Yavor Hotel

Looking back we all had a good holiday. There were 5 of us - three adults and two kids. I'll try to comment on the different parts of the hotel and area in general.
- Cleanliness
On the whole the hotel was very clean. The rooms always smelt very clean, and the bed linens were replaced every day. Unfortunately the rooms only had one bin (in the bathroom) so rubbish was a bit of a problem, but in general, if you left a bag of rubbish near the door the cleaners would take them. The pool was very clear and the chlorine wasn't too strong. However, band aids and the like did float around for quite a while before being scooped out by the cleaner who came round a couple of times each day.
- Elevator
The hotel only has one elevator which can carry up to 350kg - enough for two adults or one adult and two children. When you arrive, don't expect to ride the elevator up to your room, because the porter will load it up with your bags, and will expect you to follow him up the stairs.
- Staff
In general the staff were pleasant, but not very talkative. Don't try to ask them where anything is in the area because they won't tell you. There are quite a few maps in the lobby though, and if you go through an agency (such as First Choice) during the welcome morning you'll get a book with maps and excursions listed inside. The bar staff were friendly, but were clearly in it for a fast buck.
If you give them more than they ask for don't expect any change because they'll start serving the next customer. I'll talk more about money later in the comment. The porters will help you with your bags when you arrive and when you leave, but beware it is a tipping service, and when you change your money in the UK, you'll usually get nothing smaller than 10lv. If possible, and if you have enough people in your party, have someone run into the little shop next to the hotel to buy a coke or something. It'll cost you around 2lv (60p), and you'll get 8 in change; 5 of which you should give to the porter. Bare in mind that their monthly pay is around 100, so 10lv is quite a lot of money.
- Pool
The pool is open from 8am - 6pm each day, but a lot of people woke up early to put towels on the sun beds before 7. There are signs up everywhere asking people not to do this, and we were told that if you see a towel on a sun bed for more than an hour with no one with them we could take them off and use them. This is, as you can imagine, easier said than done. There is no charge for the sun beds. There is a pool regulation sign up with the usual - no running, no diving in the shallow end, etc. There is a sign up about no night swimming. Not that anyone paid attention to this though, as night swimming was a regular occurrence and no one from the staff said anything.
- Safety Deposit Boxes and Passports
SDBs are available for 7lv a day. When you arrive at the hotel the staff will take your passports in exchange for your key, and they will keep them in open boxes behind the counter. If you pay for a SDB they will put the passports in the SDB, but will accompany you to the box each time you go to put something in or take something out, and will not allow you to take them. If you do need your passport (such as on the excursion to Turkey) you pay a 100lv (per passport) deposit, as well as your room key, which is then refunded on your return.
- Food
We travelled B&B. I have to say, the breakfasts were one of the most disappointing parts of the holiday. Breakfast is between 7:30 and 10:00, and as long as you were down at exactly 7:30 you could have chocolate croissants and cold milk. Any later than this, and you were out of luck. The milk is put out at 7:30, so if you come down at 9:00 or 9:30, the milk will be warm. They only make about 50 of each item as well, so while there are a few Danish pastries as well at 7:30, by 8 they were gone. The hot food is awful, and the orange juice is very weak squash (I'd say 4:1). From others that we've spoken to, lunch and dinner is a little better, but the people we know are returning next year are going B&B or self catering.
- Money
Everything in Bulgaria is unbelievably cheap. To give you some idea, 1lv is approximately 33p, which is quite handy, because you can just take a third of everything. Sunny Beach is renowned as being the fake capital of Bulgaria... absolutely everything is fake, but obviously really cheap. A 'Rolex' watch is 10lv - £3.30! Food is very reasonable, but varies greatly in its quality. We were a party of 5, and each of us having a three-course meal came to around 80lv - £26. One of the most annoying things in the area was the restaurant staff out on the street practically chasing us down the street to get us to eat at their restaurant.
- Locally
While Sunny Beach was nice, it was good to get out of the city and visit nearby Nessebur (also spelt Nessebar). The cheapest way to travel is by taxi. A single trip is around 25lv, for as many people as you can cram in the taxi. There are no seatbelt laws, so we often saw taxis with 6 or 7 people in them. Taxi drivers will often do you a deal if you agree to travel back with them. We often paid 20lv when we agreed to meet the driver at a specific point to go back with him. The boat is nice, but a bit pricy. Also, the sea is extremely rough, so if you get a bit seasick, steer clear!
One of the nicest ways to see the local area is to hire a golf cart. We paid 60lv for two hours, but we got one to seat the five of us. There are cheaper ones but they seat fewer people. Also, if you hire a non-motorised one, you can hire one for 80lv for the whole day!
I hope this was helpful.

Just back from 2 weeks at Yavor Palace, very nice hotel we had bed and breakfast and found food to be fine except for the queue at toaster!
We booked at last minute and found the Resort too big and commercialised for our liking, also did not find it as cheap as we had been lead to believe. Went to Aqua Park which was good but entrance expensive and were going to take boat trip to Nessebar but at 15 lev each, each way for a 20 minute trip found it far too expensive for the five of us.
The food was very plain and tasteless kids ate pizza most nights and we didn’t like how you ordered your main course and had to order "garnishes" i.e. chips/potatoes and salad or veg separately which took the cost up so it was not as cheap as it looked.
Apart from hotel staff found the Bulgarians quite bad mannered, intimidating and very grumpy.
We enjoyed cocktails at the end of each evening at the Mexican Bar at the Kuban Hotel next door on the way back to Yavor . The worst thing was the PR people pulling you into bars/restaurants when all you wanted to do was stroll and select yourself.
Although we enjoyed our holiday, would not go back.

Just back. Read some bad reviews before we went, found most of them to be untrue.
No cockroaches. Hotel clean and maids never stop cleaning. Room cleaned every day, clean towels left on beds in the shape of swans, thought it was a nice touch. Small fridge to keep your beer cold, only complaint about room was no drawer space.
Went bed and breakfast, food wasn’t too bad. Check toasters are on at high or you’ll wait till lunch time for your toast.
We all loved the pool. Hard to find a quiet bar. Went to Mexican bar every night beside hotel Kuban. Try a pancake from the pancake stall, they are yummy.
Spent a day at the pool at hotel Kuban, we had great fun on the slides.
Really busy on the streets at night food and drink cheap, plenty of crazy golf places.
Personally would say Sunny Beach more for young people.
The beach is five minutes from hotel. The hotel is well situated just round the corner from all the nightlife shops and bars.
Hotel staff were pleasant all the time. Went on a jeep safari, it was really good. Only nightmare are the pr workers there, outside every bar and restaurant trying to get you in for a meal or a drink.
Wouldn’t go back to Sunny Beach to busy for us but would like to try somewhere else in Bulgaria.

My family and I have just returned from 2 weeks stay at Yavor palace, we found it a great hotel very clean and the bar staff were always happy to help with a smile or a song especially “sissy “even though the hours they do for pennies.
The maids where always cleaning somewhere in the hotel and where there if you needed them even after cleaning your room. The food was very basic but always something for everyone even my son who is a very picky eater, the rooms where very clean and spacious.
I found sunny beach a great place to go and lots to do, they have bungie jumps for all ages para gliding boat trips, 3D cinema, horse riding and mini golf and loads more. there are loads and loads of restaurants my favourite was Djannys, great food and of course great prices night clubs and bars were endless too.
I didn’t get bitten at all from the mosquitoes but a few did especially my cousins Mandy and Rosey they seem to be mosquito’s magnets.
I could go on and on about this place there’s so much to say but I will leave it there, all I can say is get out there people and see for yourself what a great place this is you won’t regret it. I’m booking for next year!

Yavor palace was brilliant.
I'm 18 years old and I went away with my friend. We were very concerned about what to expect after reading some of the negative reviews.
In my opinion Sunny Beach caters for all; however it is mostly aimed at the younger holiday makers. This is made obvious by the travel agents and holiday brochures when you book. So to all those holiday makers that are unhappy with the noise and 'drunken youths' it is hardly surprising after booking a holiday in such a resort.
Food for breakfast was very generous and the dinners were always varied.
After a week I wanted to stay for longer, I had such a brilliant time and the people were very friendly. Met a lot of English people. The bars and clubs were fantastic and so cheap. Definitely go to bar amigos, the cocktails were lush!
I and my friend are planning another trip over there next year to the same hotel.
Also there are porters who take your bags to your rooms, which is very exciting because it’s only a 3* hotel!
Be prepared for a fantastic holiday, its brilliant!

Just had a fortnight in the Yavor. Overall we enjoyed our stay, the rooms were very clean, the staff very friendly and the location very central therefore within minutes of markets, beach and main street. This was our second visit to Sunny beach and how it has changed in 12 months. It seemed that everywhere you looked it was stag or hen parties from all countries. The same could be said of the hotel there where far too many single sex groups and I think first-choice need to address this because it takes the family" ethos" away from the hotel [there were a number of occasions that myself and my children where awoken at 4 and 5 in a morning by youths coming back shouting,singing,banging and swearing,]which was a shame because it put a dampener on our holiday and I know it did to other people as well. Food wise quite varied meals not brilliant especially if you do not like peppers like my wife but they were not that bad and the prices in the restaurants that abound Sunny beach are very cheap and we ate out several times during our stay . Mosquito's -no problems at all. All in all a nice time was had by all of us [except for the youths].

Hotel was really nice, rooms very clean and looked newly renovated, however the cleaner seemed to randomly decide when she would come and often arrived when we were still in bed (around 8.30) quite annoying!
We were half board...bad choice, my fiancé’s a vegetarian meaning she was forced to eat chips and potatoes every night, and I found the meat disgusting. May as well went self catering and saved some money.
Sunny Beach as a resort was fantastic, the hotel was really close to just about everything. The beach was lovely with lots of water sports to do, don't swim too far out though, loads of jelly fish!
The food and drink outside the hotel was lovely and cheap, The Funny Pub was a regular of ours, and the PR guy was so nice. Do not just stick to the strip, the further out/in you travel the cheaper it is.
Do not be fooled into thinking Sunny Beach is cheap, it’s the expensive part of Bulgaria! E.g. a litre of vodka was 8pounds next to the hotel and 2pounds in this big supermarket out in the middle of nowhere(walk towards Go Go Girls,turn left, keep walking till you get to Golden Dreams Appartments, turn right, keep walking and you'll see it on the right hand side of the street).
A lovely place to eat is Far....a, which is on that same street you walk down to get to the supermarket on the left hand side of the road. Do not be put off by the old man with the funny hat or by the decor downstairs, upstairs is beautiful, cheap and has a wide range of vegetarian meals! 1lev a drink (approx 30p!)
All round this holiday was fantastic and we def intend on going back to Bulgaria, probably not Yavor though. The only reason I gave this holiday 8/10 is the bad food.

Booked a week at this hotel with First Choice. First time in Bulgaria and thought it was great. Weather was brilliant the whole week. Loved the hotel, Room 416 on the top floor. We booked a pool view and glad we did! If you don't you get stuck on the other side looking at brick walls and the back of an erotic bar. Had a great room, nice and spacious. Looked very similar to a standard Travel Lodge room. Nice touch including a free hairdryer, satellite TV, and fridge in the room as well. Cleaners were round every day like clockwork and the place was spotless. Sunny Beach is a good "walking" resort. Big wide promenades stretching along the beach and filled with bars shops and restaurants. It's cheap providing you know where to go - The Condor Restaurant at the back of the hotels a great place for cheap food and drink. Another favourite of ours was the Spider bar 5 mins down the road. Buy 1 get 1 free all night! 6 lev (under 3 quid) got us 4 large glasses on wine. You need to see Nessebar it absolutely beautiful. Glad we didn't book the excursion with first choice - we went ourselves, you can get a boat from the beach that takes you there for 15 lev (about 6 quid) and it's a great walk back along the beach. We booked the "Shop & Splash" excursion - visit Bourgas then water park- with first choice and it got cancelled! Blessing in disguise though coz we got a refund and had more fun in the pubs! We went to the water park on our own, there’s a free bus just round the corner from the hotel. It's small scale though. You'll get bored after a couple of hours. Highlight of the holiday was the "Khans Tent" excursion. You get taken to a restaurant up in the hills that's made to look like a huge tent. Traditional Bulgarian food and drinks and there’s a great cabaret show. Great fun! There’s 2 reasons I didn't give the holiday 10/10. The food in the evening was terrible! Don't get me wrong it was a good buffet breakfast selection, but we hated the evening meals so bad we ate out most nights. I wouldn't book the hotel half board as you'll probably only eat half the time your there. The other thing that spoiled the holiday a bit was the PR staff outside EVERY restaurant and pub you walked past. Some of them can be really pushy and they jump on you as soon as they see you coming. You couldn’t have a proper look around the shops because every time you walked in they would follow you around to make sure your not stealing anything! My girlfriend also hated having to constantly dodge Golf carts and mopeds on the promenades! The beach was really nice BUT they put down so many sunloungers and parasols that you NEED to pay if you want a descent spot. But overall had a great time! I'd be tempted to go back if they would get rid of the PR staff!

Overall I enjoyed a fantastic experience on my first visit to Sunny Beach and Bulgaria. We arrived to the hotel very early in the morning and still the reception staff were friendly and helpful, as were the bell boys. Rooms were spacious as was the bathroom with a decent sized shower and fairly sized balcony. Free sky TV with a few English channels and free fridge with freezer and hair dryer came in handy. The rooms were kept extremely clean as the maids came every day, with new towels and made beds etc. One thing which could be a slight problem is if you don't get a pool view balcony you may have a view of a street with an erotic bar, although nothing can be seen it may not be a suitable view for younger children. The food is not great and although there were a few decent things. I would recommend eating out as it is cheap and there are many nice restaurants around. Most supermarkets, including the one next door to the hotel, stay open 24hours which is very useful. The pool is a decent size and nice and cool in the heat with numerous sun loungers and a cheap bar although the supermarket is cheaper. The weather was extremely good very hot through the day and warm at night. The beach is a 5minute walk and is very nice with white sand and clear seas, but be careful as the sand gets very hot on hot days. Sunny beach is a nice resort and a lot to do for those of all ages although it does suit younger groups better. There are many bars which have happy hours nearly all day and cocktails and beer especially are very cheap. A "big beer" for as cheap as 1Lev (about 40p). People have mentioned the PR staff and there are a lot of them and although the leaflets are a nuisance some of the staff are really nice people. We stopped and talked too many of them who gave us tips on places to visit etc. Watch out for the people selling fruit as, although it is very nice, they try to charge extreme prices and bartering is a must. The hiring of golf carts and electric mo-peds is extremely cheap and I would recommend it as it gets you about. Visiting Nessebar, both new and old, is a must as it really is beautiful with some amazing views, also Bourgas is a nice place to visit also. I would recommend using the public bus as this is only about 25p whereas a taxi could cost £6 and the boat which is £7 is a nice one off alternative. Altogether I give the hotel an 8/10 due to the poor food and some dodgy views, although the positioning of the hotel is great, and Bulgaria a 10/10 and would definitely return again.

Had a lovely holiday. Hotel great, staff very friendly. Rooms spacious and clean. Great view of the pool.
Reps were very helpful. The only thing we found disappointing was the food but I suppose you get what you pay for. It was very bland and cold but it is cheap to eat out.
I would definitely go back to this hotel but not on half board.
Sunny beach is a beautiful place and Nessebar is not to be missed.