"Situated 4 minutes walk from Sunny Beach, Melia accessed via a wooden walkway to a promenade just waking up for a new season , the beach looks beautiful.
I am a wheelchair user but can walk with sticks and have an 18kg wheelchair, the only problem I had was getting up and down the kerb as the crossing point is far too steep. There’s a zebra crossing here for safety as you have to cross the road. Having got there, the ‘promenade is a little disappointing as there are not sea views and of course my wheelchair can’t run on the beach. However turn left from the boardwalk and you’re heading straight to the centre with the usual clothes, handbags and souvenirs, but then turning left into another little alleyway there is a pub selling food and drinks with outdoor seating which is what my friend and I were looking for. It may be that some of the closed places serve coffee and have seating but not this early in the season.
We are staying at the Melia sunny beach hotel and this review is being written while we are staying there. I just had to write a review I am so impressed. My 83 year old friend and I arrived to a very warm welcome and we’ve been cared for like royalty, the staff could not be better. Helpful, kind and attentive, they have answered a myriad of questions and are going to hire mobility scooters for us for the 2 days we want to explore the promenade, the pub I mentioned being too far for my friend to walk and my wheelchair doesn’t lock so I can’t let it out of my sight, and the slopes are more than the 6 degrees my wheelchair is meant to cope with. The scooters lock so I can happily leave them to wander the short distance I can walk using sticks to go into shops and the pub. I asked if there was somewhere safe for us to leave them overnight as I prefer my wheelchair within the hotel. Not a problem! The indoor pool is supposed to be 25C but currently cold as they’ve had a problem with the heating system and obviously it takes time to heat a large volume of water. Unfortunately the changing rooms are apparently upstairs so I had to stay in my wheelchair wet to get back to my room to shower (water quite heavily chlorinated). I’m deaf and once I take my hearing aids out I hear virtually nothing, so I have to make the lifeguard aware he would need to use hand signals if he needed to speak to me eg to tell me it was time to get out. It’s open 9am to 6pm. My only criticism here is that they do not have a hoist. The lifeguard couldn’t understand English well enough to know what I was saying so he sensibly called for someone to come and translate. Michaela from guest services came as well as a man I don’t know. They both stayed to make sure I was safe and could get out using the steps which is difficult for me. (They were also concerned as to my swimming ability which is fine). Michaela went and got me a second towel to sit on so my wheelchair didn’t get wet going back to my room. The slope to the pool is again too steep for my wheelchair really so coming down I have to use reverse gear to assist the brakes which worked well. The door to enter and exit the pool is on a very strong spring so I need my friend to come with me to open the door, she can sit on one of the sunbeds there to read or talk to other spectators- Problem solved! There is not the option of staying half board as we usually do, but inclusive means just that and I was amazed that brandy, amaretto etc and wine was free in the dining room in reception and ‘Route 66’ the pool snack bar so one can access food drinks and ice cream’s freely throughout the day. Again the staff are more than happy to assist. I won’t carry hot drinks where there are other people as in a wheelchair you become invisible and other guests walk away from the buffet etc without looking, straight into my wheelchair (on one occasion several years ago someone did so, went over the arm of the wheelchair ending up with head and shoulders on my lap!) hot drinks could be dangerous for me and them! They also offered to assist getting food from the buffet but I can manage that independently and just ask for help and someone obliges.
The dining room and buffet area is, as the rest of the hotel immaculately clean with tables being PROPERLY cleaned when each guest leaves. As a retired nurse I notice these things and they matter ensuring no cross infection risk. Again the staff are very friendly and have a great sense of humour. The food is excellent and varied. The chefs do a great job! The room I’m in is adapted but to our frustration it’s impossible to shower and not get water all over the shower room floor the drain being stupidly the other side of the wet room under the sink. (The staff brought us a rubber broom type thing like you’d use on a car) to push the water to the drain and we then use a use a towel with a walking stick to dry the floor for safety , problem easily solved. Neither of us are very tall and we can’t reach the standard anti theft hangers in the spacious wardrobes (with a safe) so they have provided normal hangers and a step (again fantastic care). My bedside lamp had a broken pull cord - very short and not weighted and I couldn’t find the cord in the dark. I asked if maintenance could do anything about this. They immediately changed the lamp but also on the cable is a switch that was hidden by the bed having changed from a king size to twin beds. Every request I have made has been rapidly fulfilled. The outdoor pools have a very interesting slide tube that I wouldn’t want to try even if able bodied! Kids love it! Aquarobic short sessions are led in the biggest outdoor pool by the staff. There are plenty of sunbeds around the pool to lie and enjoy the sun!
I hope this is a review that will be of use
to other wheelchair users as well as
those of you who are not disabled but reading this. All in all there is very little to let the hotel down, apart from the lack of a pool hoist, I can find nothing negative to say in all honesty that the 5 stars I have given the Melia hotel is well deserved and I’ve tried to give a little flavour of its environs.
All that’s left to say is thank you to the wonderful team at the Melia hotel Sunny Beach. I will definitely come back!"
