We stayed half board a couple of weeks ago at a hotel in sunny beach and the food was served cold (not warm) every morning and every night. Speaking to other people in the resort their food was the same at their hotels, so my advice is that i'd go self catering, it is cheap to eat out in sunny beach but you have to look around. A lot of places have menus outside the bars and restaurants but they don't have prices on them. The condor is cheap and the food is fantastic. Not sure if they do breakfast but they are open for lunch and evening. Also along the sea front is a place called la banana. They do great snack food. Hope this is of use to you?

I think it comes down to what you like yourself.

If you like going for a good meal with good service and lovely atmosphere, you will hate all inclusive. If you are just wanting to get fed and drink loads and don't mind queueing you will love all inclusive.

I went all inclusive for the first time last year and I will never do it again. The food and drinks were good enough quality but I never felt like we were out for a meal, especially with the buffet style. Also you are restricted by times, if you get up late you're faced with pizza, chips etc for brekkie. We were at a place a bit outside sunny beach and there was nothing else around.

It's very cheap to eat and drink in Sunny beach, for lunch you can get gorgeous chicken kebabs for about 2 euro from the street side stalls, all the bars do happy hours and our most expensive dinner for a family of four was about 50 euro and that was for a three course dinner with loads of drinks including cocktails. It couldn't have gone up by much in a year. whatever you decide enjoy!

I would never go all inclusive in Bulgaria. If you can get a good deal self catering then get it. You will never spend £400 on food and drink no matter how hard you try. Places like Djanny's, Condor or Faro offer very good quality meals and excellent value, and a pint is only about 1.60 lev ( 65P ) in them.

Toonman

i totally agree with toonman, 2 yrs ago we went to golden sands bed and breakfast, it was disgusting and the service atrocious, we ate out every breakfast adn got better fed adn the kids loved it too(bonus). last year we went again to GS and went self catering, although this time the kids loved eating cereal in the room, but at night we ate in loads of differnet places at the most it was 30 pounds for 2 adults 2 children plus drinks. definatley go self catering in bulgaria

Hi Mistyrae.

AS everyone will say A/I in Bulgaria is not really the best idea unless all you want to do is Drink all day and night without spending any cash, far better to go self catering and if you want to eat out the choices are many, also you decide what you want to eat and drink when you want to and where.

Just to give you an idea.

1 x soup at the condor - 1.20 lev
1 x 1/2 roast chicken (no garnish) - 3.50 lev
1 x pint of local beer (zagorka) - 1.20 lev

Chicken dishes, curries, chineese style etc at the condor - 4.50 lev

And the food is really nice and hot.

Sorry I know i've mentioned the condor a few times but we found it easy walking distance and great value for money and very relaxing.

Anyone know where you can get good pizzas, and how much they cost? I'm thinking near the Iberostar - think Corner Bar do pizzas - are they any good though???

We would be looking for lunchtime probably.

Theres quite a few pizza places but unfortunately I don't eat pizza so can't recommend anywhere, sorry

Anyone know where you can get good pizzas

Can't help in the Sunny Beach area I'm afraid, Lesley, but for a real 'Bulgarian Pizza' remember that you have to smother it with tomato ketchup AND mayonnaise - I'm always treated as a real oddity if I buy a slice of pizza as a snack in Dobrich and refuse the vendor's well-meaning offer of "Кетчуп и майонеза" (ketchup i mayoneza).

Baldur

Baldur, that is gross! Eeeuuucchhh!!!

I'm wondering if they put real mozzarella on their pizzas in Bulgaria or maybe strange cheeses like they do in some other countries. I'm keen for it to be mozzarella as it's generally vegetarian, other cheeses may not be.

Bet you can't get 'hamburgeri' in Tolbukhin any more. That's Dobrich of course, it's name under Communism.

To make a 'hambergeri' take some ham and some lettuce, put in breadcake and place in a microwave for a minute or so. You can add your own ketchup.

The grandchildren were not at all impressed.

Peter

Hi Lesley,

I'm wondering if they put real mozzarella on their pizzas in Bulgaria or maybe strange cheeses like they do in some other countries. I'm keen for it to be mozzarella as it's generally vegetarian, other cheeses may not be.

Most seem to use the ubiquitous Bulgarian yellow cheese called Kashkaval:



@ Peter,

The very few Хамбургери that I have seen purchased in ТолбукÑ!ин currently appear to be made with kaima (minced veal/pork) patties but most youngsters snacking there usually buy individual Pizzas or large Pizza slices (with the obligatory 'Кетчуп и майонеза' of course), Джоб (bread pockets stuffed with multiple fillings of the purchaser's choice) or Chicken Kebaps.

Most office workers, however, appear to rush out to the bakery at lunchtime to form a massive queue for a freshly-baked геврек (gevrek - a hot sesame 'wheel', like a circular pretzel)

Baldur

Baldur - have you had the wheels from the Ethnographic museum in Dobrich? or that ghastly drink Boza?

Patka

Hi - I think the pizzas I have had there have had the yellow cheese and the herb savoury on (is it chubritsa in Bulgarian, Baldur, or something like?) but they come out of wood burning stoves and are just delicious . I always bring a big tub of the savoury home with me here from the spice stalls along with the cuminy flavoured one.

Hi Patka,

Baldur - have you had the wheels from the Ethnographic museum in Dobrich? or that ghastly drink Boza?

Yes I've had a gevrek fom the bakery in the Ethnographic centre - alright but not overly impressed. I've tried ayrian, the watered-down yoghourt drink, but boza hasn't appealed to me......yet.

@ Alison

Yes, chubritsa (чубрица) is the summer savoury - it tends to be used a lot in Bulgarian sausages as well, in preference to the winter savoury.

Baldur

Hi - didn't know there were summer and winter varieties. I've only seen dried savoury here from specialist internet herb and spice sellers and I don't think they mentioned what type it was. You learn something new every day Is there much difference in the flavours?

Apparantly good for flatulance!

Sorry. I'm going I personally would never go All Inclusive. I like to go out and about try new things rather than eat in the hotel night after night. We always go B&B mainly because of too high under occupancy supplements in apartments. We don't normally get up in time anyway for the hotel breakfast unless we are doing a trip and we like to get out and get a fry up when we do. Our favourite place for breakfast last year was the klisura hotel.

I have to agree as well. We went all inclusive the first time we went to Sunny Beach (three years ago) and ate out most of the time as the hotel food was not the best. Eating out is very reasonable, or it was last year and the year before, we don't know this year as we don't fly out till August 8th. And we are going self catering again. Breakfasts are easy to find but we tend to have toast or cereal for breakfast and eat out for all other meals. Djanny's at the top of the main strip is a favorite of ours, along with the Condor.
Have a great time.
Paul