Hi Stephen,

One of the reviews was mine, we lasted a night before upgrading to the Grand Hotel Varna in St Konstantin.

A more recent review is elsewhere, and dated August 2008 - HERE

It confirms nothing has changed, and won't because it's a question of location - too far out from Varna and few facilities nearby. It has no restaurant as such, and the breakfast is the worst we have ever experienced in Bulgaria. The Balkan Holiday brochure is still economical with the truth HERE. The beach is only 5 minutes away if you take a dive off a cliff, will take 20 minutes to find a safe way down, and make it 45 minutes to an hour to the centre of Varna.

For location, feed this into Google earth - Sv. Nikola area, Picadilly Park, Varna 9006, Bulgaria, and you will see where it is.

Peter

Hi Stephen,
We've stayed at the Alekta for the past three years and have booked to go back again next year.
the main reason we chose it was because we felt the resorts were not what we'd came to love about Bulgaria and having visited Varna many times we felt we wanted to be based around there.
Firstly the location is as Peter says on the outskirts of the city in the St.Nikola area.
There are buses from the top of the road into the centre of varna every 5/10 mins and it takes about 10 mins on the bus at a cost of 1 lev. The buses run all day till about 11pm, after that you need to take a taxi which costs about 7 lev.
the walk into the city takes roughly 1 hour either through the sea garden or along the beach side, a nice walk but not in the heat of the summer.
You can walk down to the beach via a winding road which takes about 10 mins, but the better parts of the beach are nearer varna city itself.

The hotel doesn't use it's restaurant, except at breakfast time, but then again very few visitors to Bulgaria would want to eat in a hotel when there's such a great variety of restaurants to chose from so that doesn't bother us at all.
restaurants In the vicinity of the hotel are La Pastaria(a superb italian) in the piccadily shopping centre 2/3 mins along the road and down at the beach side a great seafood/Bulgarian restaurant called Butana, roughly 10 mins walk. There's also a couple of nice looking restaurants at the start of the sea garden (5 mins walk) but we never used them so can't comment on the quality.

The hotel itself is very clean, the maids never seem to stop, it's the only hotel i've seen the pool loungers being cleaned every day and the reception staff are friendly and always willing to help, it's very quiet and relaxing and often there would only be three or four people round the pool.
If you fancy a trip by bus to Golden sands you can get the bus every 15 mins roughly or st. konstantin bus every 30 mins.
All in all we find it a great wee hotel to be based in for easy access to Varna though i feel the balkan brochure should be truthful about distances, as it states 20 mins to walk to centre , i can assure you it takes 50 mins minimum, i also think they should warn people with walking difficulties etc that it may not be suitable due to this.
If you have any more specific questions i'll be only too happy to answer them.
John S.

Hi John Would you please do a review of this hotel for us as our last review is from 2007 http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/reviews/bulgaria/varna/alekta-hotel/

Many thanks

When we stayed at the Alekta the standard of cleaning was poor, we found empty beer bottles around and the balcony was very, very small and we had been given the supposedly best room in the hotel. Breakfast was appalling, I've had far better at 2* AOA hotels. Exchange rate in the hotel is ridiculous, better the walk to the cash machine at the Piccadilly centre.Drinks prices were about the same as the 5* Grand Hotel Varna. If you want a taxi reception will ring for one, pray you get a honest taxi driver.

Patka

One website is saying the hotel is closed, and another one isn't that encouraging.
HERE
and
http://bookings.orangesmile.com/hotel/bg/alekta.en.html%3F&aid=311476&lang=en&checkin_monthday=16&checkin_month=9&checkin_year=2009&checkout_monthday=20&checkout_month=9&checkout_year=2009" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="break-word">HERE
In addition to the beer bottles left in the bedside cabinet and elsewhere, (empty unfortunately), there was a leak in the bathroom ceiling right above the loo which hadn't just happened.

An umbrella would have been handy!

Peter

Peter and patka,
Stephen asked for a recent review of the hotel,as he had already read yours from four years ago and as we all know standards in any hotel or restaurant can change dramatically in one year never mind four.
I think it is very unfair of you to keep going on about standards of cleanliness, beer bottles lying around etc. when this was four years ago, is it not possible that the hotel has addressed any problems it may have had in that time and surely a review from four weeks ago when i was there is more relevant than a review of a one night stay four years ago.
Don't know about the leak in the bathroom but i'm sure it has been fixed by now as i've often seen the handyman going around doing work in rooms.

Also to put your mind at rest i've just phoned the Alekta and spoke to one of the young guys at the reception and the hotel is open and running normally, phew don't know where that website got it's info but possibly it's years old but thats the dangers of the internet i suppose.

Anytime we got reception to phone us a taxi the phoned ok taxis and the receptionist told us roughly what it should cost and the fare was always as she said and we were never once ripped off by them.
John S.

more relevant than a review of a one night stay four years ago

Actually it was in September 2006. so it's just short of three years ago but you make a valid point regarding cleanliness and maintenance.

The location however has not changed, which is why we found it unacceptable.

Peter