Bulgaria Ski discussion board

My partner and I have been skiing every New Year for the last 6 years (Italy, Austria) and this year as we were taking his children with us and as the ski school, hire etc are reasonably priced - decided to try Bulgaria. After the journey from hell 2 hours delayed at Manchester, diverted to Bourgas, sat on the runway for one hour deciding whether to fly back to Plovdiv, waiting for 3 hours for our coach (with no reps just the airline stewardess) - finally a coach arrived, after 8 hours sat on a freezing coach, everyone in hats and gloves trying to keep warm and stopping once - we arrived in Borovets 5.30 am (should have been 6.00pm the previous evening).

We managed to get 2 hours sleep before we had to meet our rep and collect our ski packages (we couldn't leave it any later as we would have lost a days skiing)
The welcome meeting was a free for all everyone just wanting to collect their passes etc and having to join the first of what was to become many queues.

The above was the bad start to our holiday - the hotel was nice (Hotel Rila) although going for breakfast and evening meal was a nightmare - having to find an empty table, then clear it of the previous peoples dishes then queue for your lukewarm meal - which on the whole tasted OK but when you're on holiday you just want to sit down with no hassle and enjoy a nice meal. That said the New Years Gala dinner was very good!

We had enrolled the children in ski school as neither had been skiing before (boy of 17 and girl of 14) however, one was better than the other and they were split up (which we weren't aware of). We had asked the instructor what time they would finish and he said 3pm we agreed to meet them at a bar at 3pm - the boy turned up but no girl! by 4.30 I was frantic we didn't know which instructor she was with or where she was!! at 4.40pm she turned up and had apparently been taken up in the gondola and was quite happy unaware of the fuss.

One point I would like to make is that the ski school (taking into account lunch)
lasts all day - all week. So if you want to do some skiing together, this makes it very difficult as noone knows where they will be skiing or until how long - and the school tends to eat together also, so if you have children in school and you are not in school, then you probably won't see them all week (maybe a good thing for some).

That all said, I found the Bulgarian people very friendly, yes there were prostitutes in the hotel (approx 10 each evening) but we had to point them out to the children so anyone with younger children needn't worry as i'm sure they wouldn't even notice. The drinks and eating out was very cheap (which we did a couple of times just to relax) and the hotel was clean and warm.

With regard to the skiing in Borovets - we had a good time but the pistes were not maintained very well, there were lots of rocks and grassy patches which made it quite hairy and the lack of piste bashers were noticeable.

I think if the investments were made, the skiing conditions could be improved (we too were informed BY a Bulgarian that the guy who ran the whole of the piste area had been shot last year and noone had taken over)

The journey home was OK no diversions.

On the whole we enjoyed our holiday but would not return to Bulgaria to ski - if we wanted to party we would, so possibly we might try Bulgaria for a summer holiday as I said the people were very nice and friendly and eating and drinking was very cheap.

we were at the Samokov over Xmas & feel the same sentiments about our holiday, not everything was as beautiful , friendly or cheap as everyone keeps repeating on this site. We had an enjoyable holiday but we will probably go again purely on price alone & the fact that the slopes there are still beyond our capabilities.

The Rila hotel owner was also the owner of the company MG that runs the ski lifts. He was a 40 yrs old, double dollar billionaire, yes billionaire, an ex champion skier, and helped the government financially during campaigns. He was shot with a single bullet through the heart allegedly by the mafia in Sofia last February. The incident made headline news obviously.

With the demise of this man does that mean the financial backing for resort improvements has gone, initially I was told this would affect the 1 man chair lift replacement.

Dave

You all have me worried now. I am off to Borovets in 2 weeks and it seems to have gone down hill. I went last year with my family and some friends...4 adults and 4 kids of varying ages.
As with most things...it depends on your attitude. We really enjoyed it. Skiing/Boarding was great. Service in Rila wasn't too good, agreed, but then we treated it as just a place to lay your head. If you wander round the bars and slopes you can get really cheap, excellent food and they look after you well.
Last year it was cheap and cheerful. If you expect the service, facilities and whole package to improve (as it will when they join the EU) then people are going to have to be prepared for prices to double. This will be our last year to Bulgaria as we feel it will be ruined.

Only if your stupid enough to believe that. It is there for all to see. maybe having a diffrent understanding of things than most, allowed me to see what others have missed. This is not to say that that this particular area is a one off i can asure you there are many places just as bad and worse all over the world and at major cities in the uk. Whether i chose or any one choses to holiday there is up to them thats what i thought this site was for to give people a choice.
Im sure you can travel there and have a wonderful time so many on this site have.
I hope everyone who has yet to go does.