Latest Reviews for St Constantine

This hotel is a lovely hotel (all inclusive) and the accomodation was great, unfortunately as stated in the brochure there was no entertainment,the wine was watered down and the food and hygeine in the restaurant left alot to be desired, it was cold and the same food was served constantly every day and night for two weeks and food which was uncovered was swarming with flies. We managed not to suffer from any stomach bugs by asking the Rep to get a Microwave put in the restaurant in order that we may heat our food up. The Hotel has a Gymnasium which is great but which was left unsupervised and children would play in there and luckily whilst we were there there were no accidents but i'm sure there will be. It also had an indoor pool and Whirlpool which was also great, but again was unsupervised and not good for children as it was next to the gymnasium with only a door to push open and they were in there in the pool unsupervised.

The area of St. Konstantine itself is a lovely place plenty of bars and restaurants and a great market place which is open all day and most of the night. It is very cheap to eat and drink out a litre and half bottle of Stella Artois is 50p. We had a pizza each (4 people) 2 big bottles of Grolsh, 2 big bottles of Stella, 4 glasses of wine, 2 bottles of Sprite and it cost 28 Levs which is just under 10 pounds. You must to into the Grand Varna Hotel it is fantastic, outside it dosn't look like much, but inside is beautiful there is also a bowling alley downstairs which you can use and a couple of bars.

All in all the country is beautiful but I would not recommend anyone stay at this hotel unless they like cold food and a lack of hygeine in the restaurant, the staff at the hotel were lovely apart from the staff in the restaurant who were very solemn and shrugged shoulders if you asked them anything, if anything ran out at meal times (meals were 7pm to 9pm)at 8.15pm!! they shrugged shoulders to say ";nothing left"; we ate out quite alot needless to say.

You must pay a visit to Nessebar, it is so beautiful, an old town and a new town with a wonderful market and small cafes, restaurants and bars and old churches, well worth a visit.

We did like Bulgaria in its entirety and feel that maybe in another 5 - 10 years they will be able to cope with the number of visitors that they have to their country they seem to be struggling at the moment and don't seem to realise, I think that we are there customers (bread and butter) and should be treated with that in mind.

St Konstantin is a very quiet resort, a little run-down but I'd gone for a peaceful break and returned feeling very relaxed. I'd say it was more for older couples and wouldn't recommend it for single travellers - one place refused to serve me as a woman on my own, and I felt a bit uncomfortable walking round the centre in the evenings.

The Hotel Estreya is very clean and the restaurant staff were welcoming and pleasant, but the hotel has little else going for it. The food was disgusting and sometimes unidentifiable. The same dessert was offered every day: plain yoghurt, tinned cherries, chocolate biscuits, and just to make the point we got them for breakfast as well. The reception staff don't speak English. The hotel has no lounge or indoor bar and the public indoor seating consists of a settee in the lounge and one by the exchange desk. If it rains you just have to sit in your room!

As for Balkan Holidays - I'd never travel with them again. I'd pre-booked a spa package and their rep (who spoke very little English) said he knew nothing about it and was completely unhelpful. He didn't even know if there was a pharmacy in the resort! (Yes, there is, a very good one.)He provided no details were provided about being picked up for the return journey home and my airline ticket had the wrong departure time printed on it.

St Konstantin is a place with its own charm and if I'd stayed in a better hotel with a decent tour operator I'd have enjoyed it a lot more.

First of all do not think twice about going , this place is amazing ,the locals speak , english, russian and german . 99% are the lovliest people you could meet.

FOOD. First ,try the kavarma,a pork stew with a poached egg cooked in a bulgarian pot, all the food is wonderful ,if you are adventerous, try the breaded veals tongue. Children will always find something, believe us with a fussy 12 year old.A small cafe we frequented (name escapes me) did a hock (haxe), which just fell of the bone , enough for two on it, 12 leva (£4).Berlinda's pizza was excellent value for money too about 7 leva (£2.30) for a 15 inch pizza .3 leva is a good guide to £1.

HOTEL We booked a family room and were very suprised at what we got .we walked in to find a double put-me-up and a single bed and thought oh #### until we discovered a door which led to another double bed. The staff were all very young and very helpful but it could have done with some senior authority .The pool was lovely ,but although the food next to the pool was good the staff were not .24 hour bar in the hotel. The indoor pool is very warm and nice if it rains.

MARKET Trainers are cheap ,as are zippo lighters,t-shirts, cardigans, watches,wallets,period style photos,pottery and bags . PRICES Beer 50p a half litre Bottle of wine £1.00 Good bottle of wine £1.85 (honest its good) T-shirts £3 Diesel cardigan £10 Diesel trainers £7 Zippos £1.20 (my mate has still got one i gave him 2 years ago) Watches £5 Wallets £3 Meal for two adults and two kids with a bottle of wine and soft drinks £15 Daily mail £1.75

ADVICE Pay for your excursions in sterling and cash your money in bulgaria a much better rate .they will only accept good condition notes , no tears or writing on them .

EXCURSIONS Day trip to nessebur was nice though a long journey , over two hours ,country people and discover bulgaria are a must ,lots of wine tasting and meals included ,go to varna ,about 1 leva each on the bus (ours broke down,all part of the fun ) Nessebur £12 (no meal) kids £8 Country people about £25 kids £16 Discover bulgaria the same , one of them takes you on a trip along the danube.

DUTY FREE Wait till you go home and get them at varna airport 200 bandh £8, bottle of jack daniels £12. you can only pay in euros or sterling .

See you there next year ,i will be wearing the celtic shirt.

We only booked flights as we were due to stay in a villa which was cancelled on us 2 days before.
I found this hotel on the internet.
When we arrived we couldn't believe how nice the hotel was compared to everything we had drove past on the way.

We stayed in the 3* part of the hotel but also booked a 1 bedroomed apartment because of the baby. When we entered the room we couldn't believe how large it was, there were 2 bedrooms a sitting area (complete with sky tv, fridge, large sofa etc...)

on our first day in the hotel we were very imperessed the pool was spotless and the rooms were cleaned almost immediatly, i cant say very much for the breakfast, omlette everyday (im not sure it was cooked to well either)they must cater for the more dominent nationalities....
We noticed over the next week the standard of the pool slipping and soon realised it's cleaned for the next set of guests coming (hence the ear infections) its also freezing cold.
The staff at the hotel are fantastic and cannot do enough for you, the bar is open 24 hours a day and there is constantly a lifeguard on duty through the opening times.

I would definatly reccomend this hotel but the resort itself leaves nothing to be desired. I haven't ever been to such a quiet place (don't forget we had a baby)
Restaurants i would recommend are the Indian Deli at the bottom of the road and a place just after the HAPPY bar (it is dearer than anywhere else though)
It's a shame the hotel is not in golden sands....

Hotel Rubin in small resort of St Konstantine
very quiet resort, hotel 99% German, staff all German speakers, British a rare breed here.
Hotel clean and modern but food very ordinary and repetative
Entertainment all in German what there was of it.
Would not go back if it was free.

We were all inclusive but did eat out a few times where we found the food moderate at best, everything very inexpensive but that is not everything.
overall holiday rating, poor

Our first time in Bulgaria and recomended to us by parents who really enjoyed it at The Grand Varna. This maybe because they were on Balkan Hols 'spice of life' deal and got free extras-tea in afternoon, trips and spa treatments. We paid extra for these and on the whole enjoyed the holiday.

I did not like hotel dining room at breakfast and didn't go down again after first morning as it made me so annoyed I couldn't face it! No table free and the waiters very unhelpful about this. Then (to my horror!) no hot water available for my cup of tea! We asked three times and after half an hour we were reluctantly given a small cup. There was no knifes forks or spoons on tables - people were helping themselves from waitresses dumb waiter! I won't go on...only to say I was shocked at this a 5 atar!

Little bar across the road was good for BBQ meats and rice etc. food and drink- so cheap its amazing. Taxi ride into Varna (£3.60)for restaurants only 20 minutes away.

The hotel offers treatments and I had 3 daily facials which were expertly done and very relaxing.

We went on a few of the trips which were good. Would recomend the Bulgarian fiesta night and boat trip with fishing. Also opera was fun and costumes amazing also good value evening out.

Bought a stock of very cheap face creams etc. Real bargains!

Most of locals looked pretty miserable but considering it was the last week of the season this was understandable as they probably have no work for 6 months now.

Over all I'm glad to have been to Bulgaria but probably won't go back again in the near future.

The hotel was absolutley disgusting, bugs in the bedroom, bare wires hanging out, kids running reception, very noisy,the beds were wet, the safe behind the reception desk left open with key under desk. It was a horrible experience, there is nothing nice to say about this hotel.

We heard lots of good things about Bulgaria, so decided to go before it joined the EU. Chose the Ritza for it's looks.
Originally we were supposed to fly from Humberside, but 8 weeks before departure date, flights changed to Leeds/Bradford, apparantely this happens every year.

St. Konstantine is an odd place, it is so neglected, which is such a pity, although it does add to it's charm. It must have been quite impressive when the Communists first started to use it. The best area is at the eastern end of the beach, where there are newer, more expensive Hotels.
The Ritza is situated in the NW of the resort, the walk to the market is very pleasant, one of the nicest roads, even though it is a dual carriageway, and not many cars on it,in Bulgaria.

The food and drink is extremely cheap, as well as most other items.
We were advised not to exchange at the money booths, but had no problem with them.
Visited Sunny Beach, would not hoilday there for free, too crowded, too noisy and quite a bit more expensive than St. Konstantine. Also visited Golden Sands, like it very much, plenty to do there.
We are hoping to return to Bulgaria next year, but do not want to stay at the Ritza.
The staff at the Ritza could not have been nicer, the rooms are excellent. The food was different, but not inedible.

The hotel lacked something, a bit of life. This was mainly due to the manageress, everyone jumped when she was around. We took an instant disliking to her when she shut the dining room door in my wife's face, not an accident.

As I said earlier, we are hoping to visit Bulgaria next year, have seen two Hotels that we like the look of. One is the Mistral, but as yet we are unable to book it.

One thing that nobody warned us about, was buying 'Duty Frees' at Varna Airport, everything is marked up in EUROS, they will exchange £,$ and DM, but no Bulgarian Leva. Their exchange rate is ridiculous, my wife wanted cigarettes, 400 came to 18 Euro(£12), but because we had no euros and they wouldn't take leva, I used sterling, which came to £18. So get some EUROS before you go on holiday.

When we booked our holiday we didn't know what to expect as we were allocated on arrival.

We had an early Sunday evening flight and we was delayed about an hour, so our holiday didn't start very well! We had read up on this site about the aircraft that Balkan Holidays use, was a clapped out machine, this however was untrue but the rest was. There was no entertainment, no decent food and no communication from our pilot about us landing at Varna as it came as a shock to everyone on the plane.

After 20 minutes of queuing at the passport control, we then had to wait yet another 20 minutes for the carousel to decide to give our cases, which had another set of cases from other flights so people were beginning to get very cranky as it was the early hours of the morning.

We found the rep to find out where we were stopping, and it was in a hotel that didn't appear in the brouchure, never mind on the map that was given to us by the rep!
When we finally arrived at the hotel, we had to walk up a long pathway and thought to ourselves what we had come to. We got checked in ok, then we had to find our room.

The room was very small and very basic, but because we had a long day we thought it was alright until we got up the next morning. The view we had was a back yard of a local's house and had the joy of looking up to her washing line full of her BIG BLOOMERS!!

The next day we spoke to the receptionist and told her we wasn't happy with our room and asked if we could move. The new room we had was much better, it had a double balcony, seprate bedroom and living area and the view was much better at the front.

As the hotel was only a 2* didn't really expect much, but we did think that the rooms would be a little more decent than what we got the 1st time round. Also this hotel had 1 advantage from many other 2* hotels and that was that this had its own swimming pool that was a decent size, but very cold when you got in it!!

We spent most of our time in Golden Sands as it was only a 10 minute bus ride that cost 1 lev 60 stotinki's (about 50p for both of us) and the area, markets and atmosphere was more for us.

St Konstantin market was very small and full of German's within 10 minutes of walking around you would have done all the market's.

While in Bulgaria you will need to be aware of taxi driver's, they will pester you to have a ride with them. They will collar you even when you are waiting at the bus-stop. Eventhough the taxi to/from Golden Sands and Varna are cheap, the buses are cheaper still.

On our trips to Golden Sands, we found plenty of nice places to eat. There was Kingdom, La Mamba and the Rocks. They all did great pizza's and pasta meals, but are loads more choice on the menu if you wanted to try something different.
Overall we did have a great time at St Konstantin as the people we met were brilliant and we will definatly go back, but will go to a more lively resort for more our age.

St Konstantin is an ideal resort for people who want a more relaxed atmosphere, but when they want a change of scenery can always jump on a bus/ taxi and go to nearby Varna/ Golden Sands.

the hotel does look a bit off putting when you first arrive,but once you step inside what a welcome!we had booked a family room which was worth paying the extra for as it had a seperate bedroom and a bath as well as a shower over the bath(great with kids)the rooms were really clean and the maids would change the towels and bedlinen every couple of days.

the pool area was nice and clean with a kids pool too.views from the sky bar are great of a night and all the guests seem to meet here for a few drinks. the manager irena is very friendly and helpful and is really making the hotel come alive.the hotel runs a mini bus to take you to the main town and bring you back again,but it is quite cheap to get a taxi(about 8 leva).there are three nice restaurants within walking distant,turn right out of the hotel up the road to the bar on the corner and you will see the signs for margarita and soleroe,also hotel perla.

all are worth a visit.if you are looking for a nice quiet relaxing holiday this is the place.