Ramada Plovdiv Trimontium is an excellent location for a tourist wanting to hang out on Plovdiv’s pedestrian mall and Kapana entertainment area. Walking to Old Town takes about 15 minutes along the mall.
Arriving from the train station meant I only needed to walk about 15 minutes north. A new Holiday Inn Plovdiv is 2 miles north of Ramada. I had a reservation there, then canceled. A local resident told me the area in the north is the more affluent area of Plovdiv, but Ramada is closer to the historic parts of Plovdiv many tourists come to visit.
Forget preconceptions you might have of roadside Ramada hotels in the USA. Ramada Trimontium might be the most impressive looking hotel in Plovdiv from the exterior and much of the interior is impressively designed too. This hotel was once the place to stay, although it now ranks around 65% percentile at #13 of 35 hotels on TripAdvisor.
A quick read indicates some other guests found the party music blasting probably to 2 am or later to be a deterrent to sleep. That was my primary complaint about the hotel on both Friday and Saturday nights of my stay.
Classic historical hotel
Craftwork in large spaces in older hotels is something I find enjoyable. This place had the look of a grand hotel in many ways.
Room 102
Room 102 was actually the third floor of the hotel by American standards. Upstairs from the lobby level are hotel offices and another flight of stairs leads to Floor 1 rooms. The hotel has five floors.
The room itself was large with impressively high ceilings, but nothing grand.
Air conditioning did not cool the room much on days when it hit 23C/75F in mid-October. The window looked out to the front of the hotel. I realized I could see the Roman theater from room 102 on my last day after learning the city layout.
I received a complimentary Coke and candy bar as a Wyndham Rewards Gold member.
Wifi worked intermittently and I’d say mostly did not work during my stay. I was able to post one Loyalty Traveler article when I first arrived, one that I had not been able to post from Starwood’s Sofia Balkan Hotel either. But after that, I could barely access the web through hotel wifi for the remainder of the weekend.
Indoor basement pool and outdoor pool
Probably the highlight of this hotel is the basement pool built around Roman era ruins. Basically all of this area of modern Plovdiv is built atop the 1st to 4th century Roman town. Directly outside the Ramada Trimontium is a large fenced excavation site with Roman ruins lying around.
The fitness center is in the same area as the indoor pool.
Trimontium means three hills and was a Roman name for Plovdiv when this city was a main station for travel to Constantinople, modern day Istanbul.
Ramada Trimontium Breakfast Room, Dining Room and BarÂ
Buffet breakfast is included at the hotel. Standard fare with eggs, bacon, breads, meats, cheese.
The large dining room with stained glass windows was even more enjoyable than the food to me. My photos are taken from an upstairs balcony looking down into the breakfast dining room.
Also, checking out the male and female Romanian wrestling team members staying at the hotel eating breakfast in the dining room during my visits was something else to focus on in the morning.
Princess Casino is accessed through the main lobby walking directly to the back of the hotel. I never checked out that space. Many of the major hotels in Sofia and Plovdiv appear to have casino components.
Victoria Restaurant
Victoria Restaurant is a Bulgarian chain and located off the Ramada lobby, but is not part of the hotel. No Wyndham Rewards points for dining there.
The place looked impressive and was absolutely packed on Friday night when I arrived at the Ramada. On Saturday, I decided to have lunch there.
The waiter told me about their locally sourced meat aging system with emphasis on how animals are not transported before slaughter to reduce toxins in the meat. This was an issue I studied in food epidemiology in the 1980s at University of California Davis. A trip to Plovdiv refreshed my graduate level coursework memory.
I ate chicken for lunch. My meal and two Starobrno pints cost 18.50 BGN, about $11 USD.
Wyndham Rewards
My stay at Ramada Trimontium Plovdiv cost 67.50 EUR, about $80 USD for the first night. That paid stay earned 1,000 regular points and 7,500 bonus points with the Masterpass promotion.
Wyndham Rewards: 15,000 points for two Masterpass paid stays by Oct 31, 2017
My second night was booked with a Wyndham Rewards GoFast rate for 3,000 points + 24 EUR.
Net result was $110 for 2 hotel nights in Plovdiv earning 5,500 Wyndham Rewards points.
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