Oltul

The restaurant food is very good and affordable, and you can take a nice walk along the river Olt nearby. The hotel is pleasant enough, well located, and has plenty of parking at 7 RON/day. There isn’t much else to do around there, so it seems best suited to people going for treatment. There’s no AC, though we didn’t find it too hot. A courtyard-facing room can be noisy, probably from ventilation at the treatment base. The water is lovely and very warm. You pay for Aqua Park entry each day, and you can’t leave and come back without paying for another entry. It gets VERY crowded on weekends.

The view is amazing, but the hotel and its service need work. It wasn’t clean enough and really needs a major renovation. The hotel pool and Aqua park are connected, but entry costs 30 lei for only four hours. Staying longer means paying extra.

The staff were kind throughout, and our room was tidy, clean, and decent looking. The bathroom was clean too, though it felt like little had been updated in decades, and the makeshift shower doors wouldn’t close properly. There’s no Wi-Fi in the rooms, only at reception. The parking lot was clean and large, but some people parked in unmarked spots without anyone addressing it. Parking is not free as the hotel profile says. For hotel guests it’s 5 lei/day, though I’m unsure what it costs for visitors. The restaurant was a letdown. The food was low quality and portions were tiny, even though prices didn’t look high at first. The whole place smelled of food, like eating in a kitchen. It gives the feel of a cheap self-service restaurant, but there’s a dress code: all shorts are banned, even decent ones, despite this being a leisure destination. It’s very large, but staff rush you. They bring the menu, ask for your order less than a minute later, then immediately bring the bill, which you have to pay upfront. There are lots of pools and an aqua park, but they were extremely crowded, and the indoor air felt suffocating. The entry bracelets can’t be used to pay for food or drinks, so you still need cash inside, making the lockers at the entrance pointless. Every pool is 1.40m deep, with no shallower area for kids or deeper section for swimming. With the crowds, swimming wasn’t really possible anyway. The spa features and other water effects only run at set times, so you have to wait a long time for a turn at the jacuzzi bubbles. The water seemed a bit too warm, though I’m not sure it’s thermal water. The place overall didn’t feel very clean. Even though the hotel is surrounded by pools, they require ‘decent clothing’ everywhere outside the pool and don’t provide robes or towels for that. The hotel has a 3 star rating, probably from the 90s, but I’d say 2 stars at best. The room price didn’t seem excessive initially, but nothing is included: no free parking, no pool access, and lots of odd rules.

We had a very nice stay and hope we can come back soon. The staff were friendly, and our room was spacious, spotless, and had everything we needed. The restaurant serves very good food, though the portions are small and there isn’t much choice.