Zhuravi Kranevo Villas

It’s a very basic place, and they didn’t even provide toilet paper. The staff were friendly.

We were in Villa Rosa, not Zheravi, and our host was Anastasia Khlopotnova in house 7. The complex is made up of two-storey homes with different owners. Anastasia greeted us at 8:30 even though check-in officially starts after 2 p.m., and we'd gladly stay in her house again. It feels like a home rather than a cheap hotel, with practical, cozy furniture and comfortable mattresses in every bedroom. There are big wardrobes, a desk in the children's room, and a bathroom with toilet upstairs as well as the one downstairs. Both bathrooms were clean and new. The windows have fly and mosquito screens, and the walls and windows keep noise out. The beach is about 5-10 minutes away for adults, or around 15 minutes with a small child. It's one of the most beautiful beaches in Bulgaria, where the Batova River meets the sea beside the Longozna Gora "Baltata" nature reserve. Kranevo gets hot during the day, but trees around the house provide shade and the albizia smell lovely. It cools off at night. There is no air conditioning, but the two powerful fans were enough to cool us down. The outdoor area was well looked after: the pool was clean, with a shallow children's section and a deepest point of about 1.50 m. Sun loungers and little tables surround it. There are stone paths, green grass, flowering bushes, and everything is watered and refreshed every other day. Beside the house there's a brick oven for barbecuing and a small portable round barbecue. On the other side are a large bench swing and two plastic swings for babies. The layout is useful too. Downstairs there's a kitchen and living room, a bedroom with bathroom and toilet, a laundry room with a closet nook, and a veranda. Upstairs are two large bedrooms with a shared balcony and another bathroom. The kitchen has a sofa bed, a big table with six chairs, a fireplace with clay pots, and handy cabinets. It was stocked with a large fridge and freezer, oven, four burners, dishwasher, microwave, toaster, kettle, and just about every utensil: dishes, cookware, cutlery, bowls, boards, barbecue tools, kevgirs, colanders, and flour sieves. We also found salt, sugar, spices, vero, mushrooms, dishwasher detergent, cleaning supplies, buckets, basins, laundry items, a broom, shovel, vacuum, washing machine, scales, clothespins, two sheets, and spare chairs in the closet.

The rooms are pleasant and clean, which is a real plus. Breakfast, though, is the same every day no matter how long you stay, and there isn't a pool.

It's noisy and quite far from the sea. The place has been renovated, but there's no service, and the pool isn't cleaned.