Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Just back from a fantastic week in Bansko, so good in fact, I have had to take 2 extra days of work to pull myself together again!

Travelled with Inghams and couldn't fault them on the flight or transfer. Our rep Rosen was often around during the week and helped me out on the first day when I was given a voucher for skis instead of snowboard which I had booked. The people at the ski school refused to let me change until Rosen finally worked his magic.

The mad rush for the Gondola is no way to kick start a holiday. We persevered and made it up the mountain 3 hrs after we'd set off. I wasnt sure at that stage I would near the thing on day 2. A lot of people I met that week didn't even make it up day 1. Those who decided to wait for things to calm down were prevented from going up later due to high winds. Obviously the weather cannot be controlled, but Bank holidays are not going to go away and presumably neither will the tourists so Bansko really need to get moving on a second Gondola. They couldn't cope with the volume of people, there was little organisation and gondola cars with a capatity of 8 were frequently being filled with just 3 or 4 people at peak times. Day 2 was not much better but the situation improved as the week went on.

I had a mixed experience of snowboard school. For the first day we had a useless instructor who wouldn't even give us his name ("no names I won't remember them"). I made more progress on my own in the afternoon. As I had prepaid i returned the second morning hoping he'd just had a case of first day nerves. But no, again he proved useless and more interested in talking to his mates and helping out little bulgarian kids (who weren't part of our group). After an hour we were still at the bottom of the nursery slope with only one foot in the board, one of the class had given up and another injured his thigh and didn't board for the rest of the week. We complained to another instructor and were given Sancho for the last day and a half. He was fantastic and in many ways made up for the bad initial experience. My 2 friends skiing had a great instructor, no complaints and in general, the feedback on instructors was good. I think I was just unlucky. If you have a similar experience, complain immediately!

The conditions were great throughout the week. As a beginner boarder I felt comfortable on all blue runs and even the reds. The pistes were well groomed and never too crowded.

The Hotel Lion was fantastic. The rooms are a great size, modern, comfortable. We were on the ground floor a few mins walk from the main reception and bar area, but couldn't hear a thing once in our room. The pool, sauna, gym etc were great and its just 5 levs to hire a big fluffy dressing gown for the week. There is a shop open til midnight and a nightclub open til 4. Breakfast was fine but the evening meal was predictably dodgy. It was edible, but I like to eat well when on holiday so we ate out all but the first night. That said, the food at the Hotel bar (which you pay for separately) was excellent and we ate there several times. The hotel is within walking distance of the gondola in snowboard boots, but best not attempted in ski boots. The week we were there the bus did not operate strictly to timetable and we had a few 30 min waits but the sun was shining and it beats cramming on to a tube, so this didnt really fuss me as much as it did others.

The nightlife was also great, partly due to the great bunch of people we met that week in happy end, lion bar, amigos... Bansko is definitely the most sociable resort Ive ever been to. We went on the pub crawl and pub quiz organised by our rep and both were good value for money.

All in all, a great week in terms of snow, value for money and good craic. The only thing I found Bankso was missing was a certain charm I have always found in other ski resorts. This is probably due to the large amount of building work going on and the often sultry attitude of some (but not all) locals...but if you can see beyond this you cannot fail to have a good holiday here.