Hoteles cerca del Snow White Skiing, Smolyan

I stayed at the Merryan Hotel in February 2023 on my first ‘mum & boy’ ski holiday with my 6 year old son. Thankfully I did not go on my holiday with high expectations as I had no idea what to expect, and I’m glad I didn’t! Unfortunately the Merryan hotel was pretty disappointing. On arrival we checked in and found that we had been given a room with a double bed despite requesting a twin. It was approx 2am so we just decided to deal with it the next day as the chap on reception seemed very vague. We were told by our travel rep the next day that they would be able to give us a twin room instead but on asking at reception later that day, the girl on reception told us that there were no other rooms available as the hotel was full. Later that evening a different lady (who seemed far more knowledgeable, perhaps one of the management) working in the restaurant told us that there was actually a room available after all but we would need to move that night - it was already too late for my little boy who was tired so we just decided to put up with sharing a bed for the week. The bed was also pretty dire with big indents where others had slept. Evening meals in the hotel were served 7-9pm. This was too late for a family friendly hotel, as younger children generally like to eat earlier on so they can get to bed at a decent time. The choice of food available was also quite limiting and typically Bulgarian, some evenings weren’t too bad but other evenings it was poor with very little variety or options for younger kids. It was also all served rather cold and there was no microwave there. Disappointingly there were no drinks included either, unlike the evening meals we have had in other hotels. Just some bottled water would have been a nice offering. The staff in the hotel all seemed a little vague as if they didn’t really know what was going on. There was no proper explanation about anything when we arrived, I had to ask about everything. The ski bus situation was very poorly explained, we had to work everything out for ourselves pretty much and they didn’t give us tickets for the bus on the first day, so the bus driver wasn’t impressed with us! The staff were generally pleasant though and my little boy always liked to say hello. The young lady on reception with glasses was always friendly & kind. Drink options from the bar were a little limiting - no Baileys or fruit gins which are so popular in the UK now. One evening I ordered a latte at the bar and took it down to my room. Once there I noticed the drink looked odd as if the milk had curdled. I took it back up to the bar and the bar man took the milk out of the fridge that he had used, took a drink and nearly threw up! Thankfully he made me a new one but it put me off ordering any more drinks there. I was rather surprised that the hotel had no lift - we were 5 flights of stairs down to our room and this was particularly tricky when trying to get heavy cases up and down! The stairs were also all t