Hotel Narcis

Families with kids seemed to be drawn to this place, and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise for a hotel on the Romanian coast that's rated three stars. The staff were polite, and our room was tidy and cleaned regularly. Some furniture and appliances were new. It's an older hotel with only part of it renovated. The canteen and parking area could use work too, but for a reasonable price, it was one of the better places to stay.

The pool was a nice feature, the beach was close, and the food was decent. The rooms were small and only average for a four-star hotel, and one of the bedsheets was a bit dirty. I had to switch rooms when I arrived because they were still painting the first one and the toilet was broken.

The location is fantastic, but that's the one thing this hotel has going for it. The room was clean when I first arrived, then never got cleaned again. We didn't get fresh towels or replacement toilet paper, and nothing else seemed to be cleaned or refreshed either. The fridge stopped working, and I never got an update about my complaint.

The pool is a decent size and I never saw it crowded, though it could use a little more cleaning. There's a shallow section for kids, around 40 cm deep, and a big, fun slide. Plenty of sunbeds, but you need to get up early to claim one. At the beach, too, you have to go before sunrise to get a spot near the sea. The hotel says you can't reserve sunbeds and that an unused one can be reassigned after half an hour, but that's not how it works. People put their towels out at sunrise, leave, then return 3-4 hours later. Same thing happens around the pool. The sand is hard packed and mostly shells, with cigarette butts all over it. It doesn't feel fine underfoot, and I don't think the beach gets cleaned. The sea has algae and some rocks, though I guess there aren't many parts of the Black Sea without algae. The kids' playgrounds look good and safe. The young table cleaners were really nice and did a good job. As for the dining area, the line was endless at every meal. If you showed up half an hour after opening, you might not get food. Some people took far more than they could eat, and when dishes ran out the staff only refilled them once or twice, while the good stuff was always gone. Water, soda, beer, and wine were available without limits. The rooms are small, more or less okay for two. If you're 1.9 m tall and about 100 kg, there's not much room to live in. The bathrooms are VERY small too. I had to squeeze between the sink and toilet just to shut the door. Cleaning happens when they remember. Sometimes they take your trash, sometimes not. There was trash on my balcony when I arrived, and nobody removed it for the whole week I stayed.