Hotel Opal

Not a great stay but it will do for a few nights, considering all the other options in the area and the price. I really liked the view from the room when the sun was rising but I admit I wasn't so glad I had to be up at that hour to be able to go to breakfast, witch started at 7.30 and was available only for 2 hours instead of 3 as I was used to. The room was recently renovated so it met my expectations, I have no complaints in the area. The food was good but pretty plain and the way they organised the meal shifts for the guests was not very inspired (1 hour only for lunch). I really want to praise them for the staff though, they are well trained and made out all of our requests. One more complaint: the towels should be changed daily. All in all, I would go there again but only because there are much worse alternatives in the romanian seaside and more expensive.

Please bear in mind that I am English, not Romanian, and this review is my point of view, Romanians may not agree with it, and I understand that, there may be cultural differences and/or differences of opinion. Hotel Opal, Jupiter: The exterior & balconies look poor, unfinished bumpy uneven concrete, and painted, it looks like they've painted an undercoat but not a top coat. The decking at the front of the hotel is shabby with poor repairs to it and the furniture needs replacing. The hotel interior is nice enough, but still shows reminders of its Communist past. Room 410: The room was OK, it appeared to be recently renovated, there are plugs on the bedside tables to charge electronics or to plug in the bedside light, you can't use both at the same time. There were no bathroom beakers (so bring your own) & no TV remote - we had to ask reception for the remote twice, and they promised to send someone up - they didn't, in the end we had to go downstairs to collect it. There's no coffee/tea making facilities in room. The Padura view rooms face west so the afternoon/evening sun heats up the room, so draw the curtains if you go out, luckily our AC was working perfectly. We had no major complaints about room 410, and is next to the emergency stairs. It's a no frills hotel, adequate for what we wanted, the State of the exterior is cosmetic. The bathroom was gig, as was the shower. The balcony: The Padura view includes the car park, but they don't explain that. The view directly below the balcony isn't so nice, but it does have a restricted view of the sea from the corner, our balcony had two chairs but no table. Breakfast: it's self service, and it's what you would expect at a 3 star hotel. It has a good selection of pre- cooked food, fresh fruit, hot & cold drinks, and it seems to be good quality. Breakfast starts at 0730 and there's usually a line, it gets busy from 0800. For some reason, the hotel seems to think we want to listen to poor quality 80s music covers while we eat breakfast. Lunch: Your floor dictates the lunch sitting time, we were 4th floor, so our lunch slot was 1300-1400. Lunch is self-service and reminded me of UK school dinners in the 70's, except it's self service. In my opinion, the quality of the lunch food is average, I skipped lunch after I tried it on the first day. I don't think they do all inclusive, just breakfast & lunch. You get a bar-coded bracelet to give you access to the dining room via a turnstile. There are limited spaces to eat outside. General area/outside restaurants: My sister in law is a Romanian public food/health inspector, any fish or seafood you see on restaurants or takeaways in Jupiter will be frozen, not fresh. The Terasa Capitol: terrible service I paid 43 lei for a "Race Burger", it took them 30 minutes to cook and was rubbish, I cannot recommend it.