Sunset Resort, Eta Hotel Reviews

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Good Points: The cleanliness was excellent, the pools were fantastic and the pool with the kids slides was a great hit with my two children although there was no supervision by a life guard. I loved the lazy river too. The indoor pool was fab if you wanted to do some serious swimming. The staff were very friendly. The Bowling Centre and Patisserie were also big hits with our whole family. The cakes in the Patisserie were delicious! The Italian was our favourite restaurant on the complex with prices for pizzas at about LEV9. The breakfasts in the Diamond restaurant were scrummy - excellent pancakes and loads of choice although the tea didn't seem to go down too well with the tea drinkers. The apartment was roomy, comfortable and clean. The views out to sea on the balcony and in the restaurants were beautiful. The majority of sun beds had soft cushions on which to lie which added to the feeling of luxury. The decor was really plush and you could see at a glance it was a 5* resort.

Bad Points: We were disappointed about the lack of equipment in the kitchen. There was no iron or ironing board and no cooking equipment eg kettle, pans, can/bottle opener or cork screw, although wine glasses were provided. When we asked for these we were given a broken cork screw and a pot to boil water as they had no kettles free. If we'd wanted to cook in the apartment this would have been a challenge with the equipment supplied although I'm sure the staff would have tried to provide more if we'd asked for more equipment. We were told that they wouldn't supply an iron or ironing board as they provided a laundry service which you had to pay for (LEV6 for 1 dress to be ironed!) Although there was a washing machine in the kitchen. When we finally tracked down our Balkan Holiday rep she advised there had been a nasty accident in 2007 so the hotel changed it's policy on ironing equipment. I recommend you take a travel iron. Evening entertainment was sporadic and not too good in my opinion. The balcony was small in our apartment with only 2 chairs although some apartments did have bigger balconies. There were no plug points near a mirror so if you wanted to straighten you hair this was a bit difficult. My son did have an accident by one of the pools when one leg slipped down a hole in the overflow drainage section of the pool giving him a nasty scrape and bruise. When we told the reception staff we had difficulty making them understand that they needed to repair or cover the hole to stop the same thing happening to someone else. Eventually they said they would sort it out but it was still there 4 days later! There were loads of sun beds within the resort but we still had to get up early each morning (between 7-8am) to book one with our towels. The complex states that this is frowned upon but everyone was doing it so if you wanted decent sunbeds you had to.

General comments: We stayed at Hotel Eta in August 2008 in a two bed apartment booked through Balkan Holidays over the internet. If you are looking for a relaxing, quiet time then I'd definitely recommend. The paths and pavements outside the resort were very uneven and I thought dangerous so care needs to be taken especially for those with poor mobility. The complex doesn't have a supermarket or food store so you have to venture outside if you want some basic supplies. There were some small shops selling food etc which you could get to after a 5-10 min walk. Taxis to the main town of Pomorie were Lev10 each way and only a 5 minute drive. The taxis were always directly outside the hotel so easy to find. Prices in the complex were on a par with the UK but you could get cheaper meals and drinks outside the complex although the service was sometimes fairly poor. We did find the Bulgarian people very friendly on the whole but some did seem a bit miserable, although this could have been as a result of the language barriers. There weren't too many people speaking English but we still managed as most restaurants had some English menus. Wherever we ate meals never seemed to come together and often we were left waiting for one member of the party to get their meal whilst the others had to start or eat theirs cold. This was better in the complex than outside although it did still happen at the resort restaurants. I left feeling that there were many more good things than bad though and we'd definitely consider returning.

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The Eta Hotel in Sunset Resort, Bulgaria is a real gem! It's a palace with marble floors, fabulous modern apartments, surrounded by the culture of a quiet Bulgarian town. We received a first class service from the staff, who catered to our every need. You are just seconds from the beautiful sandy beach and 10 minutes from the busy Sunny Beach resort.

I can't say I'm a fan of traditional Bulgarian food (very rich), but we chose self catering. The fruit and meat from the local shops and mar ...