Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Bansko 3/03/07 – 10/03/07 with Inghams

I know I’m a bit slow a getting a report written but here goes…..

We flew from Manchester to Sofia on Saturday 3rd March, flight on time no problems at all, straight through passport control at Sofia and within 10mins we’d set off on our transfer. 3hr coach trip to Bansko wasn’t too bad and we stopped for 10mins half way for a toilet and refreshment break.
Arrived at the Lion Hotel at about midnight checked in no problem, they had left sandwiches in the room for us but they were awful so one bite and they were in the bin, nice thought though!!
Sunday was our first day on the slopes, we got up early and as we had our own board/boots with us we just picked up our lift passes from the Inghams tent and we were on the Gondola within 10mins, hardly any queue so we were on the mountain by 9am. We only queued for the gondola once all week and that was on the Monday when we got there a bit late but still we were only half an hour at the most and the queue was moving all the time so really not that bad at all. There was however quite a lot of pushing and shoving etc which isn’t very pleasant.
For the rest of the week we got to the gondola for around 9am and came down at about 2pm, in the mornings the slopes were pretty icy and by lunchtime they were very slushy, my bf is better than I am so he went off on his own up to the top quite a few times and enjoyed the slopes, we both agreed the terrain is definitely more intermediate than beginner and most of the “blues” were more red than anything which was quite hard work for me trying to practice my turns! However by the end of the week my confidence had grown and my boarding had improved so I was happy! I came back with a nice goggle tan and knees that were black and blue from falling on the ice, but I guess I got off lightly as we saw many injuries and heard of countless other accidents that had happened.
I found the slopes far too busy for my liking, I was taken out by two separate skiers who didn’t even so much as glance around to see if I was ok!!
As for the Lion hotel, we had no problems, the receptionists found it hard to crack a smile and were mostly unhelpful but the bar was really nice and the staff serving were friendly enough, the food and drink was pretty cheap too and we spent quite a lot of time in there. We used the pool a couple of times, which was nice but all the windows looked out onto the workmen on the next plot so not the most relaxing place, and the hot tub was freezing!!! Our room was basic but clean and we got fresh towels whenever we wanted them, a nice big bathroom too. The view wasn’t the best from our window, everytime I looked out I saw a different workman having a wee…. Eurrghhh!! Haha!
We ate out every night, we particularly liked the Friendly pub and went about 3 times, 2 guys on the acoustic guitars were really good and the place had a nice friendly atmosphere, something we didn’t find anywhere else… we tried the local mehana’s but weren’t overly struck by them so tended to stick towards the more “englishy” food, but no food out there agreed with me really so I didn’t enjoy that side of the holiday.
To summarise, we enjoyed our week in Bansko despite the poor snow conditions. I personally would never go back there, it served the purpose of a cheapy ski holiday and we got exactly what we expected. We found it to be a pretty unfriendly kind of place, I hated that everyone smoked everywhere we went (even people skiing had a fag hanging out of their gob!) the building work is none stop, rubble, litter and dog/horse muck everywhere, pavements half finished, roads half finished. Men hassling you walking down the street to go into their restaurants and even in the bars we had men approaching us trying to sell things, it just wasn’t my kind of place at all and to top it all i brought back a lovely chest infection no doubt from the lack of fresh air in Bansko!!!!

I think its fair for people who are going on holiday to be able to read everyones point of view... some people may think its fabulous, others may think it was poor. And i had a local friend and he told me the conditions were great... *to get people to the resort after all he will lose money* however friends and family from the uk have gone out and said the conditions are poor.

And bulgaria is not as cheap as you think, my parents went to italy for less than bulgaria and it is fabulous, bulgaria is nothing compared to there...

Thanks for the report. Keep it honest

I think you will find i said conditions are excellent i have been going to Bulgaria for the past 4 years, and this sunday so i doubt i am going to reassure people by making a story up when i am going myself!!!
Like said i appreciate peoples opioions and i gave mine!

All that im trying to is get people to look forward to there holiday, instead of worrying about the snow people should stay positive!

But if your going to another culture you should respect it!

At the end of day people within bansko are there to make money its a small community and the ski season is the peak of it! You get people everywhere trying to get you into a resturarant!

Anyway Stay Positive, Im going the 18th and cant wait!!!