Riu Helios Paradise

Have just returned from two weeks at this hotel,rooms large cleaned every day plenty of storage space. Pleasant hotel friendly staff poor drinks ,if you like your named spirits no chance , the dark rum and brandy are like cough medicine but you do get used to it eventually! The speciality restaurants were not good only the Bulgarian one was very good I wouldn’t bother with the Italian or Asian as not everything on the menu was available . Bottled water is freely available from reception but only tea and coffee available from machines in reception or restaurants. The thing that lets this hotel down is the amount of children at the hotel and getting more by the day and allowed to run a muck in all areas and all the pools when they had two pools of their own,so a quiet holiday is not on the cards if that’s what your looking for. Plenty of sun beds and brollys and no having to get up at stupid o clock to bag them most people don’t appear till 8-30/9 am. All in all a good holiday .

This hotel is amazing we literally cannot fault it. Room was big clean and maids came in every day. Hotel reception is spacious. There are 5 restaurants - 4 requiring booking which was easy to do. Food in each of them was lovely - endless amount of choice. Drinks wise there are several bars including the pool swim up bar. We tried all the cocktails and had the local beer. The pools are just wonderful and huge! Always plenty of sunbeds available and towels provided. There is also a private section of beach with beds and parasols less than 5 mins walk away. Sea is shallow and clear. All in all we absolutely loved this hotel - we are already looking at booking another Riu next year. Xx

Hi, I was in this hotel from 1.7.2022 to 8.7.2022 and it was excellent. Everything in this hotel was really top. I will start in rooms, we had family room (idk how many meters) room was big there was 2 beds, and shower like in standard hotels. Next were pools, there are 5 pools, 3 slides and in 1 of the pool was water bar. Water bars were everywhere. I mean there was about 2 water bars outside and 2 in the hotel. Food, food was also very excellent,there was lot of to choose from every pieces from food. Also in the hotel was the Nigth Program and of course it was super, every night something new, but for me was the most funny CRAZY SHOW. And at least program for kids: The hotel is club hotel so there are animators for kids what means that every day in 11:15 and 15:15/ 30 there was some program for kids and teenagers and also there was some club for small kids. I really enjoyed time there and nothing were bad so I must gave 5 stars. Oh, I forgot for beach, so on the booking or they're Web sites they write that the beach is 500 meters from hotel but the tru is that the beach is about 50 meters from kids pool and the sea is very clear, sometimes water grass, but the sea is very hot and the beach is very clean, and I forgot that one beach is from hotel-about 300 meters but there are on the beach hotel restaurant for hotel members and the second beach is the public but that is the beach 50 meters from hotel and I think better is the public if u want go to the sea only for 15 minutes and than go back to the hotel. So that's all and I give 5 🌟.

Brilliant family friendly and clean hotel with helpful reception staff. Very much enjoyed our stay and would return for sure. Couldn’t fault the cleanliness of the hotel, both in and out! Plenty of sun beds available, even at a later time in the morning. Pools very clean and looked fresh. Pool attendants always made an effort to say hello. Animation team brilliant, friendly and made to feel welcome but knew when to keep their distance when we just wanted to relax! Rooms modern, clean, bright and fresh. Great views and beds comfortable. Only a few points to note for future holiday makers and possible improvement for the hotel below, not meant as negative but merely friendly tips to improve an already great hotel! On check in and upon requesting the use of the safe in the room, a non refundable deposit would be required. A safe shouldn’t be charged for, especially in a 4* hotel, In my opinion. A deposit is required for an iron and ironing board, this is understandable but I don’t feel this is brilliant! As an all inclusive hotel food/snacks should be available 24hrs a day, not stop at a certain hour. Upon checking in no food available, as too late. Use of the sun beds came along with a parasol. These require the use of a pin to hold it up, obviously these were like gold dust and guest resorted to using sticks from bushes to hold it up. Not great fumbling around trying to find one strong enough. Staff at times were unfriendly. A smile goes a long way and 90% of staff need this advice. A few bar staff members didn’t crack a smile the whole time we were there and we genuinely felt a pain going for another drink and that we were about to meet our end! Smile more and remember we as customers are paying your wages…. Many times at the dinner buffet, whether this was due to the sheer amount of customers I don’t know, but most dishes were unavailable and we found ourselves quite often standing around waiting for the food to be cooked! Not a bad thing, but felt like lack of planning for the amount of guests in the dining room. Overall a good stay and recommend! Ps.. your cocktail of the day could be used as fuel for our return flight!

We have been to many RIU hotels around the world and have never been disappointed. We expected a certain standard and we were pleasantly surprised. I am a wheelchair user and the gardens are mostly conducive to that, but sometimes with difficulty. The amenities for young families are brilliant, with early dining , separate pools and play areas and a childrens club. The food was reasonable but not the best that we have had at a RIU hotel. The dress code is completely ignored in all the restaurants which is OK for most people and not a problem. The hotel and rooms are spotlessly clean and the public areas well maintained. I have seen the bad reviews about the staff but if you are pleasant to them , as in all countries, they return the compliment. Overall a great week’s stay, relaxing, drinking and too much food as usual. Hope you enjoy your stay as much as we did.

We stayed here from 20th June 2022. Didn’t what to expect with Bulgaria as it was our first time going. We were definitely shocked on initial view of this beautiful place. Massive resort with 3 main outdoor pools and an indoor pool in the right wing(looking at the hotel from the main grounds) a little kids pool with slides. more than enough sun loungers for everyone. A private Beach was easily accessible by simply walking along the promenade for 20 metres. Variety of water sports could be booked here. Easy to access any part of the hotel from where ever you are on the grounds. The sun was always shining on the grounds from sunrise to sunset. Rarely any spots blocked by the hotel. Restaurants: 4 you would need to reserve in advance. We found the RIU app was easiest for this. Our take on the restaurants: Asian- was probably our least favourite due to not what we expected. Still great food Bulgarian- best one. All food was bursting with flavour Mediterranean- never got the chance due to full on reservations looked amazing Italian- great food. Had live music while you ate Main Buffett- standard Buffett all inc food. Hit or miss depending on the theme of the day of meals Entertainment: Daily daytime and nighttime entertainment was held. Animations team were Amazing. Riu rep Stefan was our favourite. Always had a smile on his face and went above and beyond for anyone he encountered. His energy was one of a kind. We joined in on most games he presented. Nighttime you had the main bar outside on the main stage grounds. Lobby bar too on first floor of main building behind reception these are open until 12am Floor 0 was the karaoke bar which was open until 4am. You can get a light snack in here too. Pool bar you can either swim up to or walk was located on pool nearest to beach. This was operated from when pool was open. Staff were great in there. 2 great people(man and woman on pool side mostly) from Ukraine made sure we was well looked after at the bar. Out the hotel- Sunny beach- 20 lev taxi from the hotel or a 3 lev bus from across the road. Loads of bars, shops and restaurants here. And of course the sunny beach *****. Nessebar- 40 lev taxi from the hotel or a 6 lev bus from across the road. Beautiful old town with markets filling it. Hidden gems like Eco Bar by Michael is worth a visit. This is a must visit. The families and other couples we met here all were great fun and too loved this hotel. We had so much fun in the pool. At night watching live shows and even on the table tennis table. We would love to return again in the future. Definitely worth a visit

The hotel has old dirty carpet in as we did not expect this and TUI didn’t told us. Smells all the time. They do not change your bedding or even hovering it every day. Do not get fooled by the photos as we did. Receptionist was rude and not helpful. They do not advise you at all. No welcome drinks. To many members of staff around and are rude unhelpful or to busy with the other staff chatting and becomes loud. The standard of food was poor, they contaminated pork meat with other meats and lack of choices. There isn’t a great choices for drinks. Breakfast was awful and no smoothies/ watermelon or melon. As you expects these for a 4 star platinum hotel. Also the safe you have to pay for if you want to use it, we pay for the room, so this should come included. No kettle or coffee in the room.

We have just returned from a 2 week stay at the Riu Helios Paradise in Bulgaria. We had a fantastic holiday, we aren’t a couple to complain really but we do have a few negatives •The hotel is beautiful, very big and spacious and absolutely pristine! Cleaners are cleaning 24/7 to ensure the hotel is spotless. •Food was lovely, however it is the same with all ‘all inclusive’ hotels, you do get bored of having the same old thing. The Asian restaurant however is absolutely INCREDIBLE! If you love a Chinese then you must go to the Asian restaurant. •Lots of sun loungers, we never had a problem, didn’t need to get up early to secure. •Stunning views and weather. The only thing we did find quite annoying was that on the Tui website in which we booked with, does state this hotel is a 24 HOUR ALL INCLUSIVE - however it is NOT. It says you can get snacks, alcoholic and soft drinks 24 hours a day, however this is not the case. Drinks end at midnight and food ends at 9pm. (Photo attached) I’m not sure I like the whole ‘season’ thing as to me when you start having a hotel full of guests and the weather is high 20s you should be able to do everything you would do even if you visited in July. For example we asked the animation team if we could so certain things and we’re told ‘it’s not the start of the season yet’ it starts in 2 weeks time….ok - but I’m on holiday now, not in 2 weeks time. I would completely understand if it’s raining however what difference does it make being May, June or August? We had 1 day of rain, which was kind of nice to have a day out the sun as it was so hot, however we wanted to have some shots with some friends however the lobby bar would only serve you shots if you gave them tips. I found this very rude seeing as it is an all inclusive hotel and they DEMANDED we gave them tips. Even just having 1 shot they were shout ‘tips, tips’ Personally for me I would of loved to have had a kettle and some coffee in the room but that’s only a personal preference. The safe you have to pay for if you want to use it, why I’m not sure? You pay for the room, so this should come included. Overall we did have a lovely holiday and these things didn’t stop that however we were put off slightly and found them frustrating. This is a lovely place to visit if you would like to relax and switch off. Nessebar and sunny beach are great places to visit also and to do some typical souvenir shopping. The hotel also needs to be a bit more stricter, a family decided to allow their kids to bring scooters on their holiday and thought it was appropriate in the evenings to allow the kids to hare around the hotel corridors downstairs running into elderly and breaking things, not having any respect. This should have been stopped - the hotel is NOT a playground.

This is a beautiful hotel but the biggest problems are the staff food and drink. Check In - Was not the quickest, no welcome drinks or bottles of water. To many members of staff are rude unhelpful or to busy treating it like there own meeting place with there friends which then becomes loud and no service for drinks until they have left. The standard of food was poor, overcooked, cold, and lack of choices. The drinks got worse as the week went by. We visted the sister hotel next door and what a difference in the choices of food and drinks and the tastes to.