Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Fishing in the lake above the Vihren hut is tremendous. Sadly its also illegal as its a National Park. Walking is best - biking and horse riding are largely the preserve of estate agents fantasies. They do exist, in that you can hire a bike or horse, but there are no trails in bansko as such. They have made some paths down near to the golf course - just go past the golf course on the rough builders road and you'll eventually find it. Or you'll find the isolated house with the pack of monster dogs who tried to eat our Landcruiser and made a pretty good job of it. You'll need a car to get the 10 kms from bansko to the Vihren hut and then the walking is spectacular. Bansko itself in the summer is a miserable dust bowl of construction with nothing to do. How they think its an all year round resort beats me.

Kinda agree with Mat re. the dust, the trucks kicking up the dust, constant building noise etc....
BUT.. A lot of the hotels (Pirin in my experience) have mountain bikes, there are trails in the forest or try to cycle to Shilligarnika (did it one summers day ooooerrrr). Walking is very popular (busy ??) as is just driving up to a suitable spot for a picnic/barbaque. Better organised tours will become available im sure. There is potential for a lot of activities. The summer generally is 30% cheaper for eating and drinking, the square comes alive with outside tables, the atmosphere is laid back, people watching is the order of the day. There are spas locally as well as in surrounding areas, massage, beauty treatments etc. A number of hotels have sun decks with outside pools (Kempinski, Perun ex)...... I could go on, yes it is surrounded by a building site, and there is the matter of the fly problem, but hell, it can be hot !!!

Steve C (im there all summer because i want to)