Marina Hotel

I booked this holiday through the First Choice website. I had previously booked a holiday with them before and was very pleased with the quality of hotels they offer in their premium range. This hotel however, surpassed all expectations. I will try and make it a factual review but I am sure you can tell that my feelings are that this was a fantastic holiday experience for the whole family. We were travelling in a group consisting of. Me and my partner in our mid 40's,. and 4 teenagers..my daughter, 13, my 2 sons aged, 15 and 18 and my sons girlfriend aged 17..we had 3 twin rooms booked. We arrived at the airport on Monday evening and were greeted with a warm welcome from the First Choice Rep Barney. He accompanied us on the 50 minute transfer to the hotel. He told us a little about Bulgaria and the complex during the journey with humour and knowledge. He was also aware tht due to the lateness of the flight we could only retain so much information and advised us that he would complete the information at the welcome meeting the following morning. Arriving in the hotel lobby was amazing, a truly beautiful hotel, bell boys were a little unneccesary as the rooms were all easily accessable from the lifts in the lobby, we were allocated our room keys, (one comment is, maybe 2 room cards should be allocated per room in case one person wants to retire early to bed and not be woken when the other retires later on). We were also handed our all inclusive bands and passports to the resort which is very secure (gates and guards at both front and rear entrances) a good thing if travelling with young children. The rooms were beautifully laid out. The beds had swans and heart shapes with flowers on them. The bathrooms were also a delight to use, the showers powerful and the bath large enough for 2!! The hotel was amazingly clean at all times. there seemed to be a small army of cleaners in evidence all over the hotel and resort. In fact 2 stood permanently outside the hotel lobby toilets and seemed to pop in every 10 mins to clean! The food was very good and plentiful. Breakfasts especialy good, I noticed that other reviews mention that food dwindles towards the end of the eating period but this wasnt the case when we went in May so it may be different in peak season, or perhaps they have improved on this after reading the reviews. One thing is very evident with this hotel and resort and that is a great deal of thought and planning and also pride has gone into developing a truly wonderful holiday village. We spent most of our days on the beach or by the pool whilst the youngsters spent time with the entertainment team, playing football or swimming in the pool. There was archery, tennis, volley ball, water sports, in fact far too many activitys to list, My daughter loved the sauna and gym. We had the choice of lots of excursions and chose to take part in 2 of them. (remember we had 6 adults to pay for..!) i can recommend both the excursions we took part in. The jepp safari was a fantastic day out, the teenagers in particular enjoyed this experience. We saw all around the mountain and the 'real' Bulgaria. This included lunch and drinks. Our guide and driver was fantastic and a good English speaker. He had some fascinating facts about the country...I particulary liked seeing the storks on the lampposts feeding the young. The charcoal place was an eye opener as well and I wasnt really that comfortable looking at the poverty as if it was a tourist attraction. The guide was honest to state that we are unlikely to see many animals on the safari due to the time of day and season. He compared it to his dissapointment at not seeing nessy at Loch Ness in Scotland. He had a great sense of humour and the kids loved him. A great day The other excursion we took part in was Khans Tent...this was an out of this world experience. A fantastic night in a wonderful venue. I wont give anything away as it will spoil it for others wishing to take part..but dont miss it is all I can say Also at the resort was a disco and when that finished a club upstairs that the teens called a ravers club! They loved both and the freedom they had to explore the resort in safety. I saw no violence or loutish behaviour despite alcohol being available all day and night.. I think its safe to say I was pretty impressed For £2500 for 6 people, all inclusive, 5 star resort in half term....well what can I say! just planning when to go back again!

My wife and I stayed at the Marina Royal Palace for 1 week in mid September, we are in our 40's and paid for a suit with sea views in a quiet location. It seems that Thomas Cook and First Choice have some pretty bad flight times and we arrived at the hotel about 4am local 6am UK time. The check-in was easy and we got taken to our room, which stank of cigarette smoke and had no curtains on 2 of its very large windows. I went back to reception and asked to change rooms but this didn’t happen until 10 hours later, the new room smelt better but still had smokers as previous occupants. The suit was large, on 2 floors and had 4 balconies covering 3 sides; these were very large areas ideal for chillin. I wont go on too much about the hotel except to say it was very clean, poorly furnished rooms and crazy rules regarding food and drink in your room. The mini bar was a joke, just a few cans of soft drinks which you had to pay for if you wanted more; even though this was all inclusive. The other 3 hotels had more entertainment, better sitting areas and snacks available more often, we could use all these hotel but they couldn’t use ours. No Internet in ours, no news papers, no cigarettes etc just fake goods which your advised not to buy in the rep information book. Because there were so many hotels using the beach and pools it seemed rather busy for a ‘quiet location’. At 9am you get the boom boom boom from the outside music for fitness training and again throughout the day you get screaming reps getting over exited with the microphone; the sound traveled for miles. The food was below average, but plentiful and the hotel was full of Germans and Russian type people, most of these people were not friendly and bordered on being rude. If you’re a drinker you will be happy, no shortage of drink including some very good cocktails and Bulgarian Champaign. No entertainment at night and as it rained for 3 days there was nothing else to do, the town is small and boring and such a rip-off and only BBC world service news and discovery channel was in English. It was hard to occupy yourself. Got picked up at just after midnight for return flights, other airlines were even later and Bourgas airport is awful. Got to Gatwick early but from touchdown at 4.30am it took 1.5 hours to get our luggage. Overall for us it was just ok, I lived on salad and bread all week and you couldn’t escape the smoke filled air, even when eating. Nice looking hotel but a lack of entertainment. The Bulgarians rate it as a 5 star, I would go to 4 and 3 in parts.

This hotel was fantastic, we would definitely return to it. The room was clean and comfortable and it seems impossible not to get a room with a sea view as the hotel has been designed so that no rooms face the road side. It was cleaned everyday with fresh sheets and towels and the air conditioning worked really well (one niggle here is the safe in the room was not free and they appeared to all open with the same key hence not very safe). The food was absolutely amazing, such good choice at breakfast, lunch and dinner with extra snacks on at 4pm and midnight if you were still hungry. Did not get food poisoning at all and we all drank drinks with ice in them. The bars serve very interesting cocktails including a Madonna which was delicious. There is a sky bar providing drinks that you have to pay for but this is reasonable we had 3 drinks and left a tip costing us around £5 and the drinks were doubles !!!!!!!!!!!!!!. The views from this bar are amazing so its definitely worth going before sunset. The weather at this time of year was a bit hit and miss, 4 glorious days of hot hot sunshine, then thunder and lightining followed by lots of cloud and warm rain. Two pools to choose from indoor and outdoor neither heated but not that cold, the outdoor has a jacuzzi bit along one side. The saunas are free but the massages and other beauty treatments are paid for locally. The sea was lovely and warm with lots of fishes and some jelly fish and crabs that left me completely alone. You can also choose to use the pools of the neighbouring hotels Marina Beach, Pelican and the holiday village. There is however a lot of steps to get to the beach and it would be difficult for anyone with walking problems. The lifts are a bit dodgy as well I got trapped in a lift with several people and its not an experience I wish to repeat anytime soon. Went on one trip that was a really disappointing experience to Sozapol and a river trip where we were promised a multitude of wildlife including turtles and saw one bird and I literally mean one bird. Sozapol's new town is horrible and the old town is not that impressive we struggled to fill the two hours we were given to look around and there was no public loos anywhere. The hotel staff are very friendly but not very impressed with our rep who seemed a bit clueless. If you are leaving at night you have to vacant the room by 12 so its worth paying an extra £10 just to get a room til 6pm. Bourgas airport is atrocious, very uncomfortable seats, limited shops and very little information about your flight and what gate to go to and this is the only thing that would put me off returning.

We have just returned from the the Duni Resort in Bulgaria. We stayed in the Marina Royal Palace Hotel which was exactly as described in the Thomas Cook brochure. It was exceptionally clean and the food was lovely. The entertainment team "Magic Life Animation" were brilliant and there was a lot to do for all ages including childrens clubs, water ski-ing, windsurfing, aerobics, aquarobics, archery, dance classes, volleyball, beach footbal as well as excellent shows in the evening. The only things you had to pay for were banana boat rides, jet ski hire and ringo rides but these were not extortionate. We had been warned about an abundance of jelly fish in the sea at the resort and sadly it was not an exageration, there were loads which rather put us off swimming in the sea but as the pool area is enormous and there are several pools to choose from it really wasn't a problem. We holidayed with children aged between 16 to 8 and they all had a brilliant time and would love to return which says it all really. The only disappointing thing was that there were no shops to speak of in the locality and we had been told that Bulgaria was the place to go for reasonably priced designer goods. Any shopping trip meant having to take a taxi/coach trip and even then we didn't find the promised bargains. Having said that, Sozopol was a lovely place to visit to have a wander around the old town and market stalls etc and taxi fares were posted in the hotel and were readily available. The resort is predominantly used by german visitors but language was not a problem and we had a great evening in the hotel watching the Germany v England football match, very noisy!!! Most of the entertainment team spoke several languages so we didn't miss out on anything. All in all we would certainly recommend this as an excellent family holiday centre.

first impressions great - staff waiting to take our luggage (early hours of the morning), reasonable sized room with panoramic view of the sea, sheets artfully arranged with (fake) flowers and petals. Excellent choice of food at breakfast although the scrambled egg was runny. You could get eggs(s) fried to order - but the chef flicked hot fat on my hand, which didn't please me. The blister is just going.... Buffet tended to be a bit repetitious and geared to German tastes, although they have a different theme each evening. Left overs appear on the (extensive) salad bar and I suspect ended up in the soup. Sprouts do not improve when cold in white sauce! Still the bulgarian meat stew type dishes were good and there was almost always something I wanted to eat. We ate in other restaurants but my husband stomach got upset -we suspect a dodgy piece of fish at the holiday village. Good range of breads and salads, impressive array of cakes, disappointing veg. You could have a roll and salad at the snack bars if you missed breakfast and there was coffee and cake mid afternoon as well as a midnight snack. Tried that before our late flight and it was minimal - soup and bread, cheese and a few trays of wierd salads. Cheese gets on to a lot of the dishes. Breakfast was the best meal. We mostly drank at the Marina as it was cooler on their balcony and the staff seemed friendlier. Better shops there and a nicer lobby. Internet access was very slow, I'd forgotten how bad it used to be - you can have half a hour although prices are quoted per hour. Pool tables in the Marina too but 3 lev per game is a bit steep. Windsurfing courses were largely given in German and on some days only experienced people were allowed out, on course days they wanted to keep boards for the course people. Hungarian Eva ran the archery - in English and German - and is a lovely lady - pity they don't advertise the times (2p.m M,W, F for teenagers and 4.30 for adults). Entertainment programme with tennis course, step aerobics, water aerobics, dance lessons, pool games - too hot for us to do much of this and you need to check what's on in the hotel lobby. Evening entertainment was largely dance shows in the ampitheatre - well done but repetitious. Didn't try kids clubs so can't say what they'd be like - except probably in German. We found few staff spoke English and those that did often so accented you could barely understand it. Tip boxes everywhere. Staff were a mixture - some great, some grumpy. At the pool bar nearest the Royal they never got my drink order right once. Local beer pleasant and an interesting choice of cocktails - but you won't always get exactly what it says on the card. Quietest rooms overlook the sea - except when they let off fireworks on the roof! A slat broke on the (single) sofa bed in our room and we then discovered another slat was missing. This was repaired the next day. Wouldn't really say the food was 4 star standard but this is a very clean hotel. Didn't see much of Bulgaria as car hire was 40 pounds a day and taxis weren't that cheap. Good place to eat, drink and relax - or for a honeymoon. Pity it was 40C the first day - too hot to do very much!

We have just returned from a week at the Marina Royal Palace 2 kids 15yrs (boy) 12yrs (girl) husband and myself, we all had a great time, the weather was perfect, hotel excellent, very clean, staff friendly and the food was great, we never failed to find something to please everyone in our party. Plenty of options for drinks, the beer was very nice similar to German pilsner lots of cocktails, wine, spirits, pepsi, orange, lemon, tea, coffee, hot chocolate....etc...spolit for choice really, my daughter loved trying all the different non alcoholic cocktails. Room safe was available for 8 levs per day and well worth the peace of mind, we secured late checkout for our junior suite room the day before we were were due to checkout this all depends on when your room is due to be occupied the next day most English we spoke to had managed this only a couple had been unlucky but a luggage room is provided and showers are available to use in the indoor pool area. Our room was great, very spacious with a huge double bed and double sofa bed, we had two bathrooms and two televisions and a gorgeous view over the front of the hotel towards the sea. Internet access is available at the Hotel Marina next door at 8 levs per hour, there are about 10 computers so never had an issue getting one. Lots of small shops within the complex selling most items you may need, bottles of cola, suncreams, sweets , gifts, pool toys, clothes, etc... photo shops, hair braiding, henna tattoo's. The beach is lovely with a fantastic inflatable play area moored close to edge of the shore for the smaller kids, beach volleyball, football, lots of watersports, plenty of sunbeds! Towels were available by paying a deposit either in levs, Euros or £, we paid 10 euros each this then went into an envelope that was kept at reception desk, when checking out we returned the towel cards and got our 40 Euros back, we then used this currency at the airport duty free area as you can pay for items using Levs, Euros or £ or a mixture of all. All in all a great holiday, we were in the minority, as the majority of guests were German but we found them far better holiday companions than some English holiday makers have been on previous holidays so we personally didn't find this a problem. This is one Hotel we will definitely return to one day.

absolutely fabulous resort for people of all ages. me(22), girlfriend(24) and child of 3 years went for 1 week on the 15th june and stayed in the marina royal palace. not quite 5 star rating but well wothy of 4 stars. weather was fabulous, blue sky's every day and temperature never dropped below 30 during the day. the entertainment is very good and is all spoken in english which the kids loved. i would recommend eating at the magic life hotel(holiday village) or the marina hotel as the food seems much better than that in the 5* marina royal palace. dont read to much into the other reviews which say it is all about the germans, there are significant numbers of brits as well who we made good friends with. would definately go again. ther is a night club which is in the hoilday village and is worth a look for the youngsters. some of the staff could learn to speak better english. try and utilise the other hotels facilities, we often had lunch and dinner in the marina palace of the holiday village, in summary i cant really fault the hotel and resort. dont hesistate in booking this hotel, well worth it!!!

My wife and I have just returned from the Royal Marina Palace Hotel 01-08 June 2007. We booked it as a chill out week and we were not disappointed. The hotel I'd say is a 4 star with a good sized bedroom including a bed sofa and a large bathroom. The room was very clean and nicely decorated. We opted for a sea view AI was buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner with a snack bar open on the beach and cakes etc at 16.00. Although there is a wide choice of food it does become mundane.Free local drinks were available unil 02.00 although there is a bar on the top floor which sells branded drinks that you have to pay for this is open 18.00-04.00. Couln't fault the staff The hotel is one of several hotels in the complex area(Duni Royal Resort - Magic Life). Adjacent to the Royal Marina is the Marina Beach Hotel - which is in the final stages of completeion ie painting and furnishing. 10 mins away through an underpass is the Pelican Hotel - which we went to several times for poolside drinks and lunch ( as part of the same group you could eat and drink in the other hotels) this was older but quieter than the RMP. Again 10-15mins from both the RMP and Pelican is the Village Hotel complex and Belleville Hotel ( book a meal in the Italian Restaurant - very nice and is part of the all inclusive). In the Village complex there is also a Bulgarian restaurant which you can book the day before but we didn't try it The only disappointment was the lack of entertainment in the hotel however if you go to the amphitheatre in the Village Area at 21.30 each night (except Sun ) there is a light entertainment show for 30-40mins and also one night is Bulgarian theme night The Duni resort is isolated with the nearest village a 10-15min taxi ride away. There are several trips available either by private taxi from the hotel or with the travel company

Greetings from Bulgaria, this is our last night here and to be honest I am a little relieved. We arrived last Monday to Bourgus airport which is 35 minutes by mini bus to our resort the Royal Marina Palace Hotel in Duni. On arrival it is fab the hotel looks amazing and it is. The rooms are very clean. There are four pools, one indoor pludge pool with saunas and steam room, one for men and one for women. The three outdoor pools are lovely, a little cold but lovely. The kids pool is very safe and the kids loved it. The food however, wasn't to my liking, I am fussy when it comes to food, so maybe others may have a different opinion. The food caters for the Germans and there is a large amount of Germans here, very cold people. The staff are ok. Meal times are 7am to 10am breakfast, 10am to 11.30am is late breakfast, this is a joke because there is absotuletly nothing left and very hard to get the staff to get orange juice, tea extra. Lunch is 1.30 to 2pm dinner 7 to 9. During the door it is possible to get sandwiches and cake while at the pool. Everything is included which is great. The only place where one has to pay is the Skybar which is located on the 8th floor and opened from 6pm to 4am, this is a lovely bar. Towels for the pool are supplied at the hotel a deposit of 20 lev per towel which is given back when you check out and return the tokens. Safe is available for 50 lev. Taxis to Bourgas is 78 lev for shopping - not great to Sunny Beach for 125 lev to and from the taxi driver will pick you up at a time that suits you. Very good for shopping the stalls are great and the food here is lovely, it is an 1 hour by taxi from Duni. Activities in Duni are minimal, it is a great place to relax and get a nice tan. You are entitled to dine and get drinks any where on the resort, but the other hotels (2 others) are not allowed to dine or get drinks in the Royal Marina Hotel. Yes I would return if the food was different. Check out time is 12 noon and they say you are allowed to book a late check for 6pm the evening before but this does not happen as the chamber maids prefer to clean all rooms early in the day, which is fair enough. However, there is a luggage room and you can take a shower and use all facilities while still on the resort. All in all we did enjoy our stay and the hotel is beautiful.

Stayed at Royal Marina Palace, Duni, Bulgaria from 10 July to 24 July 2006 for our honeymoon. As you arrive, which for us was late evening the hotel looked fantastic! On the whole this is a very nice place to take a holiday and chill out. We booked through First Choice and told them prior it was our honeymoon - on arrival to our room we were greeted with a basket of fruit and a bottle of wine and fancy towel sculptures. The room was beautiful - comfy beds, beautiful bathroom and lovely balcony with a partial sea view. The complex itself is excellent, we could eat and drink, as part of all inclusive package, at all hotels on resort but the other hotels couldn't use ours as this is the five star hotel on the resort. There isn't much entertainment on an evening unless you walk over to The Pelican and enjoy the staff and music at the Pool Bar, we found that by going into Marina Palace (next door) you could avoid the hussle and bustle and just chill out! One down side, the hotel is over run by Germans who are extremely rude to the staff, but apart from that I would definitely recommend the Royal Marina Palace and Bulgaria.