Astoria Hotel

⚠️ CURRENCY SCAM WARNING – Read before booking a taxi! Review Body: Be extremely careful when booking an airport transfer through the Astoria Hotel reception. They are engaging in a blatant currency exchange scam to double their profits. At the hotel entrance, their official price board clearly lists the "AIRPORT VARNA" transfer at 50 LEV (BGN), which is approximately 25€. However, for a 3:30 AM trip, they charged me 50 EUR—literally double the advertised price. When I confronted them, they used the "night tariff" excuse. Looking at their own sign (see attached photo), there is NO mention of any night surcharge or extra fees. They are simply taking the number "50" from the board and illegally switching the currency from Leva to Euros to exploit tourists. It’s disappointing to see a hotel allow this kind of predatory behavior. If you need a ride to the airport, call a local taxi app or a reputable company directly. Do not trust the "fixed prices" at this reception—they will try to scam you. Pros: None. Cons: Dishonest pricing and currency manipulation.

Great experience! Reception personal was kind and cooperative. Restaurant was just great till each small detail. Compliments to the chef, maitre D, Beverage manager! The small individual tapas served in different cups were amazing and thoose things make the difference! Entertainment team was great too The yound guy who make us play darts. Ana from animation did great with our kids 🥰. Hotel is clean and cozy. Perhaps loby seating space is not sufficient in lower building! We could come again because of you! 😊

Super comfortable and cozy place, amazing service by Ralu Elena and Desy thank you so much for your service

We were in Sunny Beach in May and had a great time so decided to come back to Bulgaria again. Searched Love holidays and came across Golden sands. Now we have travelled nearly every month for over 2 years so we set a firm budget and certain criteria and Astoria came out on top. Both of us like a good size bedroom...with tasteful decoration and decent bathroom. We'll certainly give up seaview if price is too high Me has to be Spa facilities Both like a decent variety of food on offer and as it's all inclusive the chef's do have their work cut out Both like peace n quiet and no noisy out of control children The surrounding area was perfect with a short walk to downtown area and having walked around it our hotel was perfect location The cleaning staff were attentive to doing a splendid job. It was near the end of season and pretty quiet tbh but that suited us just fine. Would I recommend it yes golden sands over sunny beach and The Astoria hotel for an enjoyable holiday

We chose this hotel as we had stayed in numerous Riu hotels before so knew the standard we would receive, unfortunately there was no Riu reference throughout the hotel or the standards we have previously experienced? We were delayed leaving Gatwick so arrived at the hotel around 2230. The restaurant was kept open for the late arrivals, which I thought was a nice touch. Checked in by Elena who deserves a special mention. Room is spacious and clean (1631) with a nice side sea view. We had to request a kettle, iron and ironing board. The first iron had bare wires poking through the cord and it didn't work. They gave us a kettle but no cups, tea, coffee, sugar ? It's pot luck with the AC, our was fixed at 22° and on a 30 minute timer, during our second week the AC was fixed at 25° and on a 2hr timer? our friends was set to 25°..no timer? Main restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner with speciality Asian and Italian options which must be booked in advance. In our opinion the Asian is the better of the two. The Italian offer wasn't very Italian. 2 pizza & 2 pasta choices...no lasagne. We had more Italian options in the main restaurant on a normal night. There are late snacks in the Asian restaurant from 1430, for burger, chips, salad, cakes. What I noticed was people collecting their plates then start at the other end of the buffet working backwards causing chaos. The main restaurant was very repetitive, pizza, pasta, a meat dish and fish. The food was never hot, Luke warm at best. Outdoor pool is nice but wasn't heated and very very cold (the sea was warmer)..we went mid September. Perhaps if it was heated it would generate more interest especially on cloudy days. Lots of loungers, a pool bar and snack bar and stage for evening entertainment. A cloudy day with the pool bar closed, zero people around the pool but credit to the animation team for showing up to do the club dance, and trying to get "anyone" to do water gymnastics Indoor pool. Small pool with kiddies pool next to it. Sauna, steam room, Turkish bath all 40 Lev (£20) for 30 minutes. Should be included in my opinion. The beach area is 150m along the promenade to the right of the hotel, lots of loungers with umbrellas and a bar and snack bar. The snack bar had closed for the season on the day we arrived, even though the beach was 80% occupied every day when we were there? Must be staffing issues? The toilets at the beach need major improvements, ventilation not working so it smells, and the urinals had covers over as they were blocked. For 2 days there was excrement over the floor of one of the cubicles. Theres no WiFi at the beach bar. The waves can be quite big causing the red flags to be up meaning no entry to the sea. There is para sailing and jet skis along the beach, didn't try it so don't know how much it cost. The promenade is a nice walk in the evening, lots of shops all selling (Fake designer) clothes, souvenirs and general Tat, a few bars mainly aimed towards to the German tourists, very lively and great fun and brings a good distraction from the AI. There's a little train that goes up and down the promenade for 6 Lev. (£3 at Sept 2025) The drinks offerings are limited to local beer & spirits and only a few cocktails, none of the popular cocktails like Pina Colada's or Margarita's. We asked for Amaretto on Sunday and by Saturday there was still none, a problem with the supplier apparently? I did offer to buy a bottle from the local supermarket but was told I couldn't do that. There are premium branded spirits but these incur a charge as not included in AI. All drinks served in plastic cups at the beach and pool. They will fill up your own insulated cup if you have one. The entertainment was poor from what we saw. The "Big Entertainment Show" was, and I use this term in the loosest possible form "a magician" who's act would not have looked out of place is a 70s talent show. His assistant did some hula hoop twirling which was actually quite good, he then came back on for some batten twirling and block juggling. He most successful trick was making half the audience disappear mid way through his act. The Bulgarian Folklore Dancing was just the dancers getting guests up on stage and walking round in circles, possibly looking for the Amaretto supplier ?? The Movie quiz night was fun with movie intros played and guests had to run up to the stage to name the movie. Interestingly the staff spoke in English for most of the evening and was asking which countries everyone was from, Bulgaria, Romania, Germany, Austria, Moldova...but not England? Taxis from can be ordered from reception. We did book a return trip to the Grand Mall in Varna but the driver didn't respond to calls and texts when we wanted picking up, so had to get a local taxi to get us back to the hotel. The roads are generally good but if you go to Nesebar the road in is quite perilous, tight bends and hilly. All the staff work very hard to keep the hotel clean and are very polite and helpful. From the housekeeping team who go about their business effortlessly in the background, the bar and restaurant staff who ensure all tables are cleared and reset. Special mentions to Elena on Reception and Aihon in the bar, who found the last bottle of Amaretto in the whole hotel and saved me the last drops. Golden sands is a lovely place for a holiday, I imagine in high season it is very lively. We found the Bulgarian people to be warm and friendly.