The Good things
- Outstanding staff service
Everyone is kind, professional and attentive. Still great, although worse than when we visited a few years ago, less staff that speak Russian or English, resulting in a frustrating language barrier. - Food selection and amount
There’s almost always something nice to eat and there is no reason to rush as dishes hardly ever run out. Food quality has improved since our last visit. - General atmosphere
The place feels premium, large welcoming hall, pleasant piano music, expensive smelling air freshener, it’s all super clean, for the most part you feel pampered. - The view
Unless your room overlooks the near to the lobby/sea facing inside bit on a lower level, you’ll be either looking at the sea or the mountains and it’s all beautiful. Skip the lower floors and you’ll be happy. - Children’s and evening entertainment
Every day there’s something going on, some show, some event. The children’s area is great too with animators who look like they care and are warm towards children. A little sad that they started closing at 17:00, which for us was the time we needed that area the most. - It’s dense, in a good way
The plot of land isn’t huge, but they fit in an aqua park, children’s areas, multiple restaurants and snack bars, many pools, entertainment areas, a sea pier that we would jump off into the water. It’s that perfect balance of having everything you need in a small space, but it never really feels crowded.
The Bad things
- Room sound/smell isolation
We stayed in a few rooms at this point and it’s a consistent problem. When it’s disco at night(every night), you’ll hear it, when your neighbours smoke on their balcony, you’ll smell it and you’ll be checking and re-checking that the door is closed, because it feels like it’s open. - Speaker sound levels
I regret not having ear protection as the DJ during kids disco and all the other events tends to turn the sound levels to the max, to the point where many parents would sit with fingers in their ears, blocking the obnoxiously loud sound while our children were dancing. Daily disco went on till 24:00, good luck falling asleep before that time. - Remains of the old pier
Yes, there are signs not to jump off the pier, but everyone still does it, it’s fun. However when you do, you legitimately run the risk of injuring yourself as I have. There are remains of old columns under water that stick out higher than the sea floor.
Overall thoughts
We enjoyed ourselves both times and the negatives do not outweigh the positives, of which I’m sure there are a lot more than what I’ve outlined.
We tend to hyper focus on the negatives and not appreciate the positive things.
Rai Premium is a great hotel that feels like its managed by people who truly care and for the most part try their best.
We hope to be able come back again and again.
