Grifid Noa

Excellent service by Deyan on customer relations! Very helpful and friendly in comparison to many other hotel staff - he is the best of the bunch!!

The Grifid Noa Hotel in Golden Sands is only a maximum of 4*, it has no carpet or rug but tiles like in a hospital or prison. We were assigned a different type of room than what we paid for. We paid for a quiet room facing the park and received a noisy room above the pool. The restaurant is like a social cafeteria made of rigid sheet metal furniture, it is a lot of noise, the same in the room, all the furniture is made of sheet metal. Parking 22 euros/day with no alternative to surface parking. Totally not recommended.

Like other travellers, we too had some doubts coming to Grifid Noa after reading the mixed online reviews, however we were happy to find a very good hotel that offers a solid overall beach hotel experience. We stayed in a standard room in the renovated side of the hotel (the former Moko Beach hotel), which was comfortable even if quite small for 5 stare. Probably the deluxe rooms in the new building are larger. The food was top quality, both in the main restaurant and in the a la carte restaurants. The cake shop Oree is very nice and also offers vegan options. We tried 2 a la carte restaurants (Foodisiac seafood and Steakroom) and both were amazing, better than similar resort restaurants in Turkey or Egypt. The drinks were good overall, even if some bartenders were clearly inexperienced and, depending on your luck, you could receive a completely different cocktail than what you ordered. But if you stick to the most well known ones you will be fine. The beach is quite large, has fine sand and the sea entrance is not too steep. After 9 AM it was almost Impossible to find sunbeds, the well known "strategy" of booking them with a towel or T shirt is unfortunately in place here. The beach staff strolls around the sunbeds, smiling as they see most of them occupied even though the beach is almost empty, but they don't do anything about it. There are 6 pools (relax, kids, main, deep for swimming, infinity on rooftop and indoor), all were very clean and well looked after. The waffle stand between the kids and the main pool is a nice touch. The animation was nice, with evening shows, live music, parties and the kids club was also very nice, our daughter loved participating in the mini disco every evening on the terrace stage or on the beach. The spa is great, especially the finnish sauna and the jacuzzi were amazing. The main issue of the hotel is the parking. If the underground parking does not have availability (and it usually doesn't), somebody from the hotel will show you the way to a partner parking in Golden Sands and then bring you back. On the arrival day we lost almost one hour with the waiting and parking and by the time I was back in the hotel the beach snack bar closed, which was a bad start for us because we hadn't eaten since the morning when we left home. I realize that the space is very limited in Golden Sands as there are many hotels close to each other, so they don't have a better solution at this moment, it is just something every guest should be ready for when arriving at the hotel. Another small minus was, surprisingly for a 5 star hotel, the housekeeping. Our room was not cleaned in the morning and each day we had to look for the staff and kindly ask then to clean the room until 1-2 PM, because after that our 5 year old daughter had to sleep. Also, the bathroom towels were not white, which would have been nice as this is the custom at the vast majority of 4-5 hotels. In conclusion, there is still room for doing a few things better, but even so Grifid Noa is a top quality hotel, well reccomended.

Rooms The hotel is new, the rooms still smell of new furniture, they are cleaned daily, spacious, well-sized, and full of natural light. The beds are comfortable, as are the pillows and mattresses (though, of course, this is a matter of personal preference). What prevents it from being a true 5-star hotel: All-Inclusive The loudly advertised 24-hour premium all-inclusive practically does not exist. After the main dinner, which ends at 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. (in the à la carte restaurants), food is only served between 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. at a bar, where you can order a Caprese salad, a sandwich, and a Garash cake. Nothing more, nothing different. So, from 1:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. (when breakfast starts), there are no open restaurants, no food, no real 24-hour all-inclusive. The minibar in the room only contains water, soft drinks, two Beck’s beers, and a small pack of peanuts. No small bottle of wine, no other small snacks. Beach The hotel is packed with thousands of guests, but the capacity of the common areas cannot accommodate them. For example, every day the beach sunbeds are a drama. At check-in, you are told it is forbidden to reserve sunbeds with towels, but guests do it anyway. Here, the hotel should take responsibility—if they don’t want this practice to become established, they must control guest access to the beach area better. Some people leave at noon and don’t return until 5 p.m. If I want to go for just 2 hours during that time, there is nowhere to put my towel, while an empty sunbed stands unused for hours just because it is “reserved.” This practice created stress for me every day, because I had no peace of mind that whenever I went to the beach, I’d actually have a place to stay. Another drawback is that the sunbeds are placed very close to one another. If you chose this hotel for a quiet, relaxing vacation, this may not be the right destination. Also, the place is full of families with small children, so be prepared that every day you will most likely hear babies crying or kids playing in the sand right next to you. Restaurants A plus: the food is of good quality. A minus: the variety is limited. You will certainly eat well every day, but the dishes are not at the level of a true 5-star hotel (don’t expect the type of all-inclusive restaurants you’d find in Turkey, for example). A plus: soft drinks in the main restaurant are not diluted; they are served in bottles. A minus: on the beach bars, the drinks are bland, dispensed from machines. I cannot comment on the alcohol, as I do not consume any. Fitness A huge drawback is that the gym opens only at 9:00 a.m., which is far too late for people who train. This means that if you want a morning workout, you can only have breakfast afterwards around 10 a.m., which is practically lunchtime and also the time when the main restaurant is closing (breakfast there is 7:30–10:00 a.m.). Yes, there is another breakfast option between 10:00–12:00 in a different restaurant, but that was not the place where I wanted to eat.

Second weekend in one swim-up room. The view is incredible, you have one big , modern room, with place for relaxing. Very romantic and cosy. The pool in the room was cleaned every day, and you have one big puff inside. There are coffee mashine and minibar available. The staff is kind and always ready to be helpful. We had tried the fish restaurant on the beach (a la kart), the restaurant on the beach during the day (adults only) and the Fancy breakfast on the terrace- really recommend all these places. The infinity pool is for adults only and the view is also amazing. In the hotel you can find activities for your family or just to hear the waves with a book. The SPA is ok. We will come back again