Simitli Holidays from £404

Helpful staff; very modern and clean; great location

All the staff were friendly and helpful. The hotel's owner, Konstantin Kostov, was particularly impressive. Always there, it seemed, and he also gave an excellent talk about the Roman baths underneath the hotel. Whatever I asked of him, he always went the extra yard. Any criticism? I had to work hard to come up with one: the fridge in my room was not cold enough!

I’ll start with the conclusion: our stay at the hotel was absolutely wonderful. Like, presidential-wonderful. Literally. We landed in Sofia on a bleary-eyed early morning flight and arrived at the hotel around 11am. We weren't expecting miracles—just a place to drop our bags and maybe lie down on a horizontal surface. Instead, the front desk hit us with a one-two punch: early check-in AND an upgrade from junior suite to presidential suite. Yes, we went from "tired tourists" to "honorary heads of state" in under 5 minutes. The suite? Massive. Bright. Immaculate. At first, we thought, “Who needs this much space?” but then found ourselves doing laps between the bathroom and the balcony just because we could. Throughout the stay, it honestly felt like the staff had formed a secret society dedicated to pampering us. One night, after a leisurely dinner and evening stroll, we were ambushed in the lobby by Philipos, the F&B manager, wielding a mysterious pistachio dessert. "Please," he said, handing it to us like a treasure, "take it to your room and enjoy." Saying no was clearly not an option. Three minutes later, there was a knock on our door. A staff member stood there... with a fork and a napkin. The dessert had an entourage. Also, everyone in the hotel seemed weirdly happy. Either the air vents are pumping joy or this place just knows how to treat people right. 5 stars! Would gladly get presidentially spoiled again. --