Latest Reviews for St Constantine

This resort is a beautiful place. The beaches are really nice and not to overcrowded and the people are really nice and welcoming.

We found this hotel really nice and quiet and all the staff really helpful and friendly. It was ideal for couples or a family with young children.

St Constantin is apparently a resort that has been in existance for over 100 years and in parts it looks like it. The whole resort is like a private estate with roads that are shut to traffic during the day and evening, covered in big trees, very picturesque. there is a street market on all day every day and several tavernas and bars with cheap drink and food, several banks supermarkets and chemist. The downside is no entertainment except people watching. The beaches are poor with run down facilities and rubbish and seaweed all over. The structures such as piers and walls are all falling down and corroded.Very bad advert. You must go to the Thermal bath, just to see how poor the state of the place is, very cold war communist etc.Having said all that we enjoyed our week but any longer would be too long. Be prepared for a shock if you try to walk out, leaving the resort area the roads and pavements etc are very poor, a bit like Greece years ago.

eThe Hotel Estraya Palace is a reasonably new hotel which generally is well maintained. The lobby is very small and there is nowhere to stay if the weather is poor. Any entertainment is held in the dining room, whether people are eating or not!!. The rooms are all well furnished, wallpaper on the walls and very well appointed bathrooms, fully tiled and well maintained. Very nice grounds and pool area(2 pools). Try not to get a room on the 4th floor, this is in the attic space with dormer windows and no balcony although they have a better view than all the others. Be warned, there is an outside eating area which is for smokers. there is a waitress in attendance but she wil not clean or lay tables. This is the thing that lets this hotel down, the restaurant staff are very bad at their jobs. They will not work fast to clear or lay tables, they stand around talking or dissapear completely. They dont seem to have a clue how to look after guests. Even the Germans were complaining and this is a German owned hotel.On the other hand the cleaners were fantastic. They made little designs from the bedclothes everyday, swans, flowers etc. very nice.

We had a good time simply because the weather was fantastic. A real pain for us was the flight from Cardiff as it goes via Belfast and into Borgus airport with a 2 hour bus journey to St Konstantine so check with Bulkan if this arrangement applies to your airport. This was our 5th visit to Bulgaria so will we be going back...maybe, to this hotel definately not!

This Hotel is best described as a "fur coat with no underware" excellent facilities but poor service and dreadful food. We were on Bulkan's Spice of Life package which gave us a few free extras such as half board for B&B prices. Unfortunately all the Germans, French and Bulgarian guests were on an All Inclusive package and meal times were best described as a feeding frenzy. There were not enough seats and no cutlery available no matter what time you went to the dining room and the food was just about warm but mostly inedible. One and probably the only really good point is that there appeared to be twice as many sun beds as there are guests with acres of sun bathing area's amonst the grounds...this was a first for us, it was wonderful being able to wander down and obtain a sunbed at anytime of the day. This is classed as a 5* hotel but for service and food it can be best classed as a 2/3* so beware! Unless you travel in late Aug early Sept you will not hear much English spoken which is strange as all the local signs are in English.

If you want full-on discos etc I suspect St. Konstantin is not for you - very geared to couples and older people. For rowdiness go to Golden Sands or Sunny Beach. That said it suited us fine and we are mid-40s/early 50s so not old!! We holidayed there first week in September 2008 and the resort was lovely. Bulgarian market traders were so friendly and we had a lot of laughs with them. You can tell that the resorts and Bulgaria in general is getting to grips with a market economy and investing in development.

Picked this hotel without much prior knowledge of the area or Bulgaria itself - first time visitors. We had a long transfer from Burgas to St. Konstantin but when we arrived at 2.30 in the morning we were offered a cold meat platter! Hotel was spotless and nicely situated if you don't want to be at the busy heart of a resort - we only had to walk about 500m to get to the market place and the bars. Staff were generally friendly and pleasant but limited English - this hotel largely caters for German and English folk. The rooms are so clean and all the public areas are well maintained. The pool is cold but again well looked after. Food - ah food!! Not so good although I have a suspicion that the chef was on holiday at the beginning of our week as the latter half of the week it got decidedly better!! Plenty of choice but the hot selection was not always that hot - lukewarm really. Food is served early - 6 until 8 and our advice is get there at 6 as it is then you get the best selection and it is relatively warm! Always a salad option as well as hot food. The Bulgarians don't really do dessert although ice-cream was always available. Drinks have to be bought from the bar to go with evening meals. No entertainment in the hotel although you can play table tennis and there is also a billiards table but to be quite honest the bars in the resort have enough entertainment. You can order a pedicure or manicure but only between 10 and 4 (book at reception). Make sure you get a safety deposit box (30 leva and they are in the reception area) However if you get one early in your holiday and pay for it (we like to 'pay as you go') make sure you get a receipt for it as we were charged twice (although we fought it). Overall though this hotel was very good indeed.

I was extremely apprehensive about even going to Bulgaria, however I went and boy what a surprise I had! We flew very early in the morning and arrived in Bulgaria at lunch time... at first I thought oh my god what have we done... BUT... St Konstantine is a quaint little town by the sea, with loads to do and see and a daily market street selling everything you could think of..

The Hotel Panorama was half an old building by the looks of it and half a new building... it was lovely inside with a huge reception area and very nice grounds...the pool was small but adequate and the rooms were clean and tidy and incorporatd a mini bar which was filled every day, with beer, water, chocolate and fizzy drinks.. very good value for money! The beds were big but I love my bed at home and found myself aching a little after a few days... however that was a small price to pay for the sun and sea, it was fabulous.

The resort was filled with bars and restaurants and all of them were nice, and we managed to have a 3 course meal and drinks all for 14 Leva for the two of us... around £4.65! The best place we found was the Oasis restaurant it was marvelous. The hotel/reps put loads of trips on unfortunately due to us going to look for property to buy we did not partake in them but I believe they were well worth the trip. The beach was absolutely packed, it was really hot...the beach was clean and spacious and the sea was great. the Bulgarians are very friendly paople and I thought it was a similar sort of holiday to a Greek holiday, only with more to see and do. The breakfast in the Hotel was good and there was a lot of choice...only if you go outside to eat your breakfast in the sun beware the giant seagulls... they love the leftovers and if you turn your back they are on your plate pinching your breakfast!!!highly hilarious.... The dining room was lovely and clean also.

The lift to the 3rd floor was a willy wonka style glass lift on the outside of the building and was fun to see outside whilst you were travelling up the floors. The resort was a clean friendly resort and we would go back again, kids and grown ups enjoyed it equally.

This resort is well worth a visit even if it is for a trip from another resort...the markets will fascinate you and there is never a shortage of places to stop and eat/drink. the onlt thing I would say to beware of is changing money it is illegal to do it on the streets and should only be done at your hotel or an exchange building, and make sure you know the exchange rates from English to Euros then to Levs some people got ripped off... but if you are sensible you will have a fantastic time.

This was a last minute holiday but not a cheap one, and went with the reviews on this site, when booking.
The entrance to the resort has a permanently manned police checkpoint to stop undesirables entering
On arrival at the hotel, which is on a tree-lined avenue, we were impressed as we drove through 'Kosovo' to get there. The lobby was very modern, the staff spoke english(and german, finnish, russian, dutch, etc.) We were told our room would be ready tomorrow and had an alternative for the first night.

On the ground floor at the back, we entered the 1970's. Awful, with a standing fan, which gave up the ghost, during the night, vibrating itself to death. If this was your room for a week, you would not be happy. We slept ok, despite the cat fights outside. Bulgarians do not keep pets, the streets are crawling with cats and stray neutered dogs, all perfectly amiable and clean, somehow.

Next day after a reasonable breakfast, we moved to our new room, in the 21st century. Very nice indeed, air/con, minibar, balcony and decent views(of trees). TV which is ok if you are German or local, otherwise it's CNN only.
It's a family hotel, has a large clean pool, with paddling pool, restaurant, pool bar, and cocktail bar underneath, which is always empty, but is cheap as chips, as is everywhere else. Look out for signs stating 'no guns'. For the kids, it boasts a pool table, air hockey and table tennis. In the basement, there is a sauna and massage parlour, although check out the masseuse first, not a pretty sight. V cheap, about 10-15 £ for up to an hour massage. The gym is terrible. The machines are from the ark, and it is in the laundry room, so is about 40C. Go to the Grand Varna next door if you are serious.

Can't fault the hotel, 'cept for the loss of water one morning. The staff said they were working on it. Around the same time, a hatch opened in the island in the pool and the water eventually returned, a little more chlorinated than before. To prove it, I ran myself a blue bath!! This seemed to coincide with a bug I caught, causing severe problems, and I have the constitution of an ox, never a days sick in my working life. But I had also eaten seafood earlier, so too many suspects.

The resort is strangely laid out, haphazard, dominated by the Grand Varna, which has 5 separate hotel blocks, the size of a large community. Its party beach would impress your premier league footballers, and outsiders are welcome, at £10 a day you can have a 4 poster sun bed.

THINGS TO DO:
Not much really, it rained one day, and that's when you find out. Few of the bars and eateries are covered, so they closed. The clubs are empty at night, and the place goes to sleep around 12-1. The beaches are scattered but good. The waves are strong, and there are rocks, watch your kids. There is a pipe by the Sirius where you can shower for free in hot mineral water.
EATING OUT
Lots of choice. Food is a cross of Italian pizza/pasta, Turkish kebabs, and Balkan stews which are coated in cheese and heavy on the garlic, but very filling.If you fancy a challenge eat a shashlick, at the the Chernomorets, which is an 18inch skewer of pork, the size of your fist, for 12 Lev or £4.
Places we enjoyed were Romanas, really excellent and friendly, Dolce Vita at the Grand Varna, (although we did laugh to see the staff at such a plush place eat the food we had left on our plates!!) and BBQ at Grand Varna, and the sirius 'ship' restaurant, which was a magnificent setting. A galleon with dining on 4 decks. It sounds cheesy but its not. DO NOT eat at the Ikstba, which has the local dancers, next to the small church. The food was average, and there were lots of extras added to our final bill. We had 6 items but paid for about 14. Overcharged about £10, but that was about a third of the bill. How do you argue in Bulgarian ? This did not happen anywhere else. Instead, just stand outside for 10 minutes like everyone else and watch the dancing.

VARNA
Very haphazard, few street signs and very busy. Stay away from the stalls as you get dragged around by the sellers.Head for the sea gardens for a huge choice of reataurants, miles of them. Don't eat in any that give you an English menu without prices on, they'll charge what they like. No sign of any mafia or any crime for that matter. The 2 strangest sites are the dogs asleep on paths and roads, and 100yr old gipsy women with bathroom scales trying to weigh people!

In General
V friendly people. Make friends with your taxi drivers Petar and Mikeal, and let them pick you up later, for safety reasons. Any tip is welcome at bars and restaurants, even 2-3 Lev (£1)as you can eat for £10-12 for 2, including wine (you needn't pay more than 8-15 Lev for a good bottle, dining out). The germans don't tip at all, so Brits are welcome everywhere. It's lovely, when the sun is shining, and the Bulgarians are friendly. When they adopt the Euro in 3-4 yrs time, the prices will rocket, so go now. We took 1800 Lev, expecting to take out more. We tried as hard as we could to get rid of it, taxis, snacks, tips, but couldn't spend it all, coming home with about 600 Lev

the aurora hotel is advertized as an allinclusive hotel with plenty for families to do,it was none of the above.
the cleanliness of the hotel was ok but the food was disgusting we could not believe what they served each meal,the meat dishes turned our stomachs.
we was there for 2weeks and had to buy our food in town which is only small with not alot of resturaunts to choose from but we did find figaros which was expensive but good food.
the hotel made you pay for fresh orange and diet pepsi which is all i drink as im diabetic, it advertized entertainment there was none.the children could not make any noise or play on the few games in the hotel between 1pm and 4pm as it was there siesta time.
i would warn anyone with families to avoid this hotel like the plauge as it was a total wash out.it cost us a fortune in food and taking our children out to better places for entertainment to try to make the best of the holiday when it was already paid in an allinclusive holiday.
also before i sign off it all so advertized a childrens club we never saw it in two weeks we just couldnt find it.the only good thing about this holiday was the good friends which we made with the other english people there was only about 20 of us altogether,and we couldnt wait to get home for proper food.

The hotel basically was ok,clean and well located, staff very helpful and polite and as we were told by the Rep was typical Bulgarian 4*.
Then we went to the restuarant, the food was at best 2*, very repetative, no choice, sometimes not cooked and the cheapest ingredients imaginable. One couple we met lived on banana sandwitches for a fortnight, you couldn't pay me to go there again. Don't be put off about Bulgaria or the resort we visited other Hotels and found them very acceptable even the 3*. We resorted to eating out and found the local food delicious and cheap.

P.S. This Hotel is in St. Konstantin. Not in Golden Sands.

We have just returned from a weeks holiday in Bulgaria. As we arrived the last week of the season everything was closing down, the little market in St Konstantin was lovely, good job we bought things when we saw them by the last day alot of the stalls had closed. We took a bus into Varna one day...that was the last time, would never go there again, we was warned about pick pockets ( on the bus too) i spent the whole time looking around and keeping my hands in my pockets to make sure noone could steal my money! We took a bus into Golden Sands too, again we was warned about prostitues, they are dropped off in mini buses, we saw 5 mini buses in the space of 5 minutes! As i don't like feeling unsafe we didn't go there again.

I would go back to Bulgaria again but in July, and i would defenietly stay at the Ritza Hotel, it was lovely it's the 1st time i have stayed in a room that looks exactly as it does in the holiday brochure, the food there wasn't up to much and it was always luke warm or cold, but then when we was chatting to people from other hotels there's was the same. The management, receptionist and the cleaners couldn't do enough for us, so pleasant and helpful, and the cleaners came and cleaned everyday and changed the towels and sheets everyday too, they even left little swans and heart shapes with the towels.

Over all a good holiday, would go there again but only to St Konstaintin, so so very cheap too!

This is a follow up review to our earlier reviews from this summer (June). We re-visited in late Sept. 2006.

Was quite shocked when we saw the Koral in September at the end of the season as it has some very obvious signs of water leakage in the main downstairs areas. When we were there in June the hotel was immaculate but large 60cm to 1m patches of black mould were to be seen on the ceilings.

As this hotel is usually spotless, we do hope that these will be fixed, now the hotel has shut down for the winter.

Thw food was also not up to it's usual high standard and I can only assume that as it was the last week of the season they were using up what they had left.

Staff (as usual) were brilliant and we will return to the Koral in April next year.