Bulgaria, Sunny Beach - 2007
Dogrose

Sun, sea, sand and sex (not necessarily in that order) seems to be four of the main selling points of Bulgaria’s Sunny Beach resort. Yet somehow this fun place seems to combine all of that with a great family atmosphere too. Anything goes and in my opinion if the rumours that Ibiza’s rave scene is in its death throes Sunny Beach will quickly be trancing on it’s grave.
There’s something here for everyone, from crazy golf, hang gliding, gambling or dressing up in period costumes for a photo souvenir, plus plenty of eye candy, whatever your age, sex and inclination. The whole place screams party with a capital P and although we usually avoid these sort of resorts we love it!For getting around you can hire battery operated mopeds and bicycles and if you can’t be bothered to pedal yourself you can always get your kids to do the work on one of the family sized Cyclo’s - well, you are on holiday! if you don’t have any kids to harness to the handle bars you can always opt to be shunted around on one of the several mini trains or travel in style in a horse and carriage.

Our Lonely planet guide book states that there are at least 120 hotels and about 600 cafes, restaurants, bars and shops and that the hotels are spread out amongst shady parks. Unfortunately the book is around two years old, all that appears to remain of most of the parks are the trees that line streets surrounding even more hotels, restaurants, bars and shops.

Chicken ‘kabap’ stalls are frequent, as are the ice cream stalls, and for a decent size chicken wrap you’ll pay around 4.50 lv. The ice-creams are delicious and with flavours ranging from Toblerone to melon you wont be able to resist trying them - I can definitely recommend the melon!. The ice creams are sold by weight so stipulate the size you want or you will end up with something enormous like we did!

Most of the restaurants have similar menus and prices don’t seem to differ too much although you will find the occasional cheapie. They do, however, range in quality and service. An average meal costs around 7 -10 lv, the lists of salads on the menus are pretty extensive and can be a good, cheap option at around 4-5 leva. Most bars and restaurants have happy hours that are more like happy nights. If you find one, like we did, that do happy cocktail hours it actually makes for a cheap evening and you are pleasantly drunk by the time you stumble back to your hotel. For those who prefer a longer drink beer ranges from around 1 lev to 3 leva a pint and Strongbow cider often features on the list too, though obviously more expensive.

I can’t really comment on the hotels apart from our own, The Globus, a 4 star hotel on the front line. We have a room overlooking one of the side streets which is nice and quiet in the evenings if you close the balcony door, but talking to one of the other guests with a room overlooking the front strip, it appears the noise can go on till all hours, which isn’t surprising as several of the bars and restaurants offer 24 hour service.

The breakfast in the Globus, for us, isn’t worth getting out of bed for, but then, it would have to be something pretty special to drag me from my cocktail induced stupor. It does seem to vary from day to day, but quite often around 9am, several ofthe items have ran out. They are probably replenished at some point, but we have never hung around long enough to find out.
(I was told by another guest, however, that if you buy your breakfast from the hotel rather than go for the free buffet the quality is totally different and you get a good full English at a reasonable price.)

The air con doesn’t seem to work too well in our room and quite often in the night it doesn’t appear to be working at all but as I haven’t heard anyone else complain maybe we’ve just been unlucky. We do however, have a fridge, a TV and a decent shower.
The resort itself has a good, sandy beach which is packed at the height of season with bronzing bodies on sun shaded loungers although I’m sure if you’re prepared to walk a little way out you will probably find something less crowded.

All in all, if you only have a week or two holiday and you want some fun in the sun and a decent fake Rolex, Sunny Beach is certainly worth considering as a cheap and cheerful package holiday.