California — Hotel in Mangalia

Well, most of the hotels / pensions in the Romanian seaside resorts have low ratings and high prices, so the task of finding a good hotel was not that easy. Bottom line, after staying there 7 nights, Hotel California in Cap Aurora was a fair (almost good) option.||||What is there to like:||- the location: the hotel is located extremely close to the beach, on a higher ground, thus offering the rooms with a sea view a very nice perspective to the Black Sea; these "sea-view" rooms are away from the sun in the afternoon, so in the evening the air inside is more "breathable"; anyway, all the rooms have air-conditioning||- the hotel is very "kid-friendly" with inside playing grounds for kids, and outside playing ground with inflatable toys; in these playgrounds the kids play with supervisors, and i saw it was great fun||- the hotel features a somewhat "private" area on the beach, where the kids are also entertained / kept busy by supervisors||- back to the room: you have a fridge, not a "cooler", i.e. you can keep inside not just 3 doses of 33 ml of coke, but it fits 1-2 2 liter bottles||- floors were wiped on a daily basis||- the hotel has 2 elevators, even if it has only 4 floors||- there is a pool in the interior garden, supervised by a lifeguard, and with a bar nearby, that opens and 7.30 am - serving good coffee in the very morning sun; chaisse-longues are 4 eur/day, but if you book them in the day you check-in, you pay one, but get two||||On the "not-so-cool" side:||- the parking is very small, it can fit less cars than the number of hotel rooms||- the TV is 19 or maybe 23 inches wide||- balconies are small, very crowded if you put 2 chairs there||- take care when entering the bathroom !!! the floor was hightened relative to the room-floor, so there is a high risk of smashing your head to the upper part of the door-frame, if you don't "mind the gap"||- towels, even if looking clean, had a dubious smell||- the pillows were too soft (sure, some might like this)||||We didn't eat there. Instead, I recommend "La Foisoare" - with fabulous "papanasi", just a 10 mins walk away, or ANTIK - 2-3 mins, or BARINA - 5 mins||||Bottom line, California is OK to stay at. Have a nice...

We are returning guests. Reasons: the co-hotel system (California and Delta) offer:||-safe area, entertainment and very good care for kids (they have their own structured playground named Babyland ;), ||-very close to the sea and in the proximity of many kiosks||-lengthy chat time with the kids before each meal (in other words, you wait a lot before being served), ||-nice evening/dinner entertainment, age appropriate for the time slot at Delta (very elegant ballroom dancers, Gh. Gheorghiu), ||-good room service ||-waiting time at guests arrival/departure is minimum||-clean hotel, no detergent / bleach smell or cigarette smell||-lunch and dinner good amounts, kind of good nutritional content, overall very good tasting||-some very good waiters (Mihai, Ionut), some very slow because of the overall design and structure of the restaurant and organisation in the kitchen and collaboration of the waiters||-good pool own by the hotel, well maintained, long chairs for adults||-good playground for small kids on the beach (but....the seabed close to the shore is overly full of shells, footwear is needed to walk)||-being co-hotels, dinner can be served at either hotel||-the chef is willing and able to customize a plate as per guest’s taste if needed (really appreciated)||||To be improved:||-meal service waiting time; the management should revisit the serving timing and routine(order of foods served, eficient cleaning, table cloths changing)||-hallways cleaning procedure; management please replace the current vaccum cleaners; please allow the guests to sleep-in late as the cleaning ladies start their disturbingly noisy vaccums at about 8 am and they run until 2 pm… it is so “unpolite”||-the extra bed for our girl was brought broken ||-the amount of food served breakfast was scarce, (to be picky, has almost no nutritional value)||-the interaction and cohesion is to ged by the managementwith the servers||-wi-fi slow (yeck, as my kids say, even close to the recepion area where the wifi should be the strongest)||-parking lot… test you luck on...

First impresion: how can two hotels share the same building?Hotel California is sharing the building with Hotel Opal, which, incidentally, has the larger portion of the building :)) and the parking lot. If you stay in Hotel California, you have to be able to park your car in odd places or even on cliffs.|| I came here in vacation and I was not impressed.||As a plus: they have entertainement for children on Children's Beach but any child over 7 will bored. Also they have entertainement in the evenings: role playing for children, animators who sing and dance, inflatable slides, toy cars, etc. || Rooms are ok, I think, but the cleaning lady does a lousy job in the bathroom. She never cleaned the toilet or the shower tub She changed towels every day and sheets after 4 days. They do not have towels for the beach/swimmimg pool or any means to dry your owns , so in the afternoon everybody hangs their towels on improvised wire dryers and the hotel looks like a sailboat, making a very bad impression.||Food is so-so, but very expensive. Breakfast is not included, even if it is a 3 star hotel. ||They promise that beach is at 20 m away. They forgot to mention that this is a vertical distance :)) ( horizontally, the distance is much larger) and that beach is not included in 50% off for the beach chairs they provide.||Closest beach to them is Childrens beach ( is a little bay) where the beach is full of seashells and rocks and you cannot walk barefoot in the water, otherwise you will hurt your feet. They also provide beach chairs on Jupiter's beach but is far (20min walk). ||Also they have dogs on premises so they bark very loud...