Ivana Palace Hotel

The Ivana Palace is a clean and modern building, featuring a large expanse of blue-tinted, shiny glass and concrete set in a lushly green lawn studded with trees. Inside, the lobby has seen better days, although it is full of natural light, with high ceilings, scuffed walls painted shades of cream and magnolia, and beat-up pleather sofas. In the far corner of the lobby is a bar with a pool table and bucket chairs in jazzy shades of cobalt and orange, sat around little glass tables. The restaurant is pretty bare, outfitted with wooden tables and chairs, and the occasional potted plant. Outside is a pool terrace with a sizable freeform pool that has water fountains and a bridge leading over to the pool bar. The hotel attracts tourists looking for a relaxing beach holiday in a quiet part of town.

Only five minutes’ walk from the Black Sea beach at Sunny Beach, the Ivana Palace Hotel is convenient for guests seeking seaside fun, but less so for those looking to stay near the area’s nightlife and shopping. Still, there are many eateries, supermarkets, and bars within a 10-minute walk. It is a 20-minute walk to the shops and restaurants at Royal Beach Mall, or seven minutes by car, while the slides and rides at Action Aquapark are a 25-minute walk away, but only three minutes by car. Expect transfers to Burgas Airport to take between 30 and 40 minutes by car, while it is a 90- to 120-minute drive to Varna Airport. 

The 227 rooms at the Ivana Palace are large and have furnished terraces, but they're on the dated side and bland. Rooms have faux-stone tile floors and bare pastel walls, plus cheap-looking pleather couches in lime green, old-fashioned bedspreads with an unattractive desert palette and square pattern. Standard rooms have two twin beds and a dark-wood desk that doubles as a stand for a flat-screen TV, while suites have a separate living room with a couch and coffee table, and a kitchenette. Bathrooms are dated, featuring chintzy tiles and shower/tub combos with plastic curtains. All rooms have flat-screen TVs, mini-fridges, and free Wi-Fi, but guests who want to put valuables in a safe need to use a communal safe room in the lobby, and pay a steep fee.

The Ivana Palace Hotel has a large outdoor pool split into two by a bridge that leads from the hotel’s door to the pool bar, which serves cocktails and snacks all day. On one side of the bridge is a larger pool, while on the other is a decently sized shallow area for kids, all set in a terrace with loungers. Outside, there is also a kids’ play area. Inside the hotel, there is a gym with cycles, a cross-trainer, and plenty of weights, as well as a spa with treatment rooms for massages and wellness therapies, a sauna, hot tub, and a hair and nail salon. The restaurant serves three buffet-style meals per day, and the bar in the lobby sells drinks and light meals throughout the day and into the night. There is free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel, and free parking out front. Guests looking to store valuables somewhere secure have to pay to use the hotel’s communal safe room.