We finished a Danube Cruise from Budapest in Rousse, Bulgaria, and decided to stay a night in the town rather than rush off to Bucharest like most of the other travellers. It was a good decision.

Rousse is one of the beautiful old Eastern European cities which had run down under Communist rule and is now slowly awakening. Small enough to be easily covered by foot, the city has some stunning old buildings, squares, great eating out areas combined with the tatty infrastructure, poorly-tended municipal spaces and ever-present scaffolding that marks many of the reconstruction projects in this part of the world.

The Anna Palace Hotel is not large or brassy but the building exudes its fascinating past history - it has only been an hotel since 2003. Our room was clean and basic (at E59 pn including breakfast) but there are some charming suites to be booked also. Service was fine, and its restaurant reasonable (but there are plently of options about a five minute walk... more