Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Well what a holiday

first of all the good bits.

Ski centre 1 excellent place for ski hire very helpfull staff and fantastic service. They took our boots and dried them over night so they were toastie in the morning with no extra charge.

Plenty of snow at the begining of the week but thining towards the end , however the pistes were well groomed and repaired well overnight so enjoyed great skiing every day.

We personally prefered the skiing at Pamps to Borovets it was my daughters first time skiing and now wants to cancel the summer holiday to put the money towards next skiing trip.

Would recommend the ski instructors show on thursday evening they are awsome make you feel very inadequate. As i did not have ski school Tina was very helpful in arranging tickets and transport from my hotel.

Now for the bad bits.

Taxi prices from centre to my hotel was daylight robbery , witnessed two tier pricing at the bar for tourists and locals. Some bar staff understood english when ordering food and drink however when you paid dont expect the change because maths is obviously different in Bulgaria. for example when paying a bill of 18lev with 20 lev note you dont get the change and if you try and challenge the staff they look at you as if you are talking jibberish.

Also if you pay with a note some establishments say they have not got any change and then when you approach them later they dont seem to recall the earlier transaction.

All in all we had a great skiing holiday and achieved our goals of getting my daughter skiing and improving my girlfriends and my skiing. However we will not be going to Bulgaria again soon we feel that the prices are going up rapidly and in places they are equivelant to the Alps. The country needs investment but if the tourists continue to get ripped off they will go elsewhere.

Also back y'day and had an amazing time. I was very unsure of what to expect re prices going off what had been said on the forum. From my experience, the prices have def gone up and some a lot more than others, but it was simply a process of being choosy and walking away if need be. This was certainly the case with the taxis. My wife and i returned from Smolyan in a taxi at a cost of 30L, (25 min trip). The taxis in Pamps were asking for 20+L for a 5 min trip.
One other complaint was the amount of bars that charged to use the toilet. In particular, the White Hart. This was one of our favourite watering holes last time but were well hoofed when Grandma Grumpy accosted me for 50 Stinkies b4 I could pee!! Wouldn't mind if we hadn't been buying drinks but we had. I bet she makes a mint on a busy night!!
Anyhoo, we had an amazing time and even learnt a bit of Bulgarian on the way.... "BEETROO DE DEETROOT" means "you've broke my skis", but only when you shout it!!
Role on next Feb

Hi all

I also just got back from pamps and although I noticed prices had gone up a bit had a fab holiday by using some of the advice from this site....such as buying a shot and a bottle of mixer which meant 5 drinks for 20 lev rather than 3. I also was appalled to find that the white hart and some restaurants on the mountain charging to use the toilets however I refused to pay at any if I was eating or drinking there and no-one stopped me from using the facilities .....maybe if more tourists do this they will drop this policy. All in all I had a great week and am looking forward to returning next year for skiing and hopefully for a few weeks in the summer too.