I stayed at the Golden Tulip Mamaia for five nights in August 2010. I was wrapping up seven weeks of backpacking in Eastern Europe and needed a little rest before returning home. I found a good promotional rate on the hotel website and ended up paying about fifty-five euros per night including breakfast (discounts were applied based on my day of arrival and the length of stay).

My guidebook said the north end of Mamaia was the more upscale end, and Golden Tulip is safely within that zone. This means things nearby are a little quieter and cleaner, but you're further away from (poor) shopping and restaurant options in "central" Mamaia. A taxi from the Constanta train station to the hotel cost about twenty-five lei on the meter, though I had drivers offer me fares as low as fifteen lei. There are regular busses and minibusses along Mamaia and into Constanta, but they are painfully slow.

The hotel has all the standard services. There is a pool with about fifty sun chairs- if you want to lounge around by the pool you need to be down there at 7:50 am to secure your chair. Don't get irate when you observe people putting their towels on chairs at 8:00 am and then not coming down to the pool until 2:00 pm- it's the culture here (despite signs in the elevator to the contrary). If you miss the free poolside chairs there are hundreds of chairs and umbrellas directly on the beach for 20-30 lei per day (operated by private companies, not the hotel). The pool was clean enough, especially considering that North American rules about children wearing diapers don't seem to apply. There is one free internet terminal in the lobby, but 90% of the time it is occupied by unsupervised children playing video games. There is a bar at the hotel (never, ever busy) and a decent restaurant. The included breakfast buffet was expansive (my standard breakfast was scrambled eggs, yogurt, raw vegetables with cheese and fresh bread) but the staff weren't doing a good enough job to keep the area clean and there were lots of wasps buzzing around at breakfast. The a la carte menu for dinner and lunch featured pretty standard Romanian meat and Italian-inspired pizza and pasta dishes. There were not sufficient vegetarian options.

My room was in the non-beach-front building, on the first floor (Euro-style, in other words the floor above the ground floor). The bathroom was a bit dated (there was a small hole above the shower into what must have been the lighting ducts) but there was usually hot water and the water pressure was good. Every day housekeeping took the top sheet off my bed and replaced it with a freshly-folded one, requiring me to re-make my bed everyday, which was kind of annoying. The only real problem with the room was the fact that there was a row of ants making their way between the patio door and the mini-bar- I didn't bring it to the hotel's attention, however, as I wanted to avoid the use of pesticides in my living space. Oh, when I checked in I noticed the patio door was not locked, and one out of the five days I returned to my room to find the patio door had again been left unlocked by housekeeping. I doubt anyone will scale the wall to break into a room that overlooks the main parking lot, but I do recommend that anyone staying here make sure their patio door is kept locked when they're out of the room. Perhaps it is also worth mentioning that the rooms aren't exactly soundproof, and visiting families seem quite content to let their toddlers run up and down the halls screaming at 6:00 am and 11:30 pm. This happened on more than one day with more than one family, so if you're looking for a good night's sleep it is worth requesting a room at the end of the hall or away from children.

Overall, Golden Tulip Mamaia is probably one of the best choices in the area. There are one or two five-star hotels nearby that do look a little bit nicer, but I can't imagine they're worth paying (at least!) double the rate of the Golden Tulip.