunately they honoured the existing bookings and to our delight the hotel had much better facilities and food/drink than we were expecting. Loads of ruskies wandering around the pool in their budgie smugglers and surgically enhanced girlfriends by their sides. One particular young lady threw the poolside bar staff into quite a fluster after paying for her 1.5 Euro coffee with a 500 Euro note.

 

[Bold Seagull]

The good lady wife and I are looking to book a late Summer holiday in mid September. We've ummed and ahhed over our usual destinations ( Spain, Canaries, Malta) but we're looking for somewhere we haven't been before. A customer mentioned Sunny Beach and to be honest I had never heard of it before. Doing a little research it has now peaked my interest and we are considering booking. Before we do though I thought I'd check with the great unwashed ( ) of NSC to see if they have any feedback or experiences of visiting this part of Bulgaria. Cheers.

So we went here as a family of 5 last year:

[video]https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g1088372-d8296299-Reviews-Premier_Fort_Beach_Hotel-Sveti_Vlas_Burgas_Province.htm l[/video]

This was in Sveti Vlas which is along from Sunny Beach and a lot quieter with a nice enough village centre, restaurants, bars, ice creams etc.

We stayed self catering and couldn't really fault the facilities.

What I would say is that you are in a minority of nationalities in terms of holiday makers, which I quite like to be honest, because the last thing I want on holiday is a pool surrounded by people in British football shirts.

Bulgaria has some lovely people, but you know, it's clearly a poor country and this is evident in the state of roads, and just general appearance. It's a bit like Spain in the 80s in a lot of ways.

We didn't go into Sunny Beach, would I go back to Sveti Vlas, probably not, but don't let that put you off, would I go back to Bulgaria, for a week holiday it was great, but what we saw it does lack a bit of that real historic character you get from other Mediterranean holidays.

 

[maffew]

I went all round Bulgaria for a month or so probably 18 yrs ago so it will have changed. Back then, ill be honest sunny beach wasnt worth sending a postcard from. Loved the diversity of the country in general. Unless you have a good reason to visit there might be better places to consider. I recall there being next to nothing to do and a lot of unshaven bulgarian women and a real struggle with the language barrier with travellers and locals alike. There was a fairly derelict 138 room hotel with a pitch and putt for sale for about 180k if i recall correctly nearby

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

Corfu in September, brilliant, 3 hr flight, great beaches, and cheap to eat out and drink

True, I was there in May, but you could have said any Greek Island, but I am very biased as I love the Greek Islands, just have to be a bit careful that you don't go to the ' lively' resort that exists on most of the popular ones.

 

[LVGull]

That's where I'm going, stripping off too to work on my ALL over TAN

To hot for the trains to work?

 

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

True, I was there in May, but you could have said any Greek Island, but I am very biased as I love the Greek Islands, just have to be a bit careful that you don't go to the ' lively' resort that exists on most of the popular ones.

I would quite happily retire and live in Corfu, love the North West villages, great tavernas, great beaches and just enough little bars with music that cater for a late drink
if you want it. Arillas is our current favourite. Love getting a hire car and exploring the island, up the mountains and see real Greek village life

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

To be honest I have not read or know anyone that has gone to Sunny Beach or Bulgaria and raved about it and said they would go back.
I agree it's appeal is that it's different and not many British, but I would prefer to be in a minority with Scandinavians or Dutch rather than Russians.
Talking about Scandinavians, when I was in Corfu we was told that Albania is open for business, but only Scandinavians are going there in any numbers, they love to go somewhere new and different do the Scandies, I wouldn't mind trying it myself as somewhere in Europe but totally different and find out what it's like.
I have this vision that it may be like going to Greece in the 60's, which would suit me.

 

[dannyboy]

Get yourself to Croatia if you've not been .

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

I would quite happily retire and live in Corfu, love the North West villages, great tavernas, great beaches and just enough little bars with music that cater for a late drink
if you want it. Arillas is our current favourite. Love getting a hire car and exploring the island, up the mountains and see real Greek village life

Totally agree, nice island, did all the mountain villages and stopped off to eat too.

 

[dazzer6666]

Alvor is lovely. Been there.

I may be generalising, and there may be some wonderful ones - but I've always found Russians on holiday to be a bunch of arrogant, rude, miserable, surly shit-wits.

Bulgarians... I've always found to be hard working, but as straight as the edge of a 50p piece, and affable with it.

Exactly that re Russians on holiday. Quite a few in Cuba when we went in January. On the lash constantly (24/7 vodka and cocktails it seemed), loud, mannerless, rude to staff and other guests etc. Only plus side was they seemed to stay in groups, so were easily avoided, had no interest in anything other than drinking and were usually asleep on sunbeds paralytic by mid afternoon

 

[Machiavelli]

I went to Bulgaria 15 years ago on a press trip. Hated it. Either dull, drab communist architecture, but on the coasts they had rapidly erected ostentatious capitalist resorts chasing the lowest common denominator

 

[atfc village]

Went to Sunny Beach in 01 50 pence [Fifty] for 3 pints in the hotel bar . 3 coach loads of Danes staying in the hotel aswell ,2 day trip from hotel to Sofia coach and 1 nights hotel to watch Bulgaria v Denmark £18 all in and i turned it down . Those Danes could drink . The resort pretty dire ,freezing cold Sea but cheap as chips. £130 spent in a week . Nessabar down the road was a nice place . As 3 single lads at the time it got tedious being offered Whores ,drugs and many other things night after night.

 

[saafend_seagull]

Went in 2008 and 2009. Didn’t meet a single person in 2008 from England. 2009 full of English.

Complete dive.

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[Bolton va va]

Stayed in Sunny Beach about 10 years ago when Bolton played in nearby Bourgas.

On the plus side, it was dirt cheap, hot & the beach was sandy. On the down side, we were plagued by groups of whores/pickpockets & there was next to nothing there but the hotels, bars & cafes. I've never felt the urge to go back. ( we stayed over in Sofia on the way back & that wasn't up to much either !! )

 

[maffew]

I think its fair to say the consensus seems to be erring on the negative side as a holiday choice

 

[Live by the sea]

Croatia in Sept is nice if you want somewhere different. I'd give Bulgaria a miss from what I've read about it. Its dirt cheap for a reason !

 

[Heffle Gull]

Another vote here for Sveti Vlas (or Vlas Vegas as it is nicknamed) . Stayed in Sunny Beach many years ago, when Bulgaria was still a communist Country. Now it's more like Benidorm in Bulgaria.

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