This review is for the 4* Ralitsa Superior. I'm sure other people who have stayed here have put reviews down under the other Ralitsa, which is a 3* but on the same site. Actually, getting used to the layout of the hotel complex - which also includes a third hotel called the Vita Park - is half the battle when it comes to staying here. There are various facilities such as pools and bars which you can use if you want if you are a guest here, whereas other facilities like restaurants you can't - and I'm not sure if their guests can use the 4* facilities as they are supposedly "better" - confused? You will be!

Basically this is a decent standard package holiday hotel which offers what it calls Ultra All Inclusive. That means all your food and drink is included, and there is a good selection of all the alcoholic drinks you could possibly want available, as well as quite a few cocktails. Food is generally good - the veal in particular was delicious, although choice was not quite as wide as other all-inclusives I've been to. The canteen was perfectly acceptable, but I do wish they would pension off the "entertainment" who were there most nights. If I heard "If You Leave Me Now" once, I heard it a thousand times. Oh, that reminds me, I hope you like Titanic if you stay here, because you will be hearing "My Heart Will Go On" thousands of times as well. Do they have any other CDs?!

The rooms were small and smelt of smoke when we arrived, although this dissipated during our stay. Unfortunately I don't think the concept of non-smoking rooms has caught on yet in Bulgaria. The room was a bit frayed around the edges - my bedside light was broken and never got fixed, although I reported it. And the towel rail fell apart as well, though they did manage to fix that. Aircon was very good - efficient and quiet, and our room (which wasn't in the dreaded K block - see other reviews) had a pleasant, quiet outlook over a wooded area. The main issue with the room was the very hard foam mattress, which was too firm for comfort and also got quite hot and sweaty during the night - and not in a good way! Having said that, it can't have been too bad, becasue I did actually sleep very well while I was there. I looked at it one day and it was an orthopaedic mattress. This makes sense as most of the guests are of an older generation.

The best thing about the hotel was the pool. It was a good size, with plenty of sunloungers for everybody (going in September no doubt helped with that.) I found it incredibly relaxing and an ideal place to nod off or read a book. Mainly because of that, I actually had a lovely, relaxing holiday here and came back feeling very refreshed. Certainly not always the case after a holiday.

I am aware this review swings from being critical to being positive quite a lot, but that is what this place is like and, in many ways, what Bulgaria is like too. It is a place very much in transition from the old, Communist days into what I hope will be a very bright future ahead. The service in the hotel also reflected that - sometimes very helpful, cheerful and accommodating, but sometimes surly and almost eye-rolling. It was impossible to predict what you were going to get from one day to the next. On the whole it was fine and the front desk spoke good English, although German is definitely the main foreign language spoken here.

Overall, I would recommend it here, but people need to be aware that it is not fully up to Western standards in every single area and must be prepared to live with that. The cheapness of a holiday here makes up for that, in my opinion. The really important things - good food and a relaxing ambience - are here for you.