Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hi all

Flew back in from Sofia last night - thought I would post a report as got loads of useful info from this board before we went.

Flew out on Sat 15th (ours was the flight that lost it's front wheel on take off and had to do an emergency landing at Gatwick 2 and a half hours after we took off from there !! - interesting start to the holiday). To be honest glad to be in Bulgaria at all by the time we arrived.

Anyway, we stayed at the Strazhite in Bansko. Reps Will and Naomi (Neilsons) were good and always around when they said they would be. Hotel accommodation was very good. Safety deposit boxes at reception 4 lev a day and not a problem to keep getting stuff out as you wanted it. Hotel takes passports off you for the first 24 hours as they have to register you with the local police - don't forget to pick them back up. For those taking their own equiment the hotel has a good ski and boot room which is manned from 8am til 6pm and is free to hotel guests. Although the gondola station is only a few hundred yards there is a shuttle bus from the hotel every 20 mins - we used it a lot as carrying kids skis up and down is hard work. There is a good bowling alley within the hotel and costs 10 lev per person per game. Also great pool, sauna and steam room (well used at the end of a hard day's skiing). We also changed money at the hotel. They seemed to always give 2.7 to the pound and didn't charge commission so we just got what we needed as and when. Got some money before we went and got only 2.6 from Lunn Poly and was quoted 2.4 from Thomas Cooks.

The only thing that let the hotel down was the food. I knew it was going to be luke warm but found that it was also fairly bland and very repetitive. There is only so much cold potato or meat you can eat and had enough of it after a few days. We found the pizzeria on the main street was good and at about a tenner (27 lev) for 3 kids pizzas, spag bol, carbonara and drinks it was even better. We drank in the hotel bar most nights as difficult to go to the bars with the age of our kids. The Lions Bar (Sky Sports Bar) across the road from the hotel did let the kids in though and it was fine with them.

We found the facilities in the town very limited. Our kids are really active and finding things to do in the evening was a bit of a struggle as obviously couldn't just go to the bar and get p*****d. The whole town seems a bit of a building site at the moment. Our rep told us that all building work was supposed to have stopped for the season but this hasn't happened. Watch out for the pot holes - you've been warned!!

It snowed all day on Friday and there should be good snow at the top....unfortunately the winds had also picked up and the top lifts were closed so we didn't get to see the new powder up there. There was plenty of snow on the main runs at the top though. There is not yet enough snow on the reds at the Chalin Valog but all the runs above the top gondola station are all open. Watch out for the pebbles on some of the reds and blacks though. A lot have worked there way up to the surface and can be quite lethal. If you are an interemediate skier there will probably be just enough for you for the week. Our kids are 6,10 and 13 and did not have ski school as they can all get down the reds. We had done all the runs with them by the end of the week apart from the blacks. Were going to do these on Friday but weather conditions were not kind that day.

We had a great holiday, we met some really nice people and had a good time. We will will go back to Bulgaria - not to Bansko for a while because we have done the runs there now but it wuld be good to go back in five or ten years to see how it has changed.

If you are about to go out there have a great time!!!!

The captain told us about 15 mins out that the tower had reported we had lost the nose wheel on take off. They originally said they were taking the plane up to manchester to land there as they have a designated emergency landing runway however for some reason they changed their minds and we circled (around maidstone area I think) for about 2 hours to burn fuel. Meanwhile cabin crew came round row by row and went through the safety procedures and made us all practice the brace position. Although everyone was obviously a bit "this can't be happening" it was very calm and quiet and to be honest a bit of a surreal day. He put the plane down on its back wheels and didn't use his air brakes, just came in and put the nose down last minute. We blew one of the back tyres with the pressure on landing and apparently bent what was left of the front. They jacked the plane up and got us back in to the lounge where police and paramedics were waiting. Apparently the motorway was closed and half of sussex and surrey emergency teams were on standby - most appeared to be at the side of the runway when we landed......definately a trip to remember but most importantly no-one was seriously hurt - two went off to hospital and four decided not to travel on the next plane. Hope everyone is okay!!!!