Meliá Sunny Beach

“Excellent hotel, staff and good environs from a wheelchair users point of view.”

Situated 4 minutes walk from Sunny Beach, Melia accessed via a wooden walkway to a promenade just waking up for a new season , the beach looks beautiful. I am a wheelchair user but can walk with sticks and have an 18kg wheelchair, the only problem I had was getting up and down the kerb as the cross… more

Situated 4 minutes walk from Sunny Beach, Melia accessed via a wooden walkway to a promenade just waking up for a new season , the beach looks beautiful. I am a wheelchair user but can walk with sticks and have an 18kg wheelchair, the only problem I had was getting up and down the kerb as the crossing point is far too steep. There’s a zebra crossing here for safety as you have to cross the road. Having got there, the ‘promenade is a little disappointing as there are not sea views and of course my wheelchair can’t run on the beach. However turn left from the boardwalk and you’re heading straight to the centre with the usual clothes, handbags and souvenirs, but then turning left into another little alleyway there is a pub selling food and drinks with outdoor seating which is what my friend and I were looking for. It may be that some of the closed places serve coffee and have seating but not this early in the season. We are staying at the Melia sunny beach hotel and this review is being written while we are staying there. I just had to write a review I am so impressed. My 83 year old friend and I arrived to a very warm welcome and we’ve been cared for like royalty, the staff could not be better. Helpful, kind and attentive, they have answered a myriad of questions and are going to hire mobility scooters for us for the 2 days we want to explore the promenade, the pub I mentioned being too far for my friend to walk and my wheelchair doesn’t lock so I can’t let it out of my sight, and the slopes are more than the 6 degrees my wheelchair is meant to cope with. The scooters lock so I can happily leave them to wander the short distance I can walk using sticks to go into shops and the pub. I asked if there was somewhere safe for us to leave them overnight as I prefer my wheelchair within the hotel. Not a problem! The indoor pool is supposed to be 25C but currently cold as they’ve had a problem with the heating system and obviously it takes time to heat a large volume of water. Unfortunately the changing rooms are apparently upstairs so I had to stay in my wheelchair wet to get back to my room to shower (water quite heavily chlorinated). I’m deaf and once I take my hearing aids out I hear virtually nothing, so I have to make the lifeguard aware he would need to use hand signals if he needed to speak to me eg to tell me it was time to get out. It’s open 9am to 6pm. My only criticism here is that they do not have a hoist. The lifeguard couldn’t understand English well enough to know what I was saying so he sensibly called for someone to come and translate. Michaela from guest services came as well as a man I don’t know. They both stayed to make sure I was safe and could get out using the steps which is difficult for me. (They were also concerned as to my swimming ability which is fine). Michaela went and got me a second towel to sit on so my wheelchair didn’t get wet going back to my room. The slope to the pool is again too steep for my wheelchair really so coming down I have to use reverse gear to assist the brakes which worked well. The door to enter and exit the pool is on a very strong spring so I need my friend to come with me to open the door, she can sit on one of the sunbeds there to read or talk to other spectators- Problem solved! There is not the option of staying half board as we usually do, but inclusive means just that and I was amazed that brandy, amaretto etc and wine was free in the dining room in reception and ‘Route 66’ the pool snack bar so one can access food drinks and ice cream’s freely throughout the day. Again the staff are more than happy to assist. I won’t carry hot drinks where there are other people as in a wheelchair you become invisible and other guests walk away from the buffet etc without looking, straight into my wheelchair (on one occasion several years ago someone did so, went over the arm of the wheelchair ending up with head and shoulders on my lap!) hot drinks could be dangerous for me and them! They also offered to assist getting food from the buffet but I can manage that independently and just ask for help and someone obliges. The dining room and buffet area is, as the rest of the hotel immaculately clean with tables being PROPERLY cleaned when each guest leaves. As a retired nurse I notice these things and they matter ensuring no cross infection risk. Again the staff are very friendly and have a great sense of humour. The food is excellent and varied. The chefs do a great job! The room I’m in is adapted but to our frustration it’s impossible to shower and not get water all over the shower room floor the drain being stupidly the other side of the wet room under the sink. (The staff brought us a rubber broom type thing like you’d use on a car) to push the water to the drain and we then use a use a towel with a walking stick to dry the floor for safety , problem easily solved. Neither of us are very tall and we can’t reach the standard anti theft hangers in the spacious wardrobes (with a safe) so they have provided normal hangers and a step (again fantastic care). My bedside lamp had a broken pull cord - very short and not weighted and I couldn’t find the cord in the dark. I asked if maintenance could do anything about this. They immediately changed the lamp but also on the cable is a switch that was hidden by the bed having changed from a king size to twin beds. Every request I have made has been rapidly fulfilled. The outdoor pools have a very interesting slide tube that I wouldn’t want to try even if able bodied! Kids love it! Aquarobic short sessions are led in the biggest outdoor pool by the staff. There are plenty of sunbeds around the pool to lie and enjoy the sun! I hope this is a review that will be of use to other wheelchair users as well as those of you who are not disabled but reading this. All in all there is very little to let the hotel down, apart from the lack of a pool hoist, I can find nothing negative to say in all honesty that the 5 stars I have given the Melia hotel is well deserved and I’ve tried to give a little flavour of its environs. All that’s left to say is thank you to the wonderful team at the Melia hotel Sunny Beach. I will definitely come back!

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“Relaxing holiday in a nice hotel”

We have been in this hotel 10-12 times. Nice hotel, clean, good food, nice and polite staff, lot of sun beds, near shopping, beach and all you need. We'll go there again May 30. 2026, and we look forward to it, as usual.

“Loved it”

Loved it , lovely hotel staff are so nice , very clean , would stay here again.

“We're coming back”

As with anywhere there pros and cons to our visit but we're coming back next summer. We arranged our own taxi from the airport which is definitely worth it. The driver kindly drove through some of the villages so my son could see the stork nests which are quite impressive. Arrival and check-in w… more

As with anywhere there pros and cons to our visit but we're coming back next summer. We arranged our own taxi from the airport which is definitely worth it. The driver kindly drove through some of the villages so my son could see the stork nests which are quite impressive. Arrival and check-in were fine. 'Amazing Peter' took us over to our block where we were given our wristbands/keycards. It was really good having the keycard on the wristband so we never needed to search for it and could trust the kids with it. Our room was great. We had a family suite which had the two bedrooms, a shower room and a proper bathroom with bath and toilet. The shower cubicle had clearly been retrofitted at some point and felt like I could have moved the whole unit with little effort. I like a good shower and it was fine for that. There was a large wardrobe and a tv in the main bedroom but none in the kids bedroom. Didn't cause us any real issues though. The balcony was huge so plenty of space for inflatables to be stored and towels hung up. Room was quiet from outside noise but occasionally kids would run along the corridor or people would get back late but nothing too bad. The hotel was clean and well looked after in general. The staff were pleasant for the most part but some clearly didn't want to interact. Maybe this us to be expected as they were all quite busy. The pools were good. Not huge but I felt they were big enough. 2 small deeper ones and a big shallow one. My kids enjoyed the slides but it would have been good if they were open a bit longer during the day. We would go down to the pool about 0830 and had our pick of loungers around the shallow pool. The other 2 pools loungers got reserved much quicker but there were generally still loungers available near us after 10am. There were loungers reserved well before 8am but staff regularly walked through the area and cleared towels away, putting them on a table with a letter explaining why. They do this until 9am. I must admit I did enjoy watching the spats where people came back to their loungers being taken. There were some reserved most of the day without people using them but I feel the hotel are doing as much as they reasonably can. The seagulls were very brazen and a bit of a pest but some people still thought it a good idea to feed them. They don't allow glasses outside of the buildings and sell small plastic glasses if you don't want the paper cups. We always take bigger metal tumblers which are much nicer to drink from and help keep it cool. The bars were OK and the drinks were OK. I mainly drink lemonade which was often run out and just dispensing water. Im guessing they check the colour of the drink rather than the bag of syrup. I mentioned them a couple of times but they stiff weren't sorted so just learned which to use. The mojito bar would make a Cuban cry. It was crushed ice with flavoured syrup but there was always a queue so guessing it was OK. The lager was decent enough and my wife bought a good bottle of gin in duty free which she said was the right decision. The food is where the hotel really let's itself down. I wouldn't expect anything too amazing at a buffet but the children's options were appalling. They had notices up above what they considered to be the kids choices. It was generally chips, pasta in a couple of bland sauces and a battered vegetable. Yes, kids can eat them along with some other foods but theyre really not kid friendly menus. I've seen far better kids options at far worse hotels and with the overall spread i think the hotel is falling short. This might sound a bit over the top but one of my kids struggled a bit and I remember the disappointment as a child when the choices were this bad. Breakfasts were fairly standard but better eggs and sausages than most hotels I've been too. Good selection of fruits and pastries too. Wasn't a massive fan of the pizzas and neither was my youngest who loves most pizzas. The burger place was great. Only had the burgers and chips there but they were really good. Always a big queue at lunch but moves quick enough. The Indian restaurant was nice. The chicken usually looked under cooked but was tasty enough. We didn't try the chinese. The main route out, towards the beach and shops, took us through an area of arcade machine etc. At first our kids wanted to go on everything every time we went through which was a bit of a pain. There were problems with a few of the machines but there was always someone there to resolve it and give us a refund. I spoke to 'Amazing Peter' and one of his colleagues about a food item for my son (who is autistic) and whilst it wasn't possible to get it anywhere locally they got something close and had it left in our room. This was way above and beyond and I think reflects the effort put in by the customer service team. On the last day our flight was at night so we were able to make use of the facilities. The only places to get changed after though were the gym or a changing facility by the pizza place. These were terrible. The showers were flooded and there was only a small cubicle to change in although the room was enormous. The beach area for the hotel isn't exactly over the road but it's just a few minutes away. The beach bar has a good selection of drinks and serves iced creams. They also do toasted sandwiches but I thought they were terrible. They are hotdog rolls with cheese and salami which are then put in a panini press. There were loads of sun loungers free when we went there. We didn't do many activities but there seemed to be a decent schedule for the kids. Again, we didn't bother with the evening entertainment but our room looked out towards the stage so could hear it. The location is great. Just a couple of minutes to the beach and a few more minutes to the shops. There are a bunch of shops around the hotel perimeter including chemists and off licence. There is Janet City Market, a wee supermarket, about 10 minutes walk away. The shops selling clothing are great and quite cheap. Some of the quality is outstanding but some if it looks terrible. They don't haggle unless youre buying a few things. Whilst there we went to old nessebar which was lovely but not sure I'd bother going back. Lots of nice wee bars and lots of places selling naz1 and Russian stuff. We went go karting nearby which was great. The guy running it was really nice and did everything he could when my son hurt his leg. Get a taxi if you go though as there's a really busy road to cross. And he only takes cash. In short, a few negative points but overall we're all looking forward to our next trip there. I just hope the kids menu is better this time.

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