Hotel Gergana Beach Reviews

Well where to start. What a joke!!!

We decided to get a safe straight away as we had all cash due to being told the exchange rate was poor. 1st mistake because our safe was broken into within a few hours of having it, mobile phones, psp, £700 cash and digital camera amongst other smaller items. The police, staff and rep made this experience even worse due to their lack of empathy and cluelessness. Rep refused to translate our police documents when we finally received them a week later, and once we arived home we discovered she had failed to inform the police of several smaller items that were also in the safe. Were told we had to get money sent over from home and although my nan transferred £800 immediately we only received £200 a day later and the other £600 a week later!!!!!! Had to get up every day at 8 to fill in forms and were put up to all inclusive. We booked b and b due to the fact we didn't want all inclusive! Apparently though this was satisfactory compensation.

We had to go to the next hotel the Albena Beach Club to eat and just read the other reviews to back me up the food was inedible and cold and the smell made us retch, also no choice of drinks. This is only half of our fantastic holiday, and we were offered £50 compensation, tut tut, a visit to the solicitors I think!
For food Poco Loco is excellent, that was the only good thing...
Don't go!!!

Spent 2 weeks in the Gergana Hotel Albena in August 2006,it was the best holiday we have been on, the resort is very clean, and the staff were very friendly and helpful.

The rooms were cleaned every day and fresh linen every two days, the only fault was it was too small for three beds. The pool bar is brill espically Svetlio the head waiter,he treated us like royalty, he always made a point of coming over to us and shaking our hand. Anyone visiting there should go to The Old Oak just a few meters from Gergana Hotel, it was a thrilling night brill food and traditional entertainment,watch out for the Bulgarian Tom Jones he is hilarious, You will also be serenaded at your table make sure you have a few Leva to stick in his violin.For the best Sunday lunch go to Zak's just down from the hotel,just watch out for the bald headed waiter, he has a problem adding up the bill (normally in his favour. The Dotto train stops outside the hotel and takes you to the centre for just 2 leva, and runs untill midnight.

The centre has a wide choice of gifts, with lots of stalls, it mostly consists of Bulgarian craft, but there are a lot of shops selling designer fakes for a few leva, the poca Loca bar and resturant is very cheap food is good but can get busy around 8 o clock. Visit Balchik and try ";Irish Rover"; Bar for good food and great conversation, we paid a visit to the Botanical gardens, but be prepared for climbing lots of steps. Albena is a fantastic place to holiday,and there was plenty for the 11yr old to do. The lifeguard on the beach will change your money, sell cigs or will sell you bottles of his home made brew and its not for the faint hearted, it's def rocket fuel.

A visit to Dobrich is well worth it, as it is much cheaper, there are lots of shops selling good quality clothes and shoes, just watch out for the gypsie's, we were followed into one shop by 5 women, and the lady who owned the shop made us aware of them and told us to be careful, but thankfully the Gypsies knew we had been tipped off and so made a hasty retreat.

The weather was in the low 30's every day except for a 2 hour thunder storm one morning, the sea temp was about 27, and very clean, every night a big tractor travels up and down the beach cleaning it.

The funniest thing we saw was when the pony trekking went up the beach in the evenings a little man would run bare footed after the horses with a bucket and shovel waiting for droppings (he has the best flowers in bulgaria). We will def be going back next year..

A very nice holiday! We were pleasantly surprised. The hotel was clean and had everything you'd want. Food was very nice, plenty of choices. The rooms were very small, but clean, and the showers were strong and hot. No baths, unfortunately. Staff are fantastic. I recommend giving a fat tip to your dinner waiter or bar waiter early on, because when we did we got treated like royalty ever after! These guys get paid peanuts, so please tip! Entertainment staff were incredibly funny and hard working, even though some of the shows were pretty silly. Very child friendly and all families seemed to be very happy at the hotel.

The resort itself is small and quiet, so the second week can get a bit boring. But there is a cheap and easy bus system on the resort, so we took some day trips to Varna, Dobrich, and Balchik, which I would highly recommend. It gives a better idea of the ";real"; Bulgaria, and the shopping is very cheap. Everything in Albena costs at least twice as much as anywhere else, because Albena is privately owned. It's still good value compared to prices at home, but once you've been outside and know what the real prices are, it is a bit annoying.

The people are fantastically friendly, polite, helpful, and laid-back. Most people have outstanding English, especially the younger generation.

Highly recommended to families and people looking for a relaxing getaway.

The weather was fantastic, too!

We have just had our first holiday in Bulgaria and it was fantastic. This hotel is right on the beach and the hotel itself is really really nice. It's clean, bright, very reasonable in the restaurant and the bar. The evenings meals are well worth having for £4 an evening.

The resort is cheap, but most of the other resorts are cheaper, Balchick in particular is worth a visit, the market stalls are much cheaper than Albena. Good quality clothes and shoes really cheap. One warning, dont buy your cigarettes on the beach or anyone else selling them other than a shop, they are not the real thing. Once you are in the resorts, you cannot buy English ciggies anywhere, however a good substitute is Victory, they are just like ours. Your best bet is to buy your ciggies at your departure airport.

Try to use the Bulgarian eating places as they are so cheap, they may not look up to much, but they are great fun. The beach hut outside the Gergana is not as expensive as you may think, but if you have the Gergana to your back, turn right and walk up the beach, past the nudist beach and you will come to another beach hut, you must go in there, 4 of us had lunch, loads of beers and brandies, water and coffee etc and the bill come to 40 levs which is about £16 to us. Not each, but for all of us.

We have just arrived back from Bulgaria and overall have had an excellent time.

The hotel Gagana is an ideal choice for those looking to stay in Albena, the rooms while slightly dates are spotless and as has been written in other reviews the majority of staff are keen and friendly.

One negative was the quality of the breakfast which was not to a standard one would expect from a 4 star hotel. My only positive slant would be to think it is heavily tailored to the German guests with pancakes, hot dog sausages and bacon made up predominantly of rind on offer. The upside is that eating out is not expensive and a few mornings we skipped the hotels offering and ate at one on the many bars.

Every ten minutes a train runs around the resort at a cost of about 80p p/person. This is handy at night as the roads to and from the hotel is poorly lit with uneven pavements.

The beach is glorious with golden sands and is not overcrowded in the slightest. There are a number of water sport activities and for the best prices it is best to venture further down the beach away from the area around the hotels.

You very much get the impression that Albena is a developing resort; there is not a great deal to do after 11pm as most of the bars are shut or empty. The service can be patchy from the locals, a new phenomenon is having to pay to use the lavatories in restaurants or bars in which you are frequenting, when these turn out to be in terrible state you question why the hell you have to pay in the first place!

One day we visited Golden Sands - about £12 in a taxi one way. Whilst it was nice is seemed a little to commercial. Albena for its faults still feels very authentic, I got the impression Golden Beach was similar to Spain, which is no bad thing but much of a much.

A must see is the Poco Loco bar in Albena which is a dance Bar. All the staff are fantastic dancers and the show lasts a good few hours. Also the artists in ALbena are fab I recommend taking a picture if you are in the market for a reasonable hand drawn family portrait.

I fear ALbena may go the same way as Golden Sands as its popularity increases and the entry into the Euro will no doubt push the prices up. Overall I would recommend it for an ideal chill out - I think you may struggle to fill two weeks though. One week was enough for me.