Bilyana Beach Hotel

Stay at this hotel at your peril - and these opinions were felt by most of our fellow guests. Booked a 1 week half board stay at a supposedly 5* rated hotel. Rooms were a good size and reasonably clean with a maid service every day. Hotel facilities were good - but if you wanted to use saunas, jacuzzi or gym you had to pay a surcharge. The indoor swimming pool was so cold that no-one would dare use it for fear of contracting hypothermia.
Food - be early or starve. Most of the food was like baby food. To be fair the Germans lapped it up but that was also a problem as they would get in first and pile their plates up with all 3 courses straight away. Variety wasn't good as it was, so it didn't take long for the choices to diminish rapidly. Apart from 2 choices of squash no other drinks were available with meals. Table cloths, cutlery and crockery were filthy. Tables would be left piled high after a meal so if you arrived late you would have to clear tables yourself before being able to sit down.
Staff attitude was abysmal. There were 3 muggings that we knew of, the last of which was a lady and her husband in their 80s - she was bloodied and had a dislocated shoulder but the reception staff wouldn't call an ambulance for her. Everywhere you went there are sinister characters sat around in hotel lobbies, bars and hotel rooms or loitering on the streets - you would think that these guys would make an effort to reduce the violence to promote the area but they just seemed to turn a blind eye to anything.
On returning to the airport all we heard were complaints about attitude and food from the other travellers so sadly we weren't the only ones who had reason to complain. On the bus from departures to the plane a young brummy lad asked loudly who wanted a decent meal, hot food or a smile? - the whole bus as one chorussed "we do" and then "who is ever coming back to Bulgaria?" - again as one "not us". Bulgaria is not a place I would recommend to any tourist.
PS The holiday got off to a bad start when we arrived - the transfer didn't turn up. When I booked the return transfer I was told it had been cancelled. Phone calls to the local rep and UK were fruitless - no-one could find out how it was cancelled. It was quite likely that this was just another way of getting money out of you when you had to book a taxi at 80 to 90Levs.