Kempinski Hotel Grand Arena Bansko

We spent three nights at the hotel. There is no doubt that the hotel meets all the standards expected of the Kempinski chain. The hotel manager (Mr. Roger) walks around among the guests all day, is interested in their well-being and gives good recommendations regarding spending time in the city. One of the evenings (on the recommendation of the hotel manager) we ate at the sushi restaurant in the hotel. Excellent food. The chef cooks in front of you and serves not only excellent food but gives a performance. Recommended!!!

Beautiful hotel, great views, everything clean and well maintained, lovely breakfasts, friendly staff and lovely pools and spa experience.

We were there in the summer. The location is beautiful and would be very convenient for skiing with the gondola right nearby. The hotel is very clean and feels very comfortable. The pools and spa are very, very nice with the spa area having many options: Finish sauna, bio-sauna, cold room, and others. All these areas seemed very well maintained and clean. Pros: The buffet breakfast is excellent. Lots of variety, a cooked to order ‘omelette’ station which is always great because the premade eggs in Bulgaria and other Eastern European countries are usually a little challenging for Americans - not that they are good for people who like them, just that made to order eggs are always much nicer ;) There was actual fresh squeezed orange and grapefruit juice which was excellent. I added the actual because so many places will claim theirs is fresh squeezed when it’s from a box. The service at breakfast was also excellent. The front desk staff was very friendly. Cons: The food from the pool bar was very good and this made it extra disappointing when we ordered the same items from the lobby bar and they were much lower quality. They must be made by a different kitchen because they were so extremely different in quality. The beds were squishy and lumpy. For a Kempinski hotel, having the cheap beds (or worn out beds) was disappointing. These might be typical in regular Bulgarian hotels but not usually the kind that the other Western European brand hotels in Bulgaria have. Alas, these beds were some of the worst of our trip. The bathroom is dated and also doesn’t meet the usual standards of this level hotel. Housekeeping was minimal in what they serviced each day. None of these items were bad but just mentioning them because for the cost of the rooms, they are unexpected, although I had read another review about the beds not being great. Also the cost of food and drink at the hotel is high for Bulgaria but we have been finding that the restaurant costs this trip are so much higher than in the past - even at small local restaurants. They are on the higher side of what you’d find in other European countries and in the US. Alas, the Bulgarian lower cost of travel seems to be a thing of the past… maybe because they will be switching to the Euro or just rising inflation costs etc. I would choose to stay at this hotel again because the pros definitely outweighed the cons and we had a great stay.