Ralitsa Apartments Reviews

Please don't get confused between the hotels, there are two Ralitsa, if travelling with first choice you will be in the 3* and if travelling with Balkan the 4*, which is where we stayed

The hotel itself was spotless, our family room consisted of a very large room with twin beds and double bed settee with bathroom and extra loo. free air conditioning.

the food in the hotel was excellent and couldn't be faulted, every day there was a large selection including various meats, fish, a roast, potatoes (as well as chips) soups, veg, salad and cold meats. Loads of fresh bread and friut as well as lovely desserts. kids have a small separate buffet but generally ours ate from adult one.

entertainment at night is a bit quiet. there is a show but in a room with no drinks allowed so we didn't particularly bother with it. large balcony and seating areas

2 pools one quiter near the 4* restaurant and the other busier where the daytime entertainment went on by the 3* rest. sunbeds not a problem.

daytime ent consisted of darts, ten pin, bowls, table tennis etc, they did one lot for adults and the other for children.

the resort it self is not massive but plenty of little shops to wander around, we had no problems at all with 'ladies of the night' as other reviewers mentioned.

we went horseriding for a hour from opposite the hotel which worked out about £33 for the family. Banana boats on the beach were about about £2.50 each.

we went on the fiesta night which was ok, wouldn't bother again and the jeep safari which was fantastic, but be prepared to get muddy and soaked.

all in all a great holiday and we would return

Just returned and thank god I am back!

This hotel should be named the Hotel ThePitsa not The Ralitsa! OMG!!

I wanted to enjoy this holiday but it wasn't to be!

Spending the night in hospital with my son being violently sick and on two IV drips did not enhance this nightmare experience! Food poisoning because the hotels food was not cooked properly!

Chicken pink and just browned on either side is not my idea of good food.

Entertainment was like A Clockwork Orange - my eyes had to be stapled open to keep me awake and watching.

The Abba show was quite good but after the 156th song - even that made me feel like killing myself.

Don't get me wrong - there were high points - errrr......

Going home.

No - I have to say that the pools were fantastic. Club Dance was good fun - but that was it - no music by the pool all day - just the same songs played for 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon.

Rock DJ by Robbie is good but not on permanant replay for two weeks!

All inclusive side of things?

No fresh water...... in bottles. Coke that tasted like weak syrupy soda. Cross contaminated pizza utentils stuffed in spag bol tray - then chips - then back again. Ice cream help yourself the same!

The complex was nice and clean - but it was a long walk to the hotel restaurant for brekkie, lunch and dinner.

And this is a nightmare when the weather is not too good as we found out for two days of our holiday.

Pushing your mum up a slope when it's thundering and lightning and torrential rain is lashing down on you is quite a good activity on the Animation Teams Entertainment Program but I'd rather just relax and enjoy my dinner in comfort.

Another high point was going to watch Man U in the town on Sky Sports in a nice pub - just wish the pub and the Sky Sports had been in the complex!

Varna and the Dolphinarium were a great excursion. Kids loved that and yeah we did too!

There was beauty to be viewed by the pool - ... and her name was Rachel - but she left before us - so cest la vie!

All in all - would I return to Bulgaria?

Yes - but not the Hotel Ralitsa - which turned out to be an all inclusive nightmare!!

Well, where do I start. This was one of the worse Hotels I have ever, ever been too, and I have stayed in many in my life time and alot of 3* also. But I do think the problem was with the hotel management really. It's a GERMAN HOTEL, all food geared for the GERMANS they were always served 1st at the bar, to the point of total rudeness, but I say again I think it was more of a problem with the staff treating Germans 1st class and ENGLISH 2nd, when I mentioned it to a animation team memeber, he SAID it was the HOTELS POLICY, say no more.

DIET COKE IS NOT INCLUDED IN THE ALL INCLUSIVE so please note this if any of you are unfortunate enough to go, and there is only fizzy for the kids, coke,fanta, sprite and water no juices what so ever! and we would try and get a little milk for a cup of coffee in our room at night, or for 1st thing in the morning and do know what out of the 14 nights we were there 14 nights they had run out of milk can u believe that.Water even stopped at 11pm too. No fridge in your room so you could stock up from the market for the kids to drink, nothing worse than drinking warm water,milk,Juice. Oh by the way you could have a fridge if you paid for it.

The food was Edible but I must stress most of the time Inedable, mainly because being under cooked, on a couple of occasions I had to get rid of the veg in my mouth is was so disgusting, how can you go wrong with a Cauliflower! My Husband refused to eat there after the second night, so we ate out the rest of the holiday.

The pool I just felt was just not clean at all, in the 2 weeks we were there we never saw anyone cleaning it, only going round with the net, the baby/toddler pool all the children in our party had bad cuts to there feet form the jagged tiles in pool. the pool toilets were worse than disgusting, if you had to go you would have to go back to your room or to the reception area. Plus the brouchure DID NOT MENTION that the restaurant was not even in the hotel, but across the road and up a little just to get a cup of tea in the morning was a pain, well I do have to say I do have walking difficulties so it was a big problem for me, but for most it wasn't, but First Choice should of mentioned this in there brochure. WE asked recepion one night the night of the storm, could they phone for a taxi, as it was raining that bad, she handed my husband a tel number, and said you will have to phone from your room as we cannot do it from here! How RIDICULAS, then she said IT MIGHT NOT BE THE RIGHT NUMBER, what more can I say.

I must say also, if you are a diabetic. Like me, they will give you a small bottle of coke daily, yes small bottle to last you all day in that heat, but I never found this out untill the day before we were coming home, although I had phoned head office in Bugaria about the Diet Coke Situation early in the Holiday, but was not mentioned to me once.

we save all year round for our holidays and the holiday company's should take this on board. By the way there is also a 4* part of the hotel, restaurant, swimming pool and accomadation, we were not aware of this untill we arrived, but 4* was only for the Germans. It is showing in the German Brouchure but not First Choice's. So you can imagine the feelings there.

Not recommended for a hol to the Ralitsa, we are just back from 2 weeks and it was awful, the kids entertainment was in german, the food was awful, they were serving kids alchol, and the evening entertainment was held in a big room with rows of plastic chairs with no tables. The snack bar is the same four items everyday, its not like any other all inclusive hotel. The only good thing about this hol was the weather. Beware there was a Rat outside the main reception, which was spotted at night.

After reading the other reviews and already having holiday booked we were more than worried about this place.

First off we had a fantastic week at this hotel and resort.
The hotel and grounds are spotless and kept this way by the great staff.
The rooms were cleaned daily and fresh towels left.
The food is fabulous with so much choice, nobody went hungry.
The hotel is 2* so we were'nt expecting the ritz, which i'm sure most of the people who have commented on it were.
We thought it was better than some 3* we've stayed in before.
The resort of Albena is lovely. Great beach, great shopping, great food and great entertainment. And best of all, cheap.
This was our first time to Bulgaria and we didn't find anything wrong with the hotel or resort. We will definately be going back in the near future.
Happy holidays to you all******

hi there we returned from the ralista on 3/10/06, and all in all we had the most boring holiday ever there is nothing in this hotel for you kids to do, the entertainment at night is on for about 45 mins in which you cannot even take a drink from the bar with you when you are watching the show which is not even worth going to in the first place it is set in and assembly hall, totally rubbish, the reception staff are rude, the food was not good for all inclusive, the bar shuts at 11pm and so does everything else in albena we went for 2 weeks and it rained for 10 days of that, the rooms were ok but tv only british channell is bbc world!! not that we go on holiday to watch t.v but at this hotel you will be searching the channells, not reccommended for british pepole either full of germans who shout at you if you clap at the show in the evening,

stay clear and resist booking at the ralista!!!!

I was reeeeeeeally anxious about going on this holiday as I had read some really bad reviews about it but I was very surprised at how godam good it was!

First of all the flights to and from Varna airport were brilliant. We had no delays and arrived at Varna 1 hour early and back into Manchester 25 minutes early. The flight itself was brilliant, the food was good and the staff were excellent and very helpful.
When we had got through customs and had our luggage we were greeted by a rep (Matt) and put on a coach we were on this for around 45mins to the Ralitsa hotel.
The rep in our hotel was called Andy and he was so helpful. He responded to queries there and then.

When we arrived at the Ralitsa I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly we got checked in and how clean the hotel was. The room was spotless and quite spacious.
The food in the hotel was really nice and there is a good selection at meal times.
The staff in and around the hotel were very friendly and didn't ignore the English (like what other reviews said!) Fair enough the Bulgarians aren't very good at English but at the end of the day I cant speak a word of Bulgarian!

It's really cheap in Bulgaria so if you smoke I would recommend buying cigarettes over there rather than on the plane! It works out at about 85p for 20!!! Its about 50p for a pint of lager, much cheaper than here!
The free drinks at the hotel finish at 11.00pm so we just went into the small town and got 2 and a half litres of lager (roughly 80p) and drank it at the pool bar, the staff don't mind you doing this!

The hotel itself is in a lovely area and is only about 5 mins from the little town where you can buy lots of cheap but nice souvenirs! The food in the Town was really good and cheap aswell. The only problem would be the prostitutes, they are everywhere! So men beware as they are never alone, there is always some big bouncer type guy keeping an eye on them. If you want to knock them back then do it politely as swearing doesn't go down to well with the ";minders";.

All in all we had a brilliant time at this hotel and I really didn't want to go home! I would recommend Bulgaria to anyone and First Choice also gets 10/10.
Hope this has been helpful!

Clare.xxx

In my opinion my stay at The Ralitsa hotel, Bulgaria was awful!

The beds were uncomfortable, the pillows were about two inches thick! and the entertainment was rediculous! There was absoloutely nothing for children to do in the evening and afternoon. The food was disgusting, we were eating practically the same thing every day. The weather was either strong sun or strong rain! The staff (espesially at reception) were extremely rude and never smiled. We had to wear uncomfy plastic wrist bands the whole time!The t.v channels were all German and the showers were cold after a certain hour.

I would never go back and am totally relieved to be home.

We too were concerned regarding reports from last year but we need not have worried.

The hotel and it's facilites were great. Everywhere was clean (the maids were lovely)and there seemed to be entertainment throughout the day. We didn't really take part as were a little intimidated by so many Germans (as the hotel is a German run company but set up for families). We did encounter a few occassions where the bar staff would try to serve the German guest before us but each time the German guest told the bar staff we were first!Once they got used to you they were fine. The food seemed to be the same but that was because there was so much choice. I was impressed by the fact you were served with actual glasses (except in the pool areas and when they ran out of glasses) and that there were hardly any queues (except at 10.45pm when eveyone went to fill up before the free drinks stopped). The other good thing was that some of the bars stayed open if you wished to carry on drinking but you did have to pay (still cheap!).

Albena itself was lovely - the beach was nice and the people were friendly. The town has lots of stalls full of lovely wooden and leather items, there are also lots of stalls with fantastic artists. If you have always wanted a portrait done of someone special, you can take a photo with you and they will copy it onto canvas.

All in all, we all had a fantastic holiday. (and we never saw any ladies of the night!!). Our reps were also great and worked really hard when anyone had a problem (especially us when my husband fell and broke the sink!) - thanks Andy.

one of the best holidays we've ever had, we had to buy extra suitcases to bring back all our goodies. we have never come back from a holiday with so much money left over, it was nearly impossible to spend it, which was a refreshing change. the accommodation was clean and suprisingly modern for such a backward country. dont ask for a pool view as it also overlooks the main road and the delivery area which is very busy at all times of the day. the food was second to none, always a wide choice, all cooked fresh while you wait, although we went all inclusive, we still ate out most nights at the tropical bar which was fantastic, and the prices are unbelieveably cheap.the market stalls are a little repetative, all selling the same things but there are plenty of bargins to be had if you like designer clothes.

we enjoyed the holiday so much that we are definately booking to go back, provided that going into th e,u, next year does not spoil the prices, it would be a great shame to spoil it as it reminds me of what spain used to be like 20 years ago.

Please do not put yourself through this awful holiday (honestly). We went to Bulgaria as it was cheap on all inclusive but I wish I didnt the food was awful the staff only like you if your german and for the hotel it was full of very rude germans.

When venturing out to the small town my partner was constantly approached by prstitutes even though we were walking hand in hand! Our resort was guarded by armed police and you can only enter through barriers as the Bulgarians are very very poor and dangerous. I felt very unsafe the whole holiday and feared for my 7 year old sons safety.

We had numerous things stolen from our room including very small change! Be aware that when you arrive at the hotel you will have 2 men who carry your bags to your room (very polite I thought!) but then they will not leave your room until you give a tip, we hadnt exchanged money at that time and we told them that so they said 'give us english money then'. I CANNOT explain in words how awful this holiday was...PLEASE DONT GO

After some of the things i read about this hotel and resort i was a little anzious. But as soon as i got there they went away. There were people waiting in the reception area to take our bags to our room. Yes you did have to pay then a little tip but to be honest if i didnt have them i would have spent the next hour trying to find the room. They were very pleasant.

The first few days we were there it was like try and spot the english man, and there was not one free sun lounger after about 9.30 this forced us to the beach. There are a few ways to get to the beach. you could get the free bus, the train or simply walk. The train and the bus take you to different ends of the beach so i would recomend you try both!

The food was quite similar every day but the vast variety of what was offered made it easy enough to have a 3 course meal every night which was different.
The animation team were great and the shows in the evening were spectacular.

In the evenings in albena there were pleantly of nice bars to go and sit in. People were complaining about the ";ladies"; but we never found them a problem in fact they werent in your face at all and we found it wuite amusing to try and spot them.

Overall the holiday was very good. I would recomend it.

After reading some reiews about this hotel and its food i was a little apprehensive, there was a party of 14 of us and i can honestly say that not one of us complained about anything.

The entertainment was entertaining done mostly by the animation team who are very friendly the kids loved the shows there is a mini disco for the kids but it only lasts 30 minutes and only every other night, there was plenty of room by the pool, the food was very nice and something for everyone, the complex is very clean as is Albena, there is a free shuttle bus to the beach although it is only a 10 minute leisurely stroll. We changed our currency before going but next time we will change it there as you get a better exchange rate and most of the hotels there will change money for you and they all have the same exchange rate .

Albena itself is not very big but there are plenty of eateries and bars some with live entertainment, Karaoki bars, beach bars, Sky sports. you can get a lovely kebab on the beach front for only 4 lev (approx £1.40). There are ladies of the night as they are called but they start to come out about 3pm (not quite the night), they did not bother any of us and it was quite entertaining watching them. My mother in law and I took a taxi (70 lev)into Balchic we did not think much of this city many of the shops sold the same thing and you could of got that in Albena and saved yourself 70 lev, our friends went to Nessebar and they loved it, we also went on the jeep safari trip which was great fun it was also safe enough to take the kids (maybe not the 2 year old)although we did not, half of us went a different day so we took turns looking after them. The weather was fantastic.

We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We have only just got back (6.6.06) and are thinking of going to Bulgaria again next year.

This was our first trip to Bulgaria and read so many mixed reviews that we weren't sure we'd chosen the right place. So I now feel I must give our opinion just to help someone else in our position:

We were so pleasantly surprised with everything. We arrived at about 1am after a delayed flight and the hotel opened up their restaurant so that we could all get something to eat and drink. The delayed flight was the only down side to our holiday. Our room was basic but in an ideal place overlooking a court yard with a bar so that we could but the children to bed, leave the patio door open and sit outside having a drink. The resort itself is so clean and tidy as was our room. The maid worked like a deamon tyding our room, and with two small children that's no easy task. The grounds are maintained to a very high standard. The pools were very clean, although very cold because it was May. After a couple of days of sun they warmed up a bit and didn't stop us jumping in. We didn't try the small indoor pool but other guests said it was good.

It was also our first 'all inclusive' holiday and I have to say I'm glad we did. We hardly spent any other money at all. However, it's amazing what a small 'tip' to the people behind the bar will do. The restaurant catered for almost every nationality who were staying there. If you don't like foreign food there was always lots of chips and rice. Endless salads, cold meats (not all German!!), fresh fruit. Every night we had no problem finding something different to have a full 3 course meal including fresh vegetables. Staff were so efficient a friendly and they really didn't mind if you ask for something to be 'well don'.

In addition there a quite a few smaller bars and food places. We found these quite sufficient for lunch time, then going to the restaurant for supper. Good idea to get there early if you're fussy about where you sit. Seating both indoors and out.

Albena is about a 10 min walk from the hotel where you can also find lots of restaurants and bars. Again, so friendly and speak very good English. We found fish fingers, mash, peas and carrots for the children in the Tropical Cafe.

The beach is wonderful and very clean. More food places, although quite a few places were only just opening up because it was right at the beginning of the season. I had the feeling that in a couple of weeks, everywhere would be in full swing and very busy. We went 11-18 May.

In short, all four of us had a really nice - cheap holiday and are looking to book again next year - at the Ralitsa!

a bit apprehensive about bulgaria but what a pleasant surprise!

the hotel ralitsa was great.all the staff were very friendly and couldn't do enough for you.food was ok ,there was something that all of us could eat at every meal time.a visit to poco loco in the town is well worth a visit-bar where the staff entertain you.another must is the jeep safari AN EXCELLENT DAY OUT.give our love to kitty the tour guide and ivan the driver.BE PREPARED TO GET VERY VERY WET!!!!! also the excellent barbeque lunch halfway through the day was great.do go on the yacht trip a few characters on the yacht.so much to do and not enough time in a week --YOU MUST GO FOR TWO.PLENTY OF ENTERTAINMENT ON THE COMPLEX ,BUT DO EXPLORE THE TOWN.great people great beach great fun all in all a fantastic holiday.

WE WILL CERTAINLY BE GOING BACK TO BULGARIA