Daddy, are we there yet? Three minutes after we leave, the conversations in the car sound like this. The impatience to go to the sea is huge. The thought of a wonderful hotel and sea wouldn’t let the kids stay calm. I understand the contemporary kids – they are tied with safety belts from all sides and have limited entertainment while travelling. When we were kids, there were almost no safety measures and we used to jump in the back of the car while travelling (not that I would support this). Another different thing from my childhood is that now our priority is comfort and we always try to find places with many comforts and entertainments for kids.
Anna is five and half years old and is a huge fan of hotels and restaurants although she does not eat a lot. And the promise of a good hotel with kids zone, a lot of other children around, pools and aqua park is always a good motivation to stay in the car for a few hours. Adriana is a year and a few months old and what makes her happy is the presence of food and water around. We manage to keep the kids entertained with songs and books in the car and some time later we pass by Burgas, then by the Pomorie Salt pans and reach Wave Resort.
We quickly checked in and luckily our room was ready, despite we had arrived 2 hours before the official check-in times. The policy of the hotel is that even if you arrive earlier, you immediately gain access to all the Ultra All Inclusive benefits. You may only need to wait for the room to be prepared until the official check-in time. While we were arranging the documents, the kids used the opportunity to run around and jump on the sofas in the lobby. No one from the staff looked impressed by this – they may be used to this because most of the guests were families with kids. The 5-day party started!
Daddy, we are there!
This article became quite long but we received tons of questions about the resort while staying there and after we returned. This is why we decided to answer all questions with a small personal note, as usual. So if you are curious how we found it there, read the Wave Resort Bulgaria review.
In the nowhere, where we had everything
We love being in the nowhere but having everything. The place of Wave Resort is just like this – between the towns of Pomorie and Aheloy in Bulgaria, but outside the inhabited areas. The resort starts just where the sand strip of Lake Pomorie ends, near the Pomorie Salt Pans. The salt pans are visible from the higher floors of the building and their colours on sunset are enchanting. And the walk near them is like another world.
The resort is large and spacious and in the summer it works on the Ultra All Inclusive model. But despite this kind of service might suggest large gatherings of people at one place, indeed there is space for everyone. Wide alleys, fountains, beach swimming pools.. we may sound as TV ad so let’s get back to our story.
Andrey, as usual, is unloading the baggage, while Maria and the kids get to know our room. We have booked a studio because we are four people, but here the scales are impressive. Large spaces, high ceiling (on the first floor all ceiling are high), sun from all sides and a balcony almost as large as the apartment itself.
Anna and Adriana grabbed the fruits they found on the table as a welcome compliment. The plate was accompanied by a kind note “Welcome, Andreev family” and a bottle of wine we left for later.
The sleeping corner for the kids 
The master bedroom 
The foyer before the bathrooms 
A part off the spacious balcony with a bed
We loved our room but our hunger and curiousity to what was around were even stronger. So we headed for lunch and a quick walk around the local attractions. We brought with us the list with the Ultra All Inclusive benefits which was quite long. Four restaurants, a bistro bar, a separate food court by the pools, some 4-5 bars for drinks, several services in the SPA centre – all of them free to use. This article will also be long because we want to tell you about everything in details.
Lunch at Wave Resort and first impressions
In the summer of 2020 nothing is at it used to be before. The same applies to the All Inclusive services. For better safety and hygiene, the guests did not have direct access to the common food. Everyone was giving his dish to the staff, asking what and how much he wanted. Then the staff was placing the desired meal and quantity in the guest’s dish. Almost every meal was served by a separate person, there were really a lot of staff in the restaurant and all around the hotel. All of them were using protective equipment – masks, shields, gloves.
Probably, out of the same safety grounds, almost everything that could be offered pre-packed was offered pre-packed. Like the jams, honey, etc. The drinks were also sipped by the staff.
The main restaurant is really spacious, with a large indoor area and another outdoor area. There is a lot of space between the tables. We took a high chair for little Adriana but within a few minutes she wanted to get out of it. A few french fries saved the moment until we serve our meals.
Anna wouldn’t let us serve her at all. She insisted to do everything by herself. So she walked around, took dishes, asked for meals. We wondered how she did it because all meals were under lids and were places higher that here eyes. But she was obviously able to read the plates and ask for what she liked. Meanwhile, we were happy that she manages to take care of herself and we only needed to serve the little one.
The most frequent question – is the food good?
The variety of food is great – tens of warm dishes with meat, without meat, with various meats, fish, seafood, pasta, pizza, vegetables. Mostly show cooking and everything was prepared on site. There was a separate bar for salads, garnishes, cold starters, cheeses. And another bar for fruits (at least 10 kinds of fruits) and desserts. Besides the various cakes and cookies, there was always some typical Turkish dessert – like baklava, kadaif, etc. We tried almost everything because we never knew what the kids would prefer.
We were really impressed by the food and liked it, despite we are really picky. Everything was prepared with high-quality fresh products.
Then we sent Anna for drinks and served ourselves cakes and watermelon for dessert. We liked all the sweets but I think the pistachio cake and the baklava became our favourites.
Cheesecake with strawberries or raspberries 
Apple pie 
Pistachio cake 
Baked delights for breakfast
Let’s get wet – the beach of Wave Resort Bulgaria
From almost every corner of Wave Resort you can see the beautiful inner yard with the fountains, the pools and the sea. We passed by the fountains, then by the bridge above the main pool, but Anna insisted to go to the sea. So we spent our first afternoon at Wave Resort on the beach.
The sand on the beach is naturally grey, very similar to the one in Burgas and the Burgas Salt Pans. Its colour is due to the high levels of iron oxides. There are also shells and small stones all around the coastline. While the adults tried to avoid them, the kids were more than happy to play with them.
The cozy sand strip with three rows of sunbeds and umbrellas is a bit different from the golden sandy beaches we are used to see in Bulgaria but has its own charm and we liked it. It is clean, with all needed facilities and a beach bar on hand. The water was clean, quite cleaner than many other beaches in Bulgaria. In the afternoons, because of the wind, it used to become slightly foggy.
The sunbeds and umbrellas on the beach are included in the Ultra All Inclusive program, as well as the drinks from the beach bar. Every half hour we sent Anna for juices, fresh drinks and coffee. For the beer we used to go ourselves because we find in improper to send a 5-year old kid for alcohol.
Not surprisingly, Anna and Adriana immediately jumped in the sea and spent all the afternoon there. Anna spent most of the time jumping above the waves and Adriana played mostly with the wet sand. It was really easy to take care of our children on the beach. This is why we spent there a significant part of our holiday at Wave Resort, despite the pools are amazing, too.
The pools
Officially, Wave Resort has 7 pools, but the feeling is as they are at least 17. Small, large, shallow, deep, with slides or without slides.. Water is everywhere around the resort – there are fountains at the entrance, then the pools and finally the sea. Because of this, together with the constant slight wind, it is highly unlikely that you witness unbearable heat, even in the midday hours.
The largest and most attractive is the main pool, which spreads almost across the whole resort. It has an unusual shape with many curves, looking like many smaller pools connected into a larger one. There is a bridge all along it, offering a panoramic view to the whole resort.
All the pools, as everything in the resort, are extremely clean. The main pool is 145 cm deep which makes is suitable both for swimming and for people who are not keen swimmers an only wish to relax in the water.
How warm are the pools?
Before we arrived, we had read comments that the water in the pools was cold. But because the feeling of warm or cold is subjective, we will share our impressions without making any general conclusions. The water in the pools is indeed colder than the sea water. We did not measure degrees. If you are used to going to warm mineral pools or other heated pools where the temperature often reaches above 30 degrees, you may find the water in the pools of Wave Resort cold. But the outdoor pools are unheated and the temperature of the water depends on the sun and the wind.
A curious fact about the pools at Wave Resort is that because of their attractive shape, the sunbeds and umbrellas are spread evenly all across the resort. So there were no crowds.
Moreover, reserving the best spots with towels, which is really annoying but common practice in such resorts, was a rarity here.
Evening near Lake Pomorie
Lake Pomorie has always been one of the most charming places in Bulgaria. Generally, we love sand strips and salt pans. These places have some unique mystic atmosphere and on sunset their colours look like from another world. We feel the wet salty air and never miss a chance to get into the salt pools, when possible.
The Pomorie Salt Pans are located in the immediate vicinity of Wave Resort. In the evening, when the sun starts to set and we are ready with our early dinner, we could not think of a better experience than a walk by the sand strip and the salt ponds. We walk, watching the reflections in the salty pools and the birds resting around. Then, when we put the kids to bed, we lay on the terrace on a glass of wine and think of all places hidden before us.
Our first evening at Wave Resort was especially romantic for many reasons. First, the whole day was very emotional as it was the first day of our family holiday this year. There was wonderful live music (actually, every evening there used to be a live show), we were laying on the bed on our terrace and enjoyed the wine we had found in our room upon arrival.
Holidaying with kids – when kids are really welcome
Holidaying with kids is one of those challenges for body and soul that remind you the reason you live and make you appreciate every moment of your existence. Both the moment of endless joy of spending your time with your most loved ones and the moment of relief when you put the kids to sleep.
Despite all the challenges, we are trying to treat our kids as equal members of our family and respect their opinion and desires. As each person, they also need to have opportunities and choices. This is why we are always looking for places with a variety of activities for children so they could make their own choice what to do. Sometimes they amuse us with their decisions but it is their choice and we are trying to respect it.
Activities for children at Wave Resort
At Wave Resort the kids are not only welcome but a large part of the resort is dedicated to children’s’ activities. The place is really wonderful for a family holiday with kids.
Some of the pools have children’s section and several other pools are entirely for children. They are only 20-25 cm deep so they are suitable even for babies. There is a children’s aqua park and water playground.
There is a separate kids’ place where you can leave your child aged 4+ to the cares of the animation team. Anna was going every day and loved the games. The activities were separated by age. One of the days, after the morning visit to the kids’ club, Anna announced that they were rehearsing for a show later in the day. So in the evening we witnessed a dance performance.
The playground was the favourite place of the children in the evening. It even became crowded at some point but we couldn’t blame anyone – it is really wonderful. Our daughters loved it, too.
In the hotel were also available high chairs, baby food, baby cribs, potties. These are trivial things but we have visited many hotels where such things lack.
SPA with kids – is it possible?
Every time we think of SPA procedures, the first questions is “What will we do with the kids?”. The most common solution is going to procedures one by one, while the other one is taking care of the children. But at the SPA centre of Wave Resort they offered us a family SPA session. It lasted almost 3 hours and included a salt room, Turkish hammam, healing mud therapy and massage.
So, how does SPA with kids look like?
First step – salt room
The salt room is a wonderful starting experience for such session. It is a great means to relax and calm the kids before the procedures. It was not the first time our daughters used salt room but this did not prevent them to lick the salt bricks in order to check where they were really made of salt. And just when they got bored, we were called to the hammam.
Step two – Turkish hammam
You may know that we are great fans of baths. We really love the traditional Turkish baths – hammam. We have visited such venues in Budapest and Edirne. Last year we had hammam in Morocco but the Turkish hammam is quite better. The Turkish-style hammam at Wave Resort was quite similar to the authentic experience in the traditional baths in Turkey, despite it is offered in Bulgaria.
The SPA and Wellness centre at Wave Resort is huge, spreading across 2500 sq. m. The hammam inside has impressive size, too. We have seen the hammam rooms in other SPA hotels but this one is the closest to an authentic Turkish hammam. With taps and benches on the sides and an high marble floor for treatments.
Not that the small hammam rooms are not authentic, but if you want to imagine an authentic Turkish public bath, it looks more like this.
Hammam for four
We entered the warm hammam together – Andrey, Maria, Anna and Adriana. The place for massages was already covered with clean blue towels from the four sides, for the four of us.
Anna immediately lied down with a huge smile. We ambitiously tried to make Adriana lay down, too, but she had other opinion. A few minutes later we gave up and left her to wash herself.
Then we immersed ourselves into one of those moments of timelessness and spacelessness, when your whole body and mind relax, you forget about everything around you and just enjoy the pleasure.
The procedure started with kese – a traditional Turkish peeling. There is nothing softer and cleaner than a skin after the kese ritual. So, we are lying entirely relaxed and feel how the kese removes not only the daily dirt but also all of the pointless tension we create around ourselves every day.
The soap foam massage is attraction for both eyes and body. The feeling is like floating on a cloud. The thick fluffy foam creates a feeling of lightness and calmness and the kids really love playing with it. The massage, at the same time, is quite real. And a few minutes later we get up from the towels refreshed and relaxed and head to the relax zone for a quick break.
The relax zone
The relax zone was quiet and calm with no other guests besides us. It is free to use if you book a massage or other SPA procedure. Within the Ultra All Inclusive package, you can freely use the fitness and sauna and wash in the hammam by yourselves. We grabbed this opportunity and later in the day we returned for another self-serviced family hammam.
Mud baths – the must when you are near Pomorie
One of the must-do things when you come near Pomorie in Bulgaria is a mud bath with the Lake Pomorie healing mud. There are plenty of opportunities to do it. If you wish, you could go straight in the lake, take the mud yourself and smear with mud. But Maria prefers it in the way of SPA procedures so we booked treatments with healing mud from Pomorie. The kids had chocolate mask and massage and Anna loved them. So, they smeared us with mud, packed us with nylon and towels and left us to relax and wait for the mud to do its job for 15 minutes.
More about the Pomorie healing mud:
On the beach of Wave Resort you could see people covered with black mud who could easily frighten the children. But they are usual view in the area around Pomorie. The mud from Lake Pomorie has been known for its healing powers for decades. It is thought to help the musculoskeletal system, the peripheral nerve system, the skin, etc. To see a real benefit, you should take mud baths for at least a weak. If you are doing the procedures by yourself, mind that you should not smear the area around the heart.
The procedure on Adriana were not that successful and some time after we were packed and left to rest, she appeared in the room. It would not be a problem if she hadn’t started with the troubles in the minute she came. I don’t know how but she managed to trap her leg in one of the beds and we had to stand and help her. But this is one of the risks of going to SPA with small kids. Anyway, we really appreciated the opportunity to make a family SPA session. Most SPA centres would not let children in at all. Moreover, if you kids are elder and wishing to have treatments, you have no problem at all.
The solution – massage in a family room
It appeared that in the SPA centre there was a room which could easily pass for family room. It had two standard massage beds and a double mattress on the floor. So, instead of chasing Adriana across the whole SPA centre, we decided to change the initial plan and get together in this room. The adults on the massage beds and the kids on the mattress. This way the massage passes calmly and almost quietly with “Mammaaa” and “Tataaa” screams from time to time.
Well, if your idea of a perfect massage includes a dark room with quiet tender music, you’re right. But when you prefer happiness in the shape of a loving and united family, the SPA experiences might look like this. And why not?
The real and not so real restaurants
The same evening we decided to have dinner in one of the three A la carte restaurants at Wave Resort. They are thematic – Bulgarian, Mediterranean and Asian. We made our booking at the last moment and we could find a table only in the Bulgarian restaurant Lavanda. For some reason it was the least popular, we see no logical reason why.
Lavanda restaurant proved extremely interesting – traditional Bulgarian cuisine with fusion element. The menu included 3-4 salads, as many starters, main courses and desserts. All of them were prepared and served in very interesting and delicious way.
Later Anna said that this was the “real restaurant” because here you sit and order and they serve you. The other one, the main buffet restaurant, was not real. But she preferred the unreal because she could freely walk around and serve herself.
A new look to the Bulgarian cuisine
We tried variations of Shopska salad, stuffed eggplant, mish-mash (a popular meal with eggs, peppers, tomatoes, cheese), pork fillet with mushrooms and chicken kavarma (another traditional Bulgarian meal). There was also menu for the children, including French fries and meatballs. Quite reasonable, because we already have the experience of eating in a gourmet restaurant and asking for fries for the kids even if they are not in the menu.
The experience at Lavanda restaurant was calm and refreshing. It was one of these moments we like to organize periodically to take us out of the box, to recharge with new ideas and passions. To immerse ourselves in a world apart of the daily habits and expectations. To smile to everything new and nontraditional.
Something like Mish-Mash 
Crispy polenta
At Lavanda restaurant nothing is what it looks like. The names of the dishes sound like traditional Bulgarian but the presentation is amusing. The Shopska salad is unique. The traditional Mish-Mash is impressive, too. The chicken kavarma is everything but chicken bites with mushrooms and onions in a clay pot.
To make the experience even more unusual, we broke our own tradition and picked French wine, instead of Bulgarian. We were happy with our choice but we have to admit that the wine list includes a wonderful selection of Bulgarian wines. We had tasted most of them previously and I think this is why we ordered a French bottle – we just wanted to experiment with the unknown.
The ritual of going on holiday
Going on seaside holiday each summer is something as a ritual for most people. Some plan the annual holiday months and years ahead, other do it in the last minute. Until recently, we had no such rituals and we were often trading the week-long sea holidays for a more diverse vacation. But because of the kids, this year we decided to take the matter seriously and take them to the deserved seaside holiday. For many reasons, we decided to go on holiday in Bulgaria.
Where to go on holiday with kids in Bulgaria?
The most difficult question is picking the right hotel or resort in Bulgaria. A place where we would feel cared for, fed deliciously, near the sea but also with pool. A place where we would not only survive with the kids for a few days but would easily have quality time and happiness together. How many of you can say that going on holiday with small kids is both easy and nice?
Having in mind our personal preferences, we imagined our perfect holiday place in two ways. First option – some kind of glamping or luxury bungallows/villas, similar to the BIG BERRY glamping in Slovenia we visited a few years ago. The closest to this in Bulgaria is Krapets Holiday Village in the village of Krapets, North Bulgaria. But to go there, you need to book months in advance because the place is great. We had been there in the spring.
Our second option was an all inclusive hotel, preferably a higher category and next to the beach. This was easier to find and here we are, holidaying at the Wave Resort in Bulgaria, near Pomorie and Aheloy.
How we learned about Wave Resort?
The Wave Resort is a brand new hotel, opened in 2019. We learned about it during a travel fair in Sofia in February 2020. Even then we thought that it would be a good idea to write about it when it opens in the summer because there are not many other such hotels on the Bulgarian seaside. And some time later we were invited to visit it in this very strange summer. We are amused by the tons of questions we received during and after our visit there and we hope this article is helpful to all.
Booking.com
Ideas for walks and trips from Wave Resort
If you want to make a trip out of the hotel, in most cases you will need a car or other ride. At the concierge desk you could ask for organized tours or shuttles to the nearby towns of Pomorie and Aheloy or anywhere else. Here are some of the nearby places we love visiting.
- Pomorie town
- Pomorie Salt Pans (walking distance)
- Thracian Tomb of Pomorie
- Burgas Salt Pans
- Stratsin Winery
Follow us: Instagram and Facebook
