We've just returned from a very relaxing week at Vivid Blue and were blessed with amazing weather. The hotel is attractively positioned with stunning views and breathtaking sunsets over the infinity pool. The staff are very polite, helpful and friendly. As mentioned in other reviews the breakfast is fantastic with lots of choice to satisfy every appetite. The Shakshuka was delicious. We went Half Board and were entitled to a three course evening meal from a limited choice menu. This was mostly good but a little repetitive. Vegetarians and Vegans would definitely struggle from what we were offered but I believe there is a separate a la carte vegan menu. The soups (stews) were superb but the meat and fish was sometimes a little overdone. Nevertheless, portion sizes were good and we never went hungry.
We stayed in a lower ground floor deluxe room with balcony and sea view. This was large, clean and very quiet with a good sea view, although some of these rooms would be facing the wall of a large building so not so good if you ended up in one of those. There is a (chargeable) mini bar and a kettle for tea and powdered coffee, no milk. You'll need your own charger - no USB points. The safe is included at no extra cost, a good size and easy to operate. The air conditioning is good and also easy to operate. There are two small bottles of water on arrival but these are not replaced daily. You'll need to buy your own.
Other reviewers have mentioned the necessity for a car. This is a valid point. We like to walk and it is impossible to walk anywhere from the hotel other than to the garage 200 metres up the busy main road, with no footpath. If you do hire a car beware that there are lots of roadworks so you may be sitting in it for a long time. Do you want to do this on holiday? The whole Budva area is a bit of a building site including around the hotel. This is likely to worsen in the coming months/years. The local beaches are stunning, pebbly but with crystal clear water. The hotel provides a free taxi service to and from these beaches.
These are our observations, obviously personal but based on experience:
Rooms - The shower rooms are on the small side. There is no toilet roll holder or towel rails, just two hooks in the shower for towels. There is an extractor fan but the mirror steams rapidly when you're showering. There are small complimentary toiletries but only two small shower gels. These ran out and were not replaced. You might wish to take your own. Similarly, hanging storage in the bedroom is poor, not even hooks to hang your complimentary dressing gowns. There were just seven coat hangers for two people in the single wardrobe which wasn't long enough for my wife's long dresses, an easy fix with the kind of modular wardrobes they have. You would expect a 4 * hotel to have some kind of expandable clothes rail on the balcony. This didn't so everyone hung their wet towels and clothing on the balcony rails which looked unsightly and spoiled the aesthetic of what is, otherwise, a beautiful building.
Drinks - these are very expensive. A .75 litre bottle of water is 4.40 euro. You might wish to brave the traffic and walk up to the garage and get 1.5 litres for 1.10 euro. You can also get filtered water from the machine in the breakfast are but nobody tells you this. A bottle of basic Pinot Grigio will set you back an astonishing 42 euro. A 33 cl beer starts at 4 euro for the local variety. Cocktails are more in line with European prices at around 8.50 euro. We believe alcohol tends to be expensive in Montenegrin hotels but these are on the upper side.
Music: Please, please vary the repetitive, sequenced music played over and over again. It is still in our ears.
We went here for our wedding anniversary and mentioned it to one of the waiters prior to our anniversary dinner. He said he'd bring us a glass of champagne but it never arrived which was somewhat disappointing. Despite these niggles, we still had a fantastic, relaxing time at Vivid Blue. We hope these comments will be helpful. Tip - if you want a pre dinner drink in your room, pop a couple of bottles of wine into your suitcase or grab some in duty free on your way out :)
Finally and obviously, no fault of the hotel; Tivat Airport is wholly inadequate for the growing number of tourists. Arrival is ok. We were through in minutes but departure is a farce. Once you've checked in your cases you join a chaotic queue for security. This takes about two hours. There are frequent calls for passengers with impending flights. This adds to the length of time queuing, together with the number of queue jumpers, perhaps unsurprisingly, mostly non - UK. As frequent travellers to Europe, we chose Tivat rather than Dubrovnik, thus avoiding an EU stamp in the passport, saving our Brexit imposed 90 day limit for Schengen countries. Would we do this again? Probably not.
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