First of all, I have to tell you that it is not quite clear for me where Golden Sands starts and where it ends. If it's 16 km north from Varna or just about 8, if it is in the Chaika region or not or if the Bulgarians will ever learn how to help tourists with directions on their complicated roads.

Yes, the three stars hotel was cheap: 40 Euros per night for two persons. Yes, it has a great pool. Yes, the food is cheap and pretty good (lunch for two persons - about 10 Euros). Yes the photos of the rooms look great on the Booking.com site. However, as far as I know, a 3 stars room should have a bath tub, or at least a shower cabin, not water dropping directly on the bathroom floor!
Also, apparently they clean your room daily. All cool, except that they don't really change towels. For us at least they did not replace them for 3 days. Moreover, the restaurant was closed at 9 pm. Although a clear schedule is never displayed. But what I liked more has to be the Internet facilities. And I quote from Booking.com:

Wireless internet is available in public areas only and costs EUR 1.00 per hour .

Really? When I asked, they showed me one computer only that guests could use. One at a time of course...Also, they don't say that if you stay on the side facing the seaside, you also have a nice light ball on your balcony that goes on and on the whole night. I guess how the hotel looks like is more important than the guests' need to sleep.
On the plus side, the beach is pretty clean, there are lots of restaurants with quite varied menus, the food and local beer are really tasty and they make tasty cocktails. Also, services are quite cheap. And better at other restaurants I've been to in the resort, when compared to the Detelina restaurant. On our last day, we actually had to wait to pay our check as the nice waitress was busy photographing another guest and then speaking to her friends.

Do not look for banks to withdraw money from. You can go to local exchange offices and withdraw Leva (local currency). Their commission is 7%. Huge! And do not expect to be able to pay by card! That too much for them. Luckily for us, we paid for the hotel through a Booking.com agent. He was very nice and we could pay by card!

My two cents? Better than Romania but way behind Turkey and Greece!