Victoria Palace Reviews

Exterior and reception lobby impressive, but it's just a facade hiding rooms that are shabby, never cleaned by chambermaids, Beds stained, bed linen never changed and does not fit the bed, my wife resorted to sleeping on the sofa for 2 nights, occasionally towels not changed, bathroom/shower a joke. Staff couldn't care less, dining an experience to be missed with sub standard food that is always running out and trays not replenished particularly if allocated second sitting - they say fininshed until tommorrow, table linen never changed, cutlery disgusting, pool sunbeds like camp beds etc. etc. All this for a supposed 5* hotel is a rip off. Check out the difference with the Majestic 4* next door. We came home after 1 week of 2 weeks, willingly paid for additional flights home early. We have travelled extensively from Bali in the south to San Francisco in the west with many countries in between using 3* to real 5* and can honestly state that this hotel is the worst by far. How anybody can describe it as luxury is beyond me. The key to the hotel room worked very well (there, thats the positive out of the way)

the residence are the separate apartments from the main hotel...........where do i start..The place is filthy..there are plenty of cleaners but they dont clean.This was the WORSE place i have ever stayed in,AND,whats worse is ive stayed in much cheaper places in bulgaria ie HOTEL BELLEVILLE,and been in a much cleaner,nicer place.....AVOID AT ALL COSTS.For this money i could and should have stayed at the MAJESTIC HOTEL just up the road as i had done in 2008............ONE TO INSTANTLY FORGET!!!!!!!

We have just returned from this hotel 24th august 2009 i would not recommend this hotel to anyone, the presentation of this hotel was out of this world but that is all you get no cups left for breakfast told sorry all gone when asked. no knives or forks told sorry when asked sat on chair one evening got soaking wet, people were coming in in their wet clothes i.e swimsuits asked for a cup of tea from waiter one evening finished food waiter didnt come i do not normally complain but this was a surprise holiday from my husband for a special birthday it was totally ruined a holiday with no kids had to walk around looking for somewhere to eat every day, this is why we got half board so we could relax they do not give you a courtesy room on the day of departure we had to go down and ask at 9am on day of departure to see if we could keep the room on went and was told to come back at 10 they let us have it for 35 levs.didnt go in pool at all in the week that we were there people were putting towels on beds from midnight onwards told reception they said that they had too many guests and not enough beds but that was not the case they told us sorry they didnt want to know hotel was full of germans and russians.no entertainment in hotel all the english were complaining rep said he would be telling the company not to send english here again and advising the company not to use this hotel again that tells you something. other people were complaing about the food at least they got some it was total chaos in the dinning room germans were pushing in and pushing you out of the way if you havent booked this holiday dont you will be totally disappointed i feel more stressed now than when i went i thought people were exagerating about this hotel but it is all true once they have your money they dont want to know everything is to much trouble we have had better three star accomadation than this good luck if you have booked i would try and change it. not everybody can be wrong

This hotel can do better,as far as the hotel it self it has the WOW factor that you would exoect of a 5 star hotel, on arrival you are greeted with black marble steps at the entrance and a giant chandilier in the lobby, the whole hotel and rooms are very impressive, but sadly like a bad book with a flashy cover is where it ends. The chambermaid serviceis virtually non-existant, beds changed once in two weeks, bathroom floor mopped twice in two weeks and the bathroom never touched, room hoovered once. Dining restaurant was chaotic al all times, we were only able to get two cups of coffee at breakfast during our stay, owing to the lack of cups and huge queues. There were no western eurpeans that we spoke that would return to this hotel.

Just returned from sunny beach. just reading the reports below, its obvious none of the people who have left a bad review have stayed here. The maids clean your room every other day, the food is okay enough variation for a week, the location is excellent your on the beach and 5mins walk away from the nightlife. only down side, staff speek no english at all. This hotel in 5years will be the future

Very impressive it reminded us of hotels in Las Vegas with the design, size of the foyer areas and decoration.Cleaners were constantly to be seen mopping & dusting everywhere.Sumptious seating in the public areas & bars. Rooms were spacious & comfortable. Strange designs on the bedding, quilt covers that only covered half of the quilt so came off as soon as you moved but comfortable beds. Food a little restrictive but we manged to eat well throughout the week, often not bothering with lunch during the day. Vegetarians catered for. Plenty of fresh fruit & vegetables with choices of casseroles, chicken, beef, pork, fish & pasta. Some cups had the odd chip out of them & the occasional dirty item but with so many guests, this could happen anywhere, just select another one! Dining room staff very lethargic, clearing tables sometimes seemed a bit of an effort other times, too keen & took items before you'd finished with them. Receptionist a little aloof but manageable. If faced with a problem customer, tried to ignore or move on to the next person. Safes in the room. Not really suitable for disabled except by entering through the 'front' of the hotel. (Both entrances impressive) Pool area fantastic with Turkish loungers & sunbeds. Spar excellent!

if like me you are reading the reviews and thinking you will see for yourself then think again, i have just come back from victoria palace sunny beach after having the worst 2wks of my life, the food is absolutly discusting and i am not a faddy eater but i couldnt stomache that stuff, plates are wet and cracked, i was shown a man washing the pots as they said the dishwasher was broken,so are cups if you can find any, that goes for cutlery hot water and coffee, very small toaster that doesn't work right, extreemly rude staff, porters will attempt to take your cases up to room and when you refuse they get very agressive, obvious signs of mafia run hotel,horse rides on the beach are a big no no, we were told of a young girl who took a horse ride and the gypsey tried molested her, a man took a taxi back from nessibar and had 5oo pond stolen from the taxi driver, another man had his leg broken and a lady had her bum bag opened by a young gypsey girl at the bus stop, please please reconsider when booking your holiday this is not a family hotel nor a resort for children , the place is terrible, not enough seating in the dinning area , pool is freezing and the indoor pool expensive, if you make a lot of noise on the beach the lifeguard tells you to shut up, when you tell the rep all they say is you have to obide by there rules, if you still book this hotel all i can say is good luck and you must like to throw money down the pan

we stayed at this hotel Mid Sept 08. The Hotel location is excellent & hotel very impressive on 1st appearances but the resturaunt is an complete joke the food is ok if you like chips & stew thats about it if you get second sitting there is very little food left . your very lucky if you can find a table and then you have to find something to eat with the tables are never laid the cutlry was discusting nearly all cups Plates Dishes etc are cracked or chipped beyound belive ,i would not let my dog eat out of them . the waiters very unhelpfull, there is no dress code in the resturant either . so if you stay in this hotel DONT book half board there are PLENTY of good places to eat locally .this is no way a 4 star hotel resturant .but the hotel itself is comfortable & right on the beach but two sunbeds &one parasol will set you back £9.00 per day. also the two bridges which go over the swimming pool are extremly slippery.

I have just got back from my holiday to Bulgaria and had a great time. The hotel was brilliant, extremely clean but there was only a hand full of staff that were nice and helpful the rest were miserable. Having arrived at 1.30am we were ready for bed but couldn't get rid of the porter who had carried our suitcases, even after we said we would take them. He refused to leave until we had tipped him even after telling him we had no bulgarian change, said he accepted english and was very disatisfied with £2! The food in the hotel was awful, even going as far as unedible. I recommend going to sunny beach as its a great place but there are so many good restaurants its only worth going self catering. The aqua park is a must a great cheapish day out.

I read the reveiws before going and was woried i booked the wrong place for my honeymoon, let me set the record straight, the pictures tell the truth it's an amazing hotel, the staff are ok but english is theoir third of fourth language so if they seem rude they're not they just don't fully understand. The food, if you go early for the time your given the buffet is good, never the same on a daily basis always changing and if you go early fresh, hot and yummy, you can also get a table, turn up late, not such a good choice, hard to get a table but what do you expect for a hotel with over 650 rooms! Be realisitic! The pool was fab, the room was comfortable with a great view, cleaners came very day and if they didn't do something you can call them. All i'd say is go with an open mind, don't expect uk standards (and lets be honest they're not great) and enjoy your holiday. After all you'll make it what you want to make it. One word of advice don't go on the bikes cycled with seats the people will con you by saying they're 15 lev each then when you get to your destination will say he said 50 lev each, he'll have this in small print hidden on the bike so you can't get out of paying it, i didn't get stung with this my rep told me, and the other two things only use sunny tels telephones, if you want to call home much much cheaoer then the hotel and other booths, and only use crown exchange for money the others that say commission free use fake lev notes or money that isn't even levs so air on the side of caution.

Where do I begin???Writing this same morning of return not that this experience will ever leave me ....1St impression wow factor on hotel fantastic hotel but the truth doesnt take long to hit home..On arrival cases taken to room by hotel bell boys who will not leave your room until you tip them ..You cannot use the hotel pool area unless you buy a drink otherwise you are asked to leave the area very little sunbeds in relation to the size of this hotel...Staff are very rude very clear to see they have no training or people skills or manners they forget who is paying their wages .......Under no circmstances go half board at this establisment beleive me gordon ramsay could not sort this place out I have never ever witnessed such bad food in my entire life I understand that foreign countries food tastes are different having been to many countries but his is by far the worst.One morning I was eating my breakfast made a sandwich of scrabled egg on toast while actually eating it waiter came up and removed my plate from underneath my nose with breakfast still remaining to be eaten on my plate I was actually leaning over the plate to avoid spillage breadcrumbs etc ..Evening meals avoid at all costs my wife and I and my 8 yr old daughter ate in restaurants for the duration of this holiday there was absolutely nothing you could eat that even looked edible..My honest opinion we have your money we can do what we like now.As we live in blackpool we have seen the demise of a holiday town but I can wholeheartedly assure you this place will not last at the very most three years.It is very clear to see that this hotel is run by mafia style regime security gaurds every where you turn one guest actually told us machine guns were in clear display when visiting the spa with his wife ie the head mans gaurds.Less than twenty yards from the hotel public toilets where you pay half lev deals in cocaine crack in fact anything you wish for you can get here..In our ten day stay there were four reported incidents of robbery and muggings we were approached many times in the street by prostitutes while walking with our 8 yr old please please beleive me if this reveiw just prevents one person going to this corrupt hotel and area it will be totally worth me posting this reveiw......On contacting my first choice rep regarding the food his answer was we have to cater for everyone (including the seagulls)as I would estimate most of this awful food would and should be thrown away please avoid

This hotel is large and beautiful. Rooms cleaned daily with 24hr cleaning service. It is situated on the sea front which is fabulous. You can just walk out the front door and you are on the main stretch which is 3miles or so or shops, bars, restuarants, clubs, crazy golf etc. A small train will bring you back to your hotel each evening for a small fee if feet are tired at the end of the night. Pools are lovely only draw back is there arent enough loungers for amount of guests. We simple bought a couple of cheap lilos and just lay beside pool until one came available. Staff seemed a bit abrupt but this was common in Bulgaria and didnt worry us. Food wasnt that great but there was always something you could eat. Overall it was a great place to stay and great for people watching each night.

We stayed in these apartments as a party of 4 girls on our first holiday abroad without our families. To get straight to the point our holiday was totally ruined after 5 days due to the fact that we were robbed of all of our money. All 4 of us shared the same apartment so it was our intention to hire a safe to put all our valuables into. When we arrived at the hotel, we discovered that there were no safes in the rooms. This meant that we had to hide our valuables as we did not of course want to carry them about with us all day when we went down to the pool or the beach. When we returned to the apartment after coming back from the beach, we quickly realised that all our money was missing. We had hidden our money in a food container. There were no signs of any break in so the only people who could have entered the room were hotel staff. We reported this straight away and next day were visited by the manager and the maid who had cleaned our room while we were out. We were also joined by the Thomas Cooke rep. The manager asked the maid if she had seen the money and when she denied anything to do with it nothing else was done. We had to go to the police station on our own, this was a bit of a nightmare because only one person at the station could speak english and they weren't there at the time. It eventually took 4 trips to the police station to get a report for insurance purposes.

For the rest of our holiday we had to carry all our valuables with us every time we went out and we asked the hotel not to send any staff to our room for the remaining 6 days. All in all we had £350 stolen from our room and nobody seemed to care. We are now going through the insurance to see if we can claim any of this back .

Our holiday company, Thomas Cooke, didn't do anything to help us. The rep never enquired if we were OK for money and how we were going to get through our final 6 days. We later learnt that the rep that came into the meeting with us, the manager and the maid, did not give us the correct information because she was only in the first week of her job. We feel that a more experienced manager from Thomas Cooke, who was familiar with these sort of incidents should have been contacted or involved. Luckily we still had some travellers cheques and a credit card between us that we could use to get us through the rest of our holiday.

Anybody travelling to this hotel in the future should be very vigilent.

we booked this hotel before reading other reviews, after we read them we were very worried about going there! the worrying was unfounded, i dont know what these other people were griping about. the hotel was absolutely amazing!!! looked like it belonged more in miami than bulgaria. the hotel was spotlessly clean, rooms big and well laid out, fridge & air con were free. the food was quite good, not much choice but more than edible. the only gripe i agree with was the amount of sunbeds around the pool. the hotel has over 500 rooms but only about 100 sunbeds. if you were not up at 7am you would'nt get a bed for love nor money. the only resolve was the beach which was only 10yards away. sunny beach is a fantastic resort with more things to do for both kids and adults than i have ever seen before!! add to than the weather and value for money and you cannot go wrong( pint of beer for 40p ). i will be booking for sunny beach again next year and can't wait to go back.

After reading all the reviews on the Victoria Palace Hotel, I have to say that I do agree with all the good points. But having said that I would have to agree with all the criticisms as well. So my opinion overall of the hotel is this. The hotel is very luxurious, and the setting is perfect, the view from our balcony could not be beaten any where in the world, we were looking over the beach and around the entire resort. We were only booked into the hotel on B/B basis as we actually were a transfer from another accommodation at the last minute but we found breakfast was good, very wide variety. My only complaint on that score is that they need two people making pancakes. Cups, well, you did need to search for an unchipped cup. I always found one. We were directly over the snooker room where the music played some nights until around 3.30am. This in fact was my biggest complaint. The sun beds situation really does need sorted as we went to the beach rather than experience the unpleasantness with the sunbeds. I know this happens everywhere in the busy periods and there is not usually enough sunbeds for everyone but it definitely was a big problem at this hotel. I think the security lifting the towels exascerbated the situation. I think the solution is that no one is allowed to book a sunbed with their towel on any morning and it is a case of first come, first served. On the whole, I enjoyed my stay at the hotel, I would go back to the hotel if it was in a different resort. I found the staff were mostly very friendly and helpful. Anyone going to the Hotel should just bear the few things that are not great in mind and get on with enjoying your holiday. Anything beats going to work.