Castle of Ravadinovo — Attraction in Sozopol

we wanted to visit this castle during our entire stay in Kiten, Bulgaria, but we were only able to visit it on the day we left for home. We were so excited from the moment we entered, and when we approached the ticket office we were greeted by a grumpy employee who didn't know English at all. This "individual" (who doesn't deserve the title of "gentleman") handed us a sheet on which the prices were written in euros and leva (30 leva/person or €19/person). I told this man that we don't have the money changed and we want to pay by card (i recommend you to buy tickets in advance on the website), you can't pay by card, there is no POS!! The man saw that we didn't have leva and he made a quick calculation and told us to pay 400 lei for 4 people, which is 100 lei/person, given that 30 leva (the price of the ticket) means 76 lei. I told the man that according to my calculations we should pay 305 lei, not 400. The man does another calculation and now shows us 350 lei. When I told him that it was not coming out according to the exchange rate, the man became recalcitrant, he left the ticket booth and sat down on a chair, defying me and yelling at me "bankomat" (that is, to withdraw money from the ATM, that's the final price), while I was trying to understand what was happening and wanting to talk to this man who was hoping to enlighten me about this difference in price, he put his hands in his ears (man over 45 years old). In addition to the fact that he did not speak English at all, he did not offer to use google translate or to call someone competent so that we could understand each other, moreover this individual had a recalcitrant behavior towards us, leaving us with a bitter taste and eager to visit this castle. It should be noted that in the parking lot there were only cars with Romanian license plates, meaning that most of the customers on that day were Romanians like us. Leaving aside this man's disturbing behavior, he could have mentioned to us that we can pay online, which did not happen. A horrible experience that ruined our day! If you want to visit, buy the tickets online because it is a robbery and the behavior of the employees...

Forts let me say: the castle is cheesy but that’s no problem. We found it very beautiful and interesting! The 1 star we had to give because of how shocked we were to find a „zoo“ which basically was a few animals living in very dirty tiny cages. There’s a single donkey for example who can’t communicate with anyone because he’s alone. The floor was dirty everywhere I doubt it ever gets cleaned. Same for a horse. In another cage there were waaaay too many peacocks for the size the cage had. But the most shocking was when we left: there was a golden cage and in it a parrot. The cage was so small the parrot wasn’t able to fly at all, it could just jump a little up and down. Also here: probably never got cleaned, it was full of that poor birds faeces. When we were at the castle it was 32 degrees and all sunshine - the poor parrot didn’t even have any water!!!! This is animal cruelty and in most countries this would not be accepted. When we left the poor thing was crying in distress. It still haunts us because there is nothing we can do to give this parrot a life worth living. He’s just left to suffer without even having water or enough space to open his wings. I pleeeeeeead you to please please please give this bird to another place where he can fly and have other parrots with him! It is not a good advertisement for your castle to display him like this, it is cruel and any visitor who likes animals will be shocked and think badly about you. Animals are not made to be alone. And when you get one you have the responsibility to take care of it by giving him a nice big space with enough water and food, shadow and some other friends of his species. To people who are sensitive when it comes to animals: I don’t advice you to visit this castle because it will leave you in tears like it did with us. We still can’t...

I enjoyed this, but it's heavily priced for what's available.

20 Lev each to get in, so around £10 or so. Greeted by a man dressed as a king, and had a photo taken with him, which they charge for if you decide you want it, but thats to be expected of that type of service.

The Castle grounds themselves are stunning, beautiful architecture. However when you look close its already In a state of disrepair in areas.

The zoo part is terrible. I'm generally not a fan of zoos as I don't like animals being in captivity unless it's for their own protection, but this one was terribly small, and uncared for. The bird area stunk like it hadn't been cleaned out in ages.

There's a few areas you can go inside. A wine cellar, the Chapel and a tower via a secret looking door. You'd be charged for wine tasting, but you're not charged to check out the cellar like another review indicated.

I'd skip the gallery. It's 5 Lev each which isn't a lot but there's nothing in it really. Some printings of popular art, but not originals. A bunch of random ornaments but nothing historic, things I'd find on my grans bookcase. There's a skeleton who's meant to be the Bulgarian vampire. And they show you 2 videos. One is a trailer for Sleeping Beauty (as it was filmed here) and one is about the design of the castle. It pretty much tells you that the east point points towards the tip of everest, the North to the north Pole, the south to the great pyramids and the west to Gibraltar the oceon peak.

I feel as more gets built and you get to explore inside the castle they'll be more worth seeing, but when that happens the price will climb again. I reckon if you have kids, or people with a Disney affinity they'll love it, as most of what you can see...