Three weeks prior to departure Balkan advised us that we had been moved to this hotel as our original hotel would not be open in time, all I can say is Boy did we score!

Both couples were given a 2 bedroom villa with separate sitting room, large shower room and separate toilet. We had a balcony from each of the bedrooms and one from the sitting room.

The Villas were spotlessly clean and our maid was fantastic and very meticulous. There is also a laundry service available and it was incredibly cheap to use.

The pools are beautiful and loungers are free but a small charge of 2 lev per day for the padded mats. The hotel grounds are kept spotless and we found all the facilities very well run and clean.

The main restaurant was fine and the standard of food was very good with an excellent choice which should have something for everyone, you can also ask the chef to cook your meat to taste ie well done or in my case cremated!

We tended to eat out most of the time for lunch and evening meals but this was not a reflection on the standard or choice of food in the hotel just personal choice.

The complex has many small pool bars and tavernas with a choice of snacks served throughout the day which could be used as an alternative to eating in the main restaurant.

We did not attend any of the hotel entertainment so cannot comment on it, but must say that every child we saw regardless of their nationality seemed to be having a ball the childrens team really do earn their money and activities are organised throughout the day, in my opinion it is an ideal place for families.

Nightlife is pretty low key however a few times we did end up in company at the pool bar till about 0130 and this was ideal as it was far enough away from the accomodation for noise not to carry.

Overall I would say that this is is a very well run family orientated complex and cannot find fault with this hotel in any way.

With such diverse opinions reflected here an objective review might be helpful.

This is a 3 Star hotel in Bulgaria. What you get is 3 Star accommodation, food and staff - nothing more, nothing less. It caters more for Germans so there is a German influence in the entertainment and food.

The Hotel is clean, spacious and well laid out. Basic, pleasant rooms with a balcony, TV and bathroom. It was a little cramped with the cot in but not too bad.

The food is plentiful and varied, there are around 6 main choices plus soup, cold meats, cheeses, vegetables, salads, breads, fruit, cereals and cakes. It is German/ Bulgarian orientated so lots of fried or stewed meats in sauces, various sausages and non English cheeses and cold meats. Chips are always available. You do not get English style sausage, egg and chips, pie and mash or fish and chips. Any open minded holiday maker should have no problem finding something to suit them.

There are several bars, rarely crowded, serving cold lager, wine and a variety of other drinks. Again there should be something suitable for most people.

There are two freeform pools with adequate space and sun loungers, it did get a little crowded but there was always a space. The pools were clean and well laid out.

Staff were generally fine, they do have a brusquness that, in my experience, is more to do with culture than attitude.

Entertainment was unsophisticated but plentiful.

All things considered the Ralitsa Hotel delivered what you might expect from a 3 Star, in some areas it it exceeded it's rating.

This complex was lovely, what let the whole holiday down was that the food was awful. Would not have fed most of the meat to my dogs. We all had food poisoning which is not very good when you have four children which are friends of the family with you.

The bar staff at the snack bar were excellent as were the animation team but the reception and restaurant staff were awful.

Everyone we spoke to were ill but looking back at reports from earlier in the year the food then was good maybe as the season went on the hygiene got worse.

Very disappointed as such a lovely country but had to spend most of our money on food.

Never go there again not worth the money could have paid to go self catering.

This was my first visit to Bulgaria Ralitsa Hotel and my first time of being all-inclusive and my last time for both.

The hotel was clean and the reception staff obliging. I did not like having to walk 5 minutes up the road for breakfast, I feel a hotel should have the dining room within.

When I arrived many English people were ill with stomach bugs so I was very careful with what I chose to eat for my first evening meal. I woke up the next morning with a tummy bug. I decided not to eat anything but breakfast at the Ralitsa and then I only ate bread. You would have need to be there all day should you have wanted toast.(toaster not adequate). I spent money on meals which should not have been necessary but a least the food is cheap so the total amount spent was not great.

I have never been anywhere where the evening entertainment finishes at 9.30pm. I chose the Ralitsa because I thought as a single traveler there would be somewhere to spend my evenings. Myself and 4 other English people were put out of the lobby bar at 11pm one night to sit in the garden in the cold and finish our drinks, it was very cold at night. We did not stay for long even for the short period we were aware that our voices might carry to the surrounding rooms where children might be asleep.

Every one I spoke to at the Ralitsa felt like I did the food was disgusting the staff in bars and restaurants were rude. When I was leaving people who were staying another week were wishing they were going home. I couldn't wait to leave.

Why when most of the hotels are all-inclusive are there so many restaurants? Could it be because the food in the hotels is so disgusting.

Nice and clean hotel, not bad area. To see the proper Bulgaria hire a car and visit Dobric and some of the villages. The hotel is of budget standard, so don't expect much. The people are nice once you break the ice, maybe all those years of soviet rule...
Albena resort is like a bad copy of Butlins it tries to cater for everyone but falls short, for a chilled night out go to the market find a little bar over looking the main drag and people watch for an hour.
Watching the horror on men

The hotel is very clean, with pleasant & helpful staff.

The pool is a huge, free form effort, but sunbeds can be in short supply by midday; there is also a small indoor pool. Both pools have lifeguards in attendance at all times.

As well as the main restaurant, there are 2 snack bars, and an a la carte (1 visit per holiday included). There are 2 pool bars, a lobby bar and a beer garden (very pleasant and very popular). The resort's noddy train stops outside reception, and there is a free shuttle bus to the beach every half hour.

The in house animation team work very hard, and their evening shows are always well attended, and quite good.

An excellent hotel, very child friendly, and thoroughly recommended.

We stayed in the Ralitsa Hotel in Albena for a week - all inclusive - in August 2004. It was the first time I'd ever gone on an all inclusive holiday and i felt it was well worth it.

The variation of food in each sitting was good but they often repeated the same meals on other days and by the end of the week I was bored of it.

The hotel is about a 10 minute walk from the market street and the beach.

The hotel was very clean, rooms are cleaned on a daily basis and clean towels are given every day. I have to say that I did find some of the bar staff a little less than friendly.

Easily the best thing about the Ralitsa Hotel is the Animations Team. They were a group of extremely friendly people who kept us entertained through our whole holiday. Their Abba show was fantastic and well worth watching.

I would definately recommend visiting this hotel. We had a very enjoyable holiday.

Although the hotel itself was nice, the accommodation more than adequate, I would not recommend this hotel to anybody. The food was appalling, it was often undercooked, reheated from previous meals, left to go cold before being placed on the servery and perhaps worst of all we saw sweat dripping from a chef into the scrambled egg and flies and wasps on the food in the outside bars.

Nine out of the ten in our party suffered chronic stomach pains/illnesses (one still undergoing tests for food poisoning) lasting between 4 days and the entire holiday (14 days).

Every single person we spoke to reported the same!!!

We found the staff to be rude (except the cleaning staff)and mostly unhelpful, very often we were greeted with a shrug(of indifference?).

The entertainment was probably OK for families with youngish children, but we found it a bit tedious (and early finishing - everything seems to come to a stop at 11 pm dead). We went to one show and were herded into a room and made to sit in rows like a school assembly, so even though the entertainment staff worked hard it was not the most conducive atmosphere in which to enjoy yourself.

One last comment, the Bulgarian Fiesta was a very expensive travesty.

We stayed in the Ralitsa for 2 weeks on an All Inclusive Basis.

The Cleanliness of the hotel was excellent, there were cleaners cleaning 24/7 although if you take a towel to the beach as we did in the first week for the baby they won't replace it with a new one until the second week.

The Food

Well were do I start, the breakfasts were cold, German orinatated, the eggs were undercooked, and the bacon was just fat! We had to live of Toast for 2 weeks!

Lunch - You could eat in either the restaurant or the snack bar for lunch if you could find anything edible. There was always chips although by the second week they were being brought out burnt to a crisp! They had salad on display in the snack bar but it was covered by Wasps and Flies!

Tea - We managed to find something to eat for Tea most nights, there was a meat stand which offered a different roast each night although we didn't attempt the pork which was still red raw!

We had to visit the pharmacy and get immodium as me and my partner both got food poisioning (As did all the English people I spoke to). My little boy who was only 12 months was constantly having runny nappies so Diarolite came in handy to.

The location of the hotel is good, you are far enough away for the peace and quiet if you have children at night but its only a 10 minutes walk to the centre were you can find gift shops, and painters (if you want a painting done you can get them done here they are excellent quality and cheap about 50 quid for 3 people). There was also a train that takes you into Town that costs about 50p for adults and kids or a free shuttle bus that takes you to the beach.

The Hotel Bar Staff were ignorant and catered more to the Germans! On our arrival we asked at the lobby bar for food were we got laughed at and told to go over to the other snack bar as they didn't do food. Turns out they did do food!! On our last night we went to get a final drink at 10.55 (the bar shuts at 11.00) and were told that they weren't serving free drinks anymore, I asked if I could just get a soft drink to which I got completely ignored (however the night before when the Germans were leaving the lobby bar stayed open till 3am serving free drinks)!!!

The reception staff seemed to help if they could and the cleaning staff were very friendly except 1! They love the children and everytime I went anywhere with my baby they stopped to give a hug or kiss to him.

The Entertainment Team were fantastic. They put on shows 6 nights out of 7 which were both for adults and children. The Abba Show is well worth a watch. They also put entertainment on during the day such as darts, volleyball, football, water gymnastics, french bowls etc, plenty to do.

I wouldn't visit this hotel again as I find Albena a very German resort and I would like to try the other resorts, plus I don't think I would go all inclusive again in Bulgeria as the standards of food arn't like ours and the restaurants are very cheap to eat out at as well.

Well what can I say!! First time all inclusive and maybe the last, virtually forced to eat out as the food was almost inedible, undercooked, cold and a mish mash of everything put together.

Snack bar food was left out for all the flys and wasps to enjoy!!! So called kebabs not cooked, cold chips and pizza.

Breakfast= Undercooked eggs, "bacon" was just fat and dont know where the baked beans came from!!! Ended up cooking our own bacon and eggs. Plenty of different breads but they need to do something about getting proper toasters!!! those who have been will no what I mean.

Chefs very unproffesional and no hygiene in sight when cooking, one was seen with sweat dripping of his head whilst cooking!! Dread to think what goes on in the kitchen!! Disgusting!!.

Lunch and evening meals just as bad, no consideration for us Brits!!9 people out of our 10 were ill for most of the fortnight and one still is and undergoing tests for food poisoning at present.
Spent a fortune a Pharmacy!!

Germans very rude and ignorant. One was seen to sneeze over food in Lobby Bar.

Pool areas very nice and whole complex very very clean, cant fault cleanliness, if the food and staff were as good then it would be a very nice place to be.

Bar staff sometimes very rude, coffee machines either switched off or half empty, drinks very limited unless you want to pay of course. The idea of going all inclusive is so you dont have to go off the complex to pay but we had to to get decent meal in town, Poco Locos very good and Tropical Bar.

Very lacking in entertainment, although the animations team work hard, for such a large complex there should be a choice of entertainment in the evenings and not have to be ushered into a school hall for assembly!!!