Helios Park Hotel    

First of all - you have to know that this hotel complex is really 2 hotels: Helios SPA and Helios PARK. Although they use the same phone number, same address in advertizing, same swim pools....they are really two seperate creatures. My two teenage sons and I stayed in the HELIOS PARK Hotel for 5 nites at the end of our family homeland heritage tour of Bulgaria. So this is really a review of the HELIOS PARK HOTEL in the HELIOS SPA COMPLEX. Our room WAS spacious. We had a cement balcony .... with one broken plastic chair. The double bed was adequate for two. Included breakfast was adequate - lots of German things - pickled herring, hot dogs - some cheeses and hard boiled eggs - instant coffee and hot water machines - stale bread, fruit flavored juice water, plums and fruit cocktail. It did have air conditioning....that was a relief. The 3 pools were great.... except that all deck chairs were taken by 9am, and the pools closed early evening. Entertainment was interesting. One nite was the hotel daycare kids singing songs. There was an Elvis impersonator nite. Kareokee one night. A fashon show. One night was a lip synked dance show by the staff. And a movie in english, with bulgarian subtitles. Most of the staff spoke English. Out of the entire staff: One bellhop was helpful and friendly, and showed my 16 year old son all around. One female deskclerk was friendly and helpful. Bad Points Our taxi did not even know there was a difference in hotels. He let us off at the Spa Hotel desk. They did not have our reservations and did not offer to help us in any way. Finally, with noses in the air, they moved us off to one side and called for a bellboy from the Park Hotel to escort us down the hill and through a maze of hallways to the Park reception desk. All without a word of explanation or help. We booked this room far in advance, through a Bulgarian friend who used a Bulgarian travel agency. We provided the same information as we did for our stay in several other 3 star Bulgarian hotels across the country. Let me tell you.... what a difference. This hotel cost at least double what the others did... and was far, far inferior. PLUS.... after we got there they told us that they hadn't charged us enough and wanted MORE money!!! None of the other hotels we stayed in did that! Our room was moldy and mildewy. In fact the first day we returned to the room midday to find a worker, unannounced, scraping paint onto our toilet kits in the bathroom and painting.... while we had rented the room!!! The room smelled of paint for the rest of our stay! Access was easily gained by anyone coming down the crowded public stairway via our "balcony"... and in fact my sons got into the room that way once when they did not have a key. The people in the room next door were very noisy till all hours of the night, although one of them did quiet down when we said something. Found out later that they were staff in the hotel. The room was for 3 people. The double bed was adequate for two, but the fold out bed for the third was a joke. It was too narrow for anyone... a child would fall out, and it was too small for a teen. The elevators in the Park Hotel were downright scarey. The were tiny, hot, and stopped between floors - jerking up and down, and sometimes missing floors altogether even though the button was pushed. Other meals - forget it if you are not on the all-inclusive plan. They aren't set up to take money... even getting a snack at the pool bars proved difficult and time consuming. Most of the staff spoke English.... but for some reason communication with them still was very difficult. It was hard to get information out of them... and then most of the time it turned out to be wrong information. It was even difficult to get a taxi or pre-arrange anything through the desk. We left tips for staff, food service people, housekeeping... but that did not seem to make any difference in the level of service. We had a Bulgarian friend trying to call us.... and when she asked for our room number she kept getting the same room number in the SPA hotel.... but no one at the hotel desk would help her get the right room. Another friend could not get directions how to get down to the desk at the Park Hotel...and we ended up having to hike up the hill, through the maze to the Spa Hotel desk. General Comments I would never stay in this hotel again. Unfortunate to end our stay in a wonderful country like Bulgaria with this as the finale.

JUST BACK FROM THE HELIOS PARK HOTEL,GOLDEN SANDS.THE HOTEL IS IN THE IDEAL PLACE,CENTRAL TO ALL YOUR NEEDS BUT THERE ARE PROBLEMS WITH THIS HOTEL,THEY PUT FAMILY'S ON THE SAME FLOORS AS GROUPS OF TEENAGERS WHO ARE HELLBENT ON MAKING AS MUCH NOISE AS POSSIBLE UNTILL THE EARLY HOURS OF THE MORNING,PLAYING FOOTBALL ON LANDINGS AND SHOUTING SCREAMING AND BANGING ON DOORS.THE FACILITIES AT THIS HOTEL ARE HOWEVER GOOD,THE SPA IS FIRST RATE,BUT A LOT OF THE GYM EQUIPMENT WAS BROKEN AND THE POOLS COULD BE CLEANER.THE STAFF WERE VERY POLITE AND HELPFULL ESPECIALLY ADRIANNA ON RECEPTION,BUT BEWARE THERE ARE SOME STAFF MEMBERS AT RECEPTION WHO WILL TRY TO CHARGE YOU FOR ANYTHING THEY CAN.I WOULD NOT RETURN TO THE HELIOS PARK BUT DID ENJOY MY TIME IN GOLDEN SANDS AND WOULD GO BACK!

Have just returned from the Helios Park Hotel, where I endured the worst two weeks holiday I have ever had. The first week of the holiday saw Belgian students celebrating end of school graduation ceremonies,which involved a disco till 2.30am followed by drunken youths running through the hotel banging on any residents doors, shouting, arguing, fighting & causing general mayhem until 5.00 or 6.00am. Despite many complaints from my party ( 9 guests ) the hotel management did nothing to address the situation. In fact they told us we would have to put up with it until the thursday when the final party would be held and the students would be going home. The students did leave on the Friday but far from being the answer to our problems it was only the begining as they were replaced by coachloads of German students who were even worse!! They took great joy in getting as drunk as possible then making as much noise as possible along with trashing rooms and throwing things in the swimming pool. This hotel seems to be a Mecca for noisey ignorant youths who think it funny to ruin other peoples holiday. It is definitely not the "family friendly" hotel they advertise it to be! I know many people who will certainly not be going back!!