Hotel Old Times

Parking is on the street, and staff speak very little English, if any. The hotel is a small, traditional Bulgarian place, with comfortable rooms and lovely mountain views. The food has plenty of choice and is very good, though breakfast is a simple set meal. It’s under a five minute walk downhill through the side streets and over the river to the town centre. For a morning walk, head uphill into the mountains for about 20 minutes. Take the small road on the right off the main road once you’re around the corner from the edge of town. The wooded views on the way to the ruins of Asens fortress and the restored church on its rocky peak are beautiful. One thing for parents: the cable has five channels of 24 hour, no-holds-barred adult entertainment, so don’t leave the TV remote to the young ones. Highly recommended.

The restaurant is cozy, with a fireplace, and the menu prices are cheap for a hotel restaurant. Our room was clean, spacious enough, quiet, and had a small balcony. But we were here in winter and the room had no working heat. The A/C remote was dead, so we used the TV remote to switch the A/C to heating, but the room stayed cold. The bathroom was freezing too, and it could use some improvement.

We went to Velo Keleshi nearby when I had a bike problem, and they fixed it. The girl there speaks English, and I highly recommend them too. Assen's fortress is also worth a visit for the special view from up there. The place had plenty of guests, but after 11 pm it was completely quiet. The staff are very nice. They don’t speak English, but they can use Google Translate’s voice feature. Still, learning the alphabet and at least 50 common words and expressions will make things much easier.

I had room #21. The beds were comfortable, but the shower head kept falling off its broken holder. The card slot that powers the room outlets was broken too, and I had to wiggle my own card to get it working.