Hotels Near Св. Пророк Илия in Sofia

Hi, my name is Peter, a pensioner, from England. The dental clinic (where I am a patient) booked me in to Grami, which I describe as a business hotel. I found the reception staff to be so well educated, sometimes I wondered if I was a guest or a student! Flawless english and spanish are spoken at reception. Dental patients come to Bulgaria mainly from Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Britain. These patients midway in their treatment have no teeth. The cooks offered hot potato or chicken soup and bread or dunking toast for the toothless (including me), which is amazing considering we can't speak. Breakfast included yogurt (plain or fruity) which can be swallowed without chewing. I was on floor 5, in a no smoking double room with TV, shower, balcony, and wardrobes big enough for the whole Bulgarian volleyball team. The mini-bar is packed with beer, wine, fizzy drinks, water and snacks, replenished daily. Some days my sheets were soaked in blood from my toothless jaw....like a scene from a Hitchcock horror film. No problem for the housekeeping team. My room was cleaned daily, with disinfectants. Please have sympathy for the shower extractor fan! It struggles to cope with smells (leave the light on to keep the fan running) Soap and body gel in abundance, towels changed on request. Breakfast is the star attraction of the restaurant. The choice and quantity of food could feed the Bulgarian army and leave enough left over for paying guests! I asked Stoyan the chef to heat my plate as the cooked items were a teeny weeny bit cold. On certain days Stoyan cooked a ,,Mishmash” omelette on request in front of guests. Ask for a picnic breakfast if you're leaving next day before 07h. Wide choice of fruit, yogurt, muesli, chilled meats, croissants, sliced bread. The staff will make banana & honey smoothies for toothless guests who cannot eat hot food (under surgeon's orders). A spectacular mountain view is visible from the Sky Bar on the top floor of the hotel. Food is basic, a limited choice menu, prices around 4€. I was often served faster than a 5G SMS in the Sky bar. The salads were my favourite, regularly served in a jiffy, also there's a hummus with bread that you should try. I felt secure in this hotel, probably because I look like Dracula. Smoke alarms fitted in every room and extinguishers in the corridors. I never saw any crime in the hotel or in the surrounding area. The air conditioning and plumbing systems are noisy 24/7. Outside, Malinov boulevard is a makeshift race track for bike & car gangs to burn rubber on weekends. I saw a Porsche 911 complete the run in 9 seconds. The double glazed windows shut out the racket, but I like fresh air. Take the underwalk when crossing to reach the malls, which have a variety of stores including a pharmacy. Mladost is a pleasant business and industrial zone. Lidl supermarket is 200m from Grami, a commercial centre and Metro station are within 600m. Plenty of cash machines nearby.

I stayed at this hotel during a dance festival and this was actually one of the few advantages of this hotel (all the workshops here held there). Cleaning ok. It is very cold in room (I slept on a sofe near the windows and I could not sleep because of the cold and the noise coming from outside). Breakfast is quite poor in terms of options (if you decide to have breakfast after 8:30, you will see that there is not much food left and they do not bring more). Also, they charge you for the parking. the card does not work when you want to exist the parking and since the doorman does not speak English it is quite difficult to explain that you have already paid for the parking.

When we arrived to park at the hotel we were expected to know where to park and where to go so this made the first 15 minutes unbearable. We were told on many occasions not here. Please provide positive directions in future. The hotel itself after the poor beginning was excellent. The room was clean and serviceable with a good fridge. Although my wife found the bed and pillows uncomfortable I did not. Breakfast had a good selection and the dining area was roomy. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE someone teach the chef to fry an egg. No matter your preference whether it be over easy, flipped or hard yolk all eggs had a fantastic burnt plastic skirt. TIP use the right kind of oil, don't turn the heat up so high, have the oil warm before the egg goes in, and don't use freezing cold eggs. The hotel organised Taxi's for us and these were excellent.

The hotel is only more than 1,000 meters away from the airport, but the road is a bit winding, it is better to take the hotel’s airport shuttle. There is a timetable for the hotel shuttle bus, but there is no one to take the bus; the hotel is easy to handle at the airport, make an appointment with the front desk, it is no problem to leave on time; from the airport to the hotel, if you don't call in advance, you may not be able to wait for the bus! The breakfast was good. The hotel has a parking lot, which is very convenient for self-driving.

I'll start with the positive points first: - I'll start with the positive points first - The minibar and the drinks at the bar are cheap Now the negative points they are effecting mostly the rooms: - The carpet is dirty and the rooms stink. Most probably they never changed the carpet since the hotel was build - The air conditioning was installed later. The hose to dispose the water from the air conditioner goes through a hose into the bathroom and ends above the bathroom floor. this means that the bathroom is always flooded when the air conditioning is on. this is definitely not acceptable. - The room cannot be darkened because the fabric of the curtains is very very thin and translucent. As soon as the sun rises it is not possible to sleep. In my case it was around 05:30AM when the sun came up. This point bothered me the most because I didn't get enough sleep on my business trip. I have visited the hotel Hemus regularly since 2017 when I have not been able to get a room elsewhere. in 2019 they had done major renovations, but I still don't understand what exactly was improved. the points just mentioned above have not been resolved. only the tv was exchanged for a flat screen and the bracket for the old tube tv was removed. Maybe this was the reason of renovation. I hope that someone from the hotel will read this as a general overhaul is urgently needed. Especially with the carpet and the curtains. There's no point in choosing a hotel to relax after a long meeting day and can't even sleep because of the windows that can't be darkened or the smell of the carpet that has never been replaced.

Missed the connection and had to book a hotel near the airport. This Ibis is fine for the night on a stopover but not much to do around. Still ended up going to town to eat and have a look around so would have been just as easy, and a bit cheaper, if I would have picked a city hotel. The room was two single beds and nothing much else included, reasonably clean but still expensive bearing in mind it is Bulgaria. Fine for late arrival and short stay if booked early.

The staff at Grand Hotel Sofia deserves the highest praise for their helpfulness and attentiveness, going above and beyond to ensure my every need was met. Their warm and accommodating nature made me feel like a valued guest throughout my stay. The highlight of my visit was undoubtedly the spacious and beautifully decorated room. The tasteful decor, plush furnishings, and meticulously chosen artwork created an atmosphere of elegance and comfort that exceeded my expectations. Additionally, the room service at Grand Hotel Sofia was exceptional, offering a delectable menu of dishes that surpassed my expectations. Each meal was flawlessly prepared and delivered promptly, further enhancing the overall experience. Grand Hotel Sofia provided an outstanding stay with a dedicated staff, remarkable room decor, and exceptional room service. I highly recommend this hotel for an unforgettable experience in Sofia.

Overall very beautiful structure, works of art everywhere, a feast for the eyes, the spacious rooms, but alas a bit dirty, exceptional breakfast with many choices, both sweet and savoury. A flaw in my opinion is the internal temperature of the structure, but above all of the rooms which, even with the climate on 13 °, could not get cold.

The Hotel is in an excellent position, just 10 meters from the Metro stop, allowing easy travel throughout the city. Our room was spacious and fairly clean (we found a large cobweb); but above all very hot: throughout the hotel the heating is set to 26 degrees! Fortunately, radiators are adjustable, and the problem can be solved. The structure does not have its own breakfast room, and relies on the café next door: considering the price asked for breakfast, and the poor choice offered to customers (you are entitled to only one dish each, being able to range between, in all, 4 savory and 4 sweet options...) then it is better to give up and decide to start your day elsewhere. It's a shame because the cafe itself isn't bad.

This hotel is in an excellent location: about 10 minute walk from the bus/train station; 5 minutes walk to the metro; 20 minutes walk to the city centre. So from that perspective, it fit my needs perfectly. The staff I encountered were very friendly and helpful, so that was a major plus. The rooms, well, a bit of a mixed bag. While the rooms were VERY spacious, and had a great little balcony, from which I enjoyed a few drinks in the evening, the room really needed to be renovated. The word I described it is “shopworn”. Look at my photos of the room and you can see the broken couch and stained carpet. I would also say that the cleaning staff is a little lacklustre. While not “dirty” per sae, it certainly could be cleaned better. Some minor renovations and better cleaning would have me rating this hotel as a “five”.