Nikea Park

Hello all,

I%26#39;ll be traveling to Golden Sands at the end of May 2008 and have booked a week at the Nikea Park Hotel.

Does anybody, and I mean *anybody*, have experience with this place?

I%26#39;ve looked through German- and English-language websites about the place, but it seems there is nobody who%26#39;s written a review. The main reason for this is that the place is brand new, with a scheduled grand opening in May 2007 (though perhaps fully opened only as of Autumn 2007?).

From what I%26#39;ve pilfered from loads of various webpages, the Nikea Park is a mixed-function building, with many units up for sale on the second-home real estate market and others being administered by travel agencies (lastminute.com) on a weekly basis.

I know that the hotel is a bit away from the main drag of Golden Sands (which is not a bad thing for what we%26#39;re looking for); and I understand that we can use the beach at the Riveria Hotel on the south end of the Golden Sands Resort. I%26#39;ve seen loads of pictures of the various units in the building (at least of those on sale) and of the amenities in the hotel. But I%26#39;d love to hear if anyone%26#39;s got real first-hand experience.

Thanks!

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if you are using the beach at the riviera you should also be able to use the ammenities we re staying at the nympha in the riviera resort its not far from the action in golden sands but enough away for it to be quiet have you been to bulgaria before

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Thanks again for your reply, lalWales!

I%26#39;m looking forward to the trip even more now!

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there some marvelous restaurant in golden sands the irish bar at the hotel sofia and try the cocktail bar at the shipka hope you have a lovely time we cant wait to go june 20th

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Hello Mainz,

I need your advise. I have booked 10 days at the Nikea Park Hotel and I want to know if you were pleased by your holiday there.

I want to know how far is the hotel by the beach and how was the meal because we have HB included.

Thank you!

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Hi, we actually bought an appartment within Nikea Park, which is used by friends and family, and have visited twice since we purchased it at the end of last season.

Not being biased, and honest for you, but I was very impressed with the place - it was new last summer and when we went out there first of all we thought there may be some bits not finished, but that was certainly not the case and it has been built to a very high standard.

The rooms are very nice and if you have a sea view, then it is very pleasent as this view is over the top of the trees in the group and is uninterupted by other hotel buildings.

In terms of it%26#39;s location, it is about a 5-10 minute walk into the entrance to the Golden Sands resort, no more than that - if you walk down the road leading to it from the main road then it will take longer, althernatively there is a path which cuts the walk down.

It is outside of Golden Sands and therefore is quieter (ie, it is pieceful and you don%26#39;t here crowds etc) that you do in Golden Sands, but you are close enough to be right at the centre of the action if you want to.

I hope that helps, but if you need to know more, then let me know.

Jason

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Hi Cristiana,

we%26#39;re back from a great and relaxing stay in Golden Sands.

Here%26#39;s what I%26#39;d say, briefly, about Hotel Nikea Park:

We found the staff to be helpful (especially the barmen and the shuttle bus drivers), though many of the women at the front desk were a little less than informed.

The hotel pool was not open for use when we arrived, though it seemed to be opened, of course, the day before we left. Our queries as to this went generally unheeded. The gorgeous pool bar was not running during our stay. In the course of our week there they only very slowly went about setting it up, though without any hint of interest in actually having it open for guests.

The hotel restaurant was, as far as we could tell, not open. I have no idea what this will mean for you if you%26#39;re booked HB. We went down on four occasions to try the restaurant--on nights when we just didn%26#39;t feel like trucking down the resort--but it was locked and lights were off.

The self-catering services are inadequate if you hope to do anything bolder than eat yoghurt and cheese and bread. There was nothing in the kitchen besides two glasses, two mugs, two plates and bowls, and two sets of cutlery. There was also a hot water kettle. But there was no sharp knife, no pots or pans, no can opening, no bottle opener, nada. So do not plan to be able to prepare anything in your room.

Our %26quot;sea-view%26quot; (which we booked), we were informed, was one even though we, on the first floor, could see nothing of the sea. Our request to be moved to a room with a proper sea view were answered with a %26quot;maybe in a few days%26quot; but with no action.

There was no cleaning service between our second day and our last day (over a seven-day stay), something that made washing up (which the cleaning lady helpfully did on those days when the room was cleaned) of the dishes without soap and without any sort of sponge or dishcloth a bit harder. The sheets were not changed until the day before our departure--a rather odd cleaning schedule decision, really.

The hotel is a bit further outside of the resort than is normally described. It takes about 12-15 minutes to get to the *beginning* of the resort and of the beach. As far as we could tell and as far as the poorly informed front-desk people could tell us, the beach at the Riveria was not free of charge to us. You would have to pay to use this beach. And therefore, you have to go the full distance to the resort beach. Which is, as I said, at least 12 minutes on foot--in flip-flops a bit longer down the sometimes tricky footpath through the woods. And to get to the start of the rash of restaurants in the center of the resort, you should expect a stroll of about 15 minutes at the least.

The %26quot;supermarket%26quot; in the hotel was not, as far as we could tell, restocked at all during the week we were there. This meant that water became increasingly difficult to come by. And we had to shlep water jugs from the resort back to the hotel.

The beach shuttle service as indicated on our booking--through holidayhotels.co.uk---was apparently news to the front-desk staff. Several attempts to tell us that there was no such service were countered on our part by a print-out of the hotel description from our booking service. The drivers of the shuttle buses were, once we finally established our right to said service, great, very friendly, and very flexible.

The bar in the hotel is pleasant, and drinks are fantastically cheap: half-litres of beer and glasses of wine running 2 lv = ca. 1 euro apiece. It%26#39;s a great place to wrap up the evening.

If you need to get a taxi transfer from the airport to the hotel, especially after hours, we%26#39;d recommend motoroads.com. It turned out that our transfer in both directions at the beginning and again this morning was with the same, very charming and very helpful taxi driver, who I presume received the commission from motoroads. We paid 27 euros each way (during day-time hours it should be 21 euros); it might be cheaper to contact the driver directly. I would definitely recommend him: Krasi at ++359 888 992 443.

On the whole, we found the state of the hotel to be very good, though the hallway on the ground floor to the rooms was horrible and several large blots on the carpet looked disturbingly like blood. The interior of the rooms is very new, which we were quite keen on. Our balcony was miniscule, though, and, as I said, there was certainly no view of the sea, not even if you got up on a chair on the balcony and then stood on your tippy-toes.

Being away from the madness of the resort--which during our week actually wasn%26#39;t too mad, though I suspect during the peak season, it%26#39;s jam-full--was quite nice. But sometimes it would have been great to have been closer to the hotel from the beach.

If you have any further questions about the hotel please let me know. I figure that since I could find only a single, German-language review of the place, the more information that%26#39;s available about it online, the better.

Enjoy your time in Bulgaria! Once you get the beach, it really is worth it!

Cheers

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Dear Chicago,

Thank you for your advise.

Your answer made me to change my mind. I canceled my tickets for Nikea Hotel and I have booked others for Edelweiss Hotel.

I wish to be better.

Cristiana

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Hi,

I am one of the owners of an appartment in Nikea Park. It is a nice new complex and only about 15 mins walk from the main drag of Golden Sands, and about 250 metres to the beach too. What I would say about the place is that 5 stars in Bulgaria is more like 4 star in the UK. The biggest let down about the place is the staff, they are bloomin miserable although that has to be said of the locals in general. Otherwise the facilities are nice and if you get a forward facing appartment then you get amazing sea views, especially if you are in on of the appartments at the end of the building which has 180 degree uninterupted views of the ocean. My appartment is 307b but I have rented it for the summer. 308b is another good one, they are both just one bedroom, if you would like 2 bedrooms you need to go up one level. If possible don%26#39;t get an appartment below the 3rd floor, just because the tree line may hinder your view of the ocean.

Hope this helps.

Paul.

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Hi all!

I%26#39;m one of the owners of appartments at Nikea Park Hotel. Is anybody aware of the water supply problem inside the building? May be somebody knows the solution? Is anybody has faced other difficulties living there?

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Hi, I am also an owner at Nikea Park, very clean good location but I think staff have a lot to learn, can other owners please contact me to discuss experiences, fees ect.