Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Back from Borovets and some observations from the other side of the pond...

I met my wife (who is in graduate school in Europe) in Bulgaria after transferring through Heathrow. We spent our first three nights at the Princess Hotel in Sofia.

We drove up to Borovets on Friday Dec. 29th. What a neat little town! We were initially supposed to stay at the Samokov, but some foul-up had us at a little 6 or 8 room hotel (whose name I've forgotten) right at the base of the ski school area... After much complaining, we were transferred to the Samokov the next day.

The Samokov (which is advertised as a 4-star hotel) was a little disappointing. Our bathroom sink put more water on the floor than in the washbasin (never fixed), the TV was fuzzy on most channels (eventually fixed after 2 days), and the food included in the half-board was kind of 'institutional' Perhaps the most annoying thing about the hotel (and this could have been our bad luck on location) is that you can hear everything that is going on in the hallway outside your room, and it seems groups book rooms as a cluster and then use the hallway as a communal living room. If we hadn't been paying holiday rates, perhaps I might have been left with a better taste in my mouth regarding the Samokov. In the end, my wife wished we had stayed at the little hotel, which was cozy and recently refurbished, if a little loud.

Our first day of skiing was Saturday, Dec. 30th. First a rant regarding the 'Martinov Baraki' ski lift; I find it unacceptable that the only lift serving terrain that has snowmaking on it is inoperable. Not broken as in: Yeah it was working and then it broke (understandable). Inoperable as in: We've had 8 months to get it running, and it still isn't working... So, the first day our only option is to use the Gondola up to Markudjik where the short, flat drag lift off the gondola and the dual drag lift at the bottom of Markudjik 1 are the only ones working. The snow was actually pretty good, although it did get a little boring doing the same run over and over. But, all in all a pretty good first day.

New Years Eve was much the same as far as skiing went, and an absolute blast that night! Spent New Years with recently met lifelong friends from the UK at Mamma Mia's. Many toasts into the morning (and a spectacular fireworks show) later, we went to the Buzz Bar, which, at that time of the morning was 200 guys and 15 girls. Not our scene, so we took a 4am walk around the town, which was lovely, as the temp that night was pleasant.

New Years Day was a blur. As in, I slept through most of New Years Day and made resolutions to never mix alcohol again.

Tuesday the snow came, and so did the flu germ apparently. I'd say that it snowed about 6 or 7 inches on Tuesday and we received a further 3 or 4 inches on Wednesday in the town. The other visitor was less welcome, as my wife was running a 102F fever and I was feeling none to good myself.

Wednesday we tried skiing at the ski school area, using the short drag lift over and over... We just didn't have the energy for the trip to the top of the mountain. At this point the 'Sitnyakova Express' lift opened, though still no 'Martinov Baraki'. The snow was decent at the bottom and from what I heard good up top.

Thursday was our last full day in Borovets, so we decided to suck it up and take the gondola to the top. The first obstacle was the line, which we thought had been long the day before (out to the street), but was now out to the street and up, up the street After about a 45 to an hour wait, we boarded the gondola and went to the top.
Now, I don't know if it was because of our sickness or not, but that day was the worst day of skiing I've ever had (and it's hard to have a bad day skiing!). The double draglift at the bottom of 'Markudjik 1' was still the only lift (other than the flat drag) operating, and on our first run we found ourselves at the bottom of the lift and a long, long line. Well, it wasn't hard to see why the line was long, as the lift wasn't working. So we waited, and waited, and waited. No word on what had happened, or when it would be fixed.

What really pissed me off was that some Borosport guys on Borosport snowmobiles (Borosport is the company that runs the mountain) showed up and started charging 20 levs per person for the 4-minute ride back to the base of the gondola. I'm all for capitalism, natch, but this seemed more like piracy. With no word on how long we would be there, sun behind the clouds, very cold. Most of those taking up the pirates on their offer were families with small kids who were cold and complaining. Sorry, just doesn't seem right. The lift eventually got one of the two drags working and 2 hours later, we were outta there. Straight back to the gondola for the ride down.

Friday we had an uneventful transfer back to the Sofia airport and 24 hours and very painful ears later, I was back at home in 72F Washington, DC.

Would I do it again? Absolutely, if I lived in Europe and could get a decent package deal. My thoughts are undoubtedly clouded by the amount of money spent and my life skiing the powder of Colorado. So, take my comments with a grain of American salt.