Kaliakra Palace Hotel

Ever decided to book a spur of the minute cheap holiday? This is not it!!!!!
Everyone said to me "go to Bulgaria - the people are friendly, the beaches are nice and you will have a hard job spending your money", were they wrong!!!
We arrived early hours of the morning through the back roads and the minute I set eyes on the concrete palace (sorry - Kaliakra Palace) I had a feeling of dread. I could understand it if this was a 2 star make shift hotel, but this was supposed to be one of the best 4 Star Hotels that Bulgaria had to offer!!
The room was nice enough and clean, until you started to look a bit closer.
There was a wardrobe but no drawers. There was a tiny fridge which was actually listed as a "mini-bar" but had nothing in it, and had not been cleaned.
The toilet didn’t sit on the floor right and rocked from side to side.
The shower was a joke! firstly the stand to hold the showerhead was so loose that the shower spun if knocked and soaked the whole room. Then the shower cubicle did not fit so every time I took a shower it leaked so badly that there was a pool of water outside the cubicle, and to top it all, the water would not drain away. The towels were grey not white and often not changed.
The bed collapsed on my husband’s side halfway through the holiday and was left for two days before anyone fixed it!!
Although the maid did attend we were sleeping in the same sheets all week!
To get the air conditioning to work my husband had to go to reception where they gave him a remote control and told him he had to sign a book for it. (I think this was so they could charge us for the use, but when we left he just left it on the desk so we didn’t have to pay extra)
The food was terrible (normally I am not fussy & try most things but it was all catered to the German Taste, but even they were complaining!) it was served between 6pm-8pm. The food was sat in the serving dishes at 5.45pm and not kept warm, so if you went later than 6pm everything was cold. Nothing was replaced, so if you went and wanted chicken and it had been taken by 6.30pm there was no more.
There were signs on the table stating that you could eat as much as you liked but you would pay a penalty if you took anything outside the dinning room.
The biggest penalty I found was if you went later than 7.30pm!! We went down late one night at 7.45pm and as we were putting food on our plates they turned all the lights out on the food and started to take it away (while we were still putting it on the plates!!!!!). Then at 7.55pm they turned all the lights out in the room and stood around us!!!!!! (So much for eat as much as you like!!!).
The beech was nice but you had to pay to use a sun bed, then pay for a matt to go on the bed, then pay for a parasol.
The sea was full of Jelly-fish be warned (although they only start to sting in end of July onwards, anyone who is a bit squeamish would not like it!)
The lido pools on the sea from were very nice, but again you had to pay extra for everything, including every time one of the kids wanted to use the slide - pay each time!!!
Be careful eating out, if you order something like a chicken kebab and ask if it comes with chips they will tell you yes, then charge again for the chips.
If you have a bar tab instead of paying each round more often than not we found that we were charged extra (because if we had had a few drinks we would not notice right? WRONG!).
I don’t think we will be going back in a hurry!!!