Hotel Sinaia

At first glance the hotel looks good, the beds are reasonably comfortable, and the staff are nice. But look closer and there’s black mold under the balcony door and a hallway carpet that seems not to have been vacuumed for weeks. The spa pool feels like a kindergarten in the morning, so avoid that time. Also, don't check in and pay online. They don't see the payment in their system and charge you for another night. I had to explain it for 15 minutes, and even after they finally admitted the mistake, nobody apologized.

I didn't stay overnight at the hotel, but my five-star rating is for the spa and restaurant. I traveled solo and met up with The Better Neighbors group. I had a wonderful three-week experience in June 2025, using the spa almost every day except when I was hiking or taking tours to nearby places in Romania.

The restaurant and hotel bar were the only parts of this stay I enjoyed. We spent two nights here for our anniversary, but the room wasn't clean: previous guests' trash was still there, and the toilet had urine splashes on it. The bathroom smelled bad from the floor drain, and water drained poorly from both the bathtub and sink. There were no robes, though a call to the spa sorted that out. Sleep was difficult for several reasons. Water dripping from melting snow onto a metal ledge made a terrible noise, and the windows barely blocked sound. The pillows were huge and lumpy, the AC turned on by itself at 3am, probably on a timer left by earlier guests, and the thin walls let us hear people speaking at normal volume. We booked spa massages by email for both days starting at 6pm, but their system had us down from 4pm, so we lost our spa entry on the first day. When we showed the confirmation email, they corrected the hours for the second day. During one massage, after 50 + 20 min, the person working on me applied a face mask and left for 10 minutes. They returned with cigarette-smelling hands, spent only 10 minutes removing the mask and applying cream, and the smoke smell stayed on my face until I got back to the room and washed it off. That may sound exaggerated, but it isn't. A hotel should provide a clean room and a good night's sleep, and we didn't get either. The bar and restaurant were enjoyable, and I could visit them without staying at the hotel.

We booked a month ahead because we wanted a spa. At booking, they told us two hours would be available and we'd pay after that, which we agreed to. When we arrived, though, they said the spa was busy, we couldn't use it, and we had to book separately. Why tell us that? It wrecked our vacation plans. The service wasn't good.