Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hi.
I got back from bansko this sunday and thought id share my opinions on the place.

We managed to get a great last minute deal from balkan holidays for a week in bansko (3rd - 10th of Jan) with everything thrown in for £340pp which is an excellent price.

The apartment we stayed at was Winslow Atrium and with us paying so little and it being self-catering and all i wasn't expecting anything amazing. However the apartment has to be one of the best Iv stayed in. It was huge with 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, balcony and a kitchen/living area. It was all very clean and modern and was incredibly pleased with the place. There were a few minor faults like the shower door had a tendency to come off and other small things but it was all good fun.

We went to pick up all the pre booked passes and all at the welcome meeting and then went on to get the equipment we hired (skis, boots, poles and a snowboard) . I would recomend booking a pass before you go as it was alot cheaper. The equipment was not the best i have rented but it was good enough for the price. The boots took some effort to clip up as they kept coming undone, i think after the many skiers who have worn them the plastic had gotten a little flimsy but once they were clipped we didn't have a problem. The skis and board were just like any other rent skis - a few scratches and scuffs and could have done with abit more servicing but good.

So by the time we had everything sorted which was about midday we went and got the que for the gondola. Now i had heard this can be abit of a bottle neck and we were there at peak times but the que was huge, we didn't realize till we got in that there was also another que from the other side! It took us about an hour to get on. Even then they were letting gondolas go up without 8 people in.
When we got off the gondola at the second stop only one chair lift was open. The was just a lump of people and with no barriers or anything people were just joining from anywhere, there were chairs going up with 1/2 people on...it was abit of a frustration. I know that the resort was very bus que y and all but there just felt like there was no organization. All in all we only got about 3 runs in the first day

Day 2 we decided to get to the gondola for 8:30 when it opens. When we got there the que was bigger than yesterday and within half an hour was at the end of the car park! We ended up waiting 2 hours just to get up the mountain. Once up the chair lifts were pretty much the same - big ques and not nearly enough of them open but we made the best of it and had a good laugh skiing.

Day 3 we got to the gondola for 8:00 to beat all the buses of people and the que was none existent we only waited about 15 mins. They had the gondola running and did start letting people on at 8:15 after all the ulen guys had gone up. As we got up the mountain before the majority of people we got a few good runs in without waiting more than 10 mins in a que, they had also started to put up some barriers and open some more lifts so it seemed like they were addressing the problem.
We learnt that the best thing to do was get up to the gondola early as you can and stay as high up the mountain as you can till about 1/2 in the afternoon, then ski down and get the gondola again as there are no ques for it in the afternoon, and by about 3 the ques for the chair lifts start to get better.

Unfortunately on the last run down i got hit by a snowboarder and ended up breaking my collar bone lol (the third time now )and so couldnt really ski after that and enjoyed a good few days of bulgarian tv! Braveheart and Green Mile FTW!!

Overall we really enjoyed bansko, it is cheap as chips, the skiing was excellent (even though we never saw the top of the mountain due to lifts being closed) they always had the cannons on full pelt when they could to keep the snow topped up. Sure the lifts and pistes were busy and it did seem like they needed to be more organized but it got better.

I will be going back to bansko (hopefully the other resorts in bulgaria will have better snow coverage when i do lol), id recommend it! Its not the alps but was really good.

Cheers