We don't want to give this hotel a bad rating because there was not anything negative about our stay. The hotel provides free breakfast, wi-fi and a wonderful view. However, when we travel we enjoy staying in Mom and Pop/B&B style hotels. We stayed here because it was recommended from a friend.

Our room had an amazing view. At night, there really is not much around the hotel. We had to walk about 15 minutes towards the Palace of Justice in order to find a restaurant or see more than 2 people walking down the street. I do recommend staying here however I would not stay here again.

I stayed here for two nights. Situated in center of Sofia and would be a good option for you, if you want to explore the city...

My wife and I, we made a short trip to Sofia, to compare the life in Bulgaria with the life in our homeland - Poland. In fact, it is quite similar. The buildings in Sofia are much more destroyed than in Warsaw, there are not that many new buildings as in Warsaw, but you can see the same international shops.

The hotel is located close to the city center. There are construction works outside - they build Metro line & station, which should be ready in 2012. It is a little noisy when you open the window - but we didn't have any problems to sleep with windows closed. We had room number 32 - pretty big and clean - for 46 Euro/room/night including breakfast.

The breakfast is served in a small cafe which is close to the hotel. I have read some unhappy reviews about the breakfast - but it looks like they had also read the reviews and now it is better.

Sofia is not really a touristic city - one can visit every interesting place within one day. What I can recommend is synagogue. What I don't recommend is Museum of Archeology (too expensive comparing to the things you can see there).

The taxi from airport to the hotel should cost 10-15 leva (around 5-8 Euro). The taxi driver tried to cheat on us - but we know taxi drivers in Warsaw so we were prepared for such a behaviour ;-).

You can take the money from ATM machines - they are everywhere around. There are some restaurants, but it was pretty difficult to find a nice restaurant with good Bulgarian food.

There is food market just close to the hotel (bul. Stefan Stambolov) - if you would like to buy some vegetables or fruits.

+ Rooms are very big, clean and warm
+ Although there was a construction site in front of the hotel (they are building a metro line that goes along the center of Sofia) and although the hotel is situated near a big crossroad, the rooms were surprisingly quiet - had a good rest there
+ Friendly staff
+ Very good prices.
- Utilities in the room are a bit dated
- No hotel parking (but there are paid parking yards nearby)

All in all we had an excellent stay at the Lion hotel.

Tip: Don't miss the cakes and pastry at the cafeteria on the ground floor of the hotel!!