Pelican Hotel Reviews

Just arrived back from the pelican Hotel and as it was our first time to Bulgaria we were pleasently surprised as it was much nicer than anticipated.

Accomadation,
It was really clean and nicely furnished in the public areas and bedrooms, the bathrooms were spacious and modern with a decent bath and shower. The bedrooms were of a good size too.
The dining room was large and you never had problems getting a table though the air conditioning in there was poor and very uncomfortable at times. The selection of food was vast and all of a good standard. There was also a choice of 2 al'cart restaurants you could eat in during your stay.

Swimming Pools
These were good with one for relaxing and another down on the beach where all the activities took place. Always plenty of sunbeds available so no need to get up at the crack of dawn. The beach was also lovely and clean and the sea was clear and shallow so suitable for young children.

Location,
The hotel is set in a beautiful location amongst hills and trees and very pretty. It is isolated though there were always taxi's outside to take out an about at very good prices. the nearest town is sozopol and cost 20 lev which is roughly £8.00. We also went to Nessebur Which was 110 lev and about an hours drive away but well worth a visit. Pre moscow is another village near by but we were unimpressed with this so would not reccomend.
This may have ben our first holiday to Bulgaria but it certainly wont be our last as is it so cheap.

The Duni Resort is fabulous and you cannot get bored there with all the enertainment and facilites.
The main benefit is that you can use the facilities (pools, bars, entertainment etc) of all the other hotels (apart from posh Palace Hotel!).

The activity program starts every day (apart from Sundays) at 9am, and you can do stretch classes, aorobics and step classes, street dancing, waterpolo and there are also daily pool and beach games which are always fun. The entertainment team are brilliant and really put you in the holiday spirit! Their evening dancing shows in the new ampitheatre are extremely entertaining and professional.
Food was always tasty and there was always a huge selection of food and drink available day and night. They even stock Pepsi Light and every fruit juice you could ask for. The late breakfast until 11am is particularly convenient after a night flight.

If you want everything you could possibly ask for on one beautiful complex set in the countryside, this is perfect for you, but if you like to go out and about, the nearest town is a 10 minute taxi ride and other places alot further, and there are no local buses stopping at the Duni resort.

I've Just returned from this holiday and I can't wait to go back.

The holiday was very reasonably priced so we wern't quite sure what to expect, we were all very pleasantly surprised.
The rooms were lovely and clean and each bed had the top sheet laid out in the shape of a fan with a flower to top it off.
The welcome meeting with the rep took place at 11.15 the following morning and he took us on a tour of the complex.

We were just amazed at how much was on offer, too much to list here but indluded water sports, gym, sauna, swimming, games and massage on the beach (which my 2 friends took good avantage of).
There were restaurants dotted all over the complex, each serving a wide variety of lovely food, you could even get rolls made up in front of you on the beach and cold drink dispensers were located next to the pools and on the beach.
Beach towels were provided and we didn't have much of a problem getting sunbeds even though some of the other guests insisted on saving their beds and not using them all day.
There was an entertainment team organising games by the pool, and in the evening they put on a show in the amphetheatre.

The only slightly negative thing I can say about the resort is that English people were very few and far between, guests were mostly German and the staff didn't speak much english, but they were all very friendly (especially the cheeky chap serving behind the bar at the fun pool) and tried very hard to help in anyway possible.

All in all this was a fantastic holiday at a very reasonable price and I would definitely recommend it to my friends.

First description was DISAPPOINTED! 40 hrs prior to travel we were informed by 1st choice that our chosen Hotel the Royal Marina was double booked and we were relocated to the Pelican.It transpired when we got there that this had been happening all peak season with the english.Word of warning dont go here if you have an issue with the germans as we are by far the minority!! Pelican rooms are rather basic but adequate and our maid wonderful and friendly teaching kids bulgarian.One problem was the number of steep steps we has to tackle to get to beach with pushcahirs.Beach lovely.

Food plentiful with lots of salads,veg,fruits, butnot best place if an over fussy eater. and we did manage a evening at the fish a la carte on seafront thanks to excellent rep Barney,but usually exclusive to Royal Marina guests.Which the hotelier refused to allow any first Choice over booked to use (or any of the other 'nicer' perks).However Thomas Cook guests overbooked were for some reason!! hotel kids club abit of an safety issue the reps were very keen to for you toleave your kid but no actual safety mechanisms in place to prevent wandering/lost kids in the busy resort, and my poor 5 year old was spoken to in german all afternoon!Despite this we made the most and enjoyed the food/alcohol,pools ok,no need for beach towels they supply,some good sports included in price.My mate got pickpocketed in Sozopol by a little girl so beware. Taxis pretty mad driving bu reliable if booked from reception and bring you home when asked, reasonably priced.

Overall a nice holiday providing you are prepared to be downgraded,not overly paranoid about what you sample to eat,you get no hassel from time share reps/touts etc as you are on one massive resort which is a bonus,like lots of nice fattening pudding every mealtime and afternoon. Would recommend go again but not get my hopes getting into the Royal marina as a member of staff explained this is how it always operates evry summer with the minority i.e the english always being relocated first- SO BE WARNED, as there was one poor couple who had booked their honeymoon and ended up at the Pelican in single beds! And First Choice doesnt seem to have any power to help at all. First Choice Rep Barney speaks excellent English and I actually felt sorry for him picking up this mess evry week. He generally wanted his guests to enjoy Duni so tried his best to help.

Oh the Balconies are a real danger if you have small children as they can easily slip/climb through the big gap. Safety laws are clearly not paramount yet In bulgaria. So go open minded and understand it is a cheap,clean but primitive holiday resort, and has till now kept its own Bulgarian culture which was nice.

We went to the pelacan Hotel in Duni on recommendations of friends who went there in may 2004, This holiday was nothing like what they described.

We arrived at the hotel at 1am, first impression it was clean and the staff were friendly, we managed to get a drink from the lounge bar as it dos`nt shut until 2am there was only me and my partner in the bar which seemed strange as i thought someone would of still been up having a drink. There was no music on in the bar just a tv stood on a stage with some german channel playing out.

The room had twin beds, the carpet had stains all over it, the balcony over looked onto a roof underneath our room you could just see the hotel pool.The bathroom was nice with bath, shower and hairdryer. The tv only had one english channel which was the news channel.

The meals were horrid, breakfast - the only thing we would eat was toast and hard boild egg.
Lunch - we never ate lunch at our hotel as there wasn`t much to choose from we had lunch at the palace hotels pool restrant which had a lot more choice - pizza, chips, chicken (which didn`t look very nice) burgers i tried a burger but when i cut into it the blood ouzed out. soup and a salad bar which was always swarmed with wasps and flies.
Dinner- There was always some sort of meat but smothered in different sauces, none of the food at any of the restrants or pool bars looked freshly cooked it always looked as if it had been warmed up, my partner would only eat the soup as it was piping hot but one night they had put tripe soup on it was fair to say we never ate that night either. By day three we were so hungry we had to by biscuits and crisps from the hotel shop which wer`nt cheap.

The hotel was dead there must of only been about 30 guests which were all german we were the only english there, when we asked the girl behind the bar why there were'nt many guests there she said cos the resort was shutting down a week later. That explaind why they were moving the sun beds from around the pool and beach and why the food was warmed up so they could get rid of it.

on day 4 we enquired about how to get a flight out of there but we were told there was no more flights out until the day we were leaving, i was devastated, i just stayed in the room all day listening to the news channel over and over again.
you could'nt even sun bathe as there was'nt any sun it was dull and chilly.

we did get a taxi into the old town just to try to get someting to eat but the places there were dirty and with not having anthing proper to eat for 5 days it made my stomache churn. The few pounds i wanted to lose before the holiday i lost by the time i got home.

All in all this was the worst holiday we had been on it was so boring even the entertainment which was only on one night was in german. We came to the conclusion that it was like that cos the place was shutting down but they could of made some decent food for the guest that were there.

It was all inclusive but they defantly got there money for nothing.

If after reading this you still want to go to this hotel don't go in october go earlier in the year as our friends did and they enjoyed it.