Kempinski Hotel Grand Arena Bansko

I am giving 5 star for the hotel and 1 star for New Year’s Eve, 1 for Piano bar Sing Sing. If you consider to celebrate New Year there don’t do it. We were on a table in the restaurant for breakfast. Our celebration dinner was on a block mass. We had to take dishes and serve our food on the table for breakfast. There were a singer which sang very old songs not suitable for celebration but for funeral. When we ask for the bill (only for drinks) we wait 40 minutes to receive it because the waiter didn’t come to us and just work around the tables. I was very disappointed from the whole evening and my partner too. We left and we see 2025 in our apartment. I give 1 star or zero star for piano bar in the hotel in which we went the first evening on our stay. The sound was awful. The singer was shabby and sang falsely. We can’t believe that we see and hear in such nice hotel. The songs were too old and not nice. We left. I don’t recommend for New Year’s Eve.

Our visit was out of snow season. Many of the nearby pubs and restaurants were closed but that’s to expected. ||Breakfast had one of the best buffets ever! Amazing yoghurt, a chef on hand to make you omelettes how you want, and proper barista coffee makers, who don’t mind making you more than 1 coffee. Loads of helpful staff.||Staying here with my family, there was a kids club, though my 8 year old was to cool for that. Several pools and some heated. Whilst next door was a massive jumping feature (much more than a castle) kids from 4-11 could have stayed on there all day. The inflatable was meant to cost 10 leva for 20mins but some days there were no one there and when my kids time was up and I tried to pay more they would not take it. |Rooms are old, but clean and featured a lot of wood, loads of storage and reasonable size. ||Restaurants in the hotel, like the hotel itself, are rather expensive. There was a great alternative 10m up and across the road, which served a variety of food. Though I do recommend walking to main village centre and trying a tavern with local cuisine. A few times we went to reception and could not find anyone available and after waiting usually gave up.||The most amazing aspect for me, was the spa relaxation zone, Which included a “Shower experience”, multiple sauna’s with differing degrees, a few hot steam boxes again with differing degrees, and an ice box which had ice/snow but wasn’t that cold. I haven’t experience all this before coming from Australia so I thought it was pretty cool to give all these a go and my skin felt wonderful afterwards. Also the toiletries are Salvatore Ferragamo were wonderful. ||During the warmer months there is plenty of hiking trails and that sort of thing, but next time if I ever get a chance to come back to Bansko it will be in the winter months. I would love to stay at the Kempinski Hotel Grand Arena Bansko again, but the biggest drawback was cost!

This hotel was good, and the cleanless was really good,the staff was so friendly. The beds were so comfy you can even sleep all day, the food was okay. The pool was clean and beautifull. It has a beautifull garden. The location is good. It would be better if they had more food choices such as caviar,lobsters sushi etc.. I am from Macedonia if your planing a car drive it would take atleast from 1-10 hours.

Disappointing Experience - Overpriced and Dated I am currently staying in the Alpine Suite from the 13th to the 18th of January 2025 and I felt compelled to write this during my stay because of how underwhelming the experience has been. The furniture is extremely outdated, the lighting throughout the hotel is poor, and the lobby feels like it’s stuck in the 1980s. The bathroom bizarrely has rails but no curtain—an odd and inconvenient oversight. The buffet is substandard, and the staff seem poorly trained. For the high price charged, the quality and service simply don’t measure up. The only positive aspect is the hotel’s proximity to the gondola, but even that doesn’t justify the exorbitant rates. This place is lucky to earn even 3 stars. It’s a far cry from what it advertises and has been an overall disappointment. Trust the 1-star reviews—they are likely written by well-traveled individuals who understand what true quality and value look like. The overly positive reviews, on the other hand, seem to come from those with little travel experience or lower expectations, making them less reliable. If you’ve stayed at genuinely good hotels, you’ll quickly recognize that this one doesn’t measure up.

One of the greatest 5 star hotels in Bulgaria. The rooms are very elegant and clean, the SPA is amazing. Very rich breakfast buffet. It has the best location for skiers since it is just next to the gondola - 2 mins walking distance

The hotel is good, I have no complaints! The SPA area is very nice! The staff is good! For me, the most enjoyable part was in the hotel's piano bar! Eli and Donny took care of the great experience! Be sure to stop by for a drink at the piano bar!!!!!

Someone had used our bathroom while we were at the spa. Before we left, the shampoo and shower gel were new and placed near the sink, but when we returned, they had been opened and used in the shower. It’s disgusting! I don’t know who it was or what else they might have done or touched.||While everything else about our stay was fine, this incident completely ruined our stay at the hotel.

Hugely impressed by their reservations team who were wonderful to deal with when we could not make it due to an emergency. We will definitely return at another date as it’s a beautiful hotel with fantastic staff.