Yastrebets Wellness & Spa

“Clean, nice forest walk, outdated”

We were there during summer but this is probably primarily a winter resort. The rooms were clean and the front desk staff was friendly. Highlights: The spa manager (a gentleman with white hair) was such a lovely person. Someone who you can tell right away is kind and caring. He didn’t speak Englis… more

We were there during summer but this is probably primarily a winter resort. The rooms were clean and the front desk staff was friendly. Highlights: The spa manager (a gentleman with white hair) was such a lovely person. Someone who you can tell right away is kind and caring. He didn’t speak English but showed me around all the features of the spa (there are many areas, sauna, steam, Turkish type steams etc etc.) He offered me tea and when I declined, he brought me water. He had really amazing healing type energy and it was lovely to have met him. There is a trail that leads to the forest from the hotel. Definitely take that walk. They have some neat wooden carvings of animals and a huge giant’s type table with chairs in the forest. They hold weddings around that forest area and it looks like a forest fairy-land. The exterior of the hotel has a nice alpine look. I think it is situated pretty near one of the ski lifts for the area also and I’m sure the hotel looks magical in winter. Low points: The rooms we booked was listed as a two-bedroom family suite. The problem was that it was one bedroom with a king size type bed and a living room with a sofa bed, not two actual bedrooms. The sofa bed was wide enough for two kids but not the most comfortable. The bedroom only had high clerestory windows with no way to actually look out and that doesn’t give a room a good feeling. Luckily that bedroom did have air conditioning which you do need in the summer. The living room did not have AC but did have a window, alas without a screen. The mountain air at night is fine but you do need a screen with mosquitos. The bathroom is sort of standard for that era of Bulgarian hotel - so it was fine but not great. It did have a bidet which is always nice. It did have a small step up in the middle which you had to remember so that you didn’t trip. Breakfast was pretty dismal. At many of these hotels, it’s as if they need to check off a series of items to keep a certain listing of type of hotel, but checking off that you have an item instead of just having a few items that are more edible and taste good are not the same thing. I ended up mostly eating just the toast with jam. Everything else seemed suspect. Even the coffee was tough to deal with. I know many of the hotels recycle items from dinner or from breakfast from the days before and am used to that, but this one lacked much of anything that was quality. One day they had a homemade cake (kind of a coffee cake) and that was good. This probably wouldn’t be our first choice of a place to stay again but maybe it offers an advantage location-wise if you are skiing and there was the really good spa with the gracious gentleman running it. The dinner we had was good albeit quite expensive and with small portions so that restaurant is ok. The breakfast is served on the second floor in a low ceilinged space. There is a patio but that’s where the smokers go.

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“Nice pace to stop for lunch - except music far too loud”

Ideally placed next to the slopes in the forest to stop of a drink or lunch but really spoilt by loud music blasting out - why do these places do it. I am sure that the music is not for the customers - more likely the staff. You would be better going along another 2/300 m to the Finish Line which… more

Ideally placed next to the slopes in the forest to stop of a drink or lunch but really spoilt by loud music blasting out - why do these places do it. I am sure that the music is not for the customers - more likely the staff. You would be better going along another 2/300 m to the Finish Line which is also in a lovely position and no loud music to spoilt the atmosphere

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