Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Got back at the weekend

Pros:
Cheap.
Hotel food better than expected.
People generally friendly and helpfull.
Good night life.
Decent number of snow cannons.
Alberto Tomba run is pretty decent.

Cons:
Limited runs - already knew it would be a small resort but one red left pretty much unpisted and the top sections frequently closed due to high winds.
Poor pisting - There's no warning of ditches, tree stumps. Rocks and tree stumps not cleared from the outside of the piste
Poor piste etiquette - I've never seen so many people flying over blind crests. That combined with the above helps explain the large number of injuries I saw (oh and the safety ski netting was quite often at head height!)
Much of the town is a building site.
The snow park pretty much resembled a building site too.
Only one way up the hill means queues will get longer and longer in years to come.
Dodgy energy supply led to all chairs shutting for a few hours.
Difficult to see where off-piste is available, the trees are largely too tight. I'm sure there is some but not as accessible as I'd thought.


Overall: It's OK. If I went again I'd see if organising flights and transfer myself would make it really cheap. There are plenty of other places to explore. Definately a danger of it being a bubble ready to burst.

As much as it hurts to talk negatively about Bansko, I agree with your comments. This was my 4th winter in Bansko but by far the worst!
I just couldn't believe that total transformation this year. I have never experienced such unorganised lift queues in Bansko before (or any other ski resort) - people literally resorted to physical violence in one case I witnessed and judging by the sheer scale of property development going on, the mountain is in no way capable of accomodating the number of skiers and boarders. It could barely cope with the current numbers.
Also, there was a European slalom race when I was there (which is good for Bansko) but they didn't let anyone other than racers and race officials to use the chairlift causing HUGE queues for the the only other lift at the bottom of the slopes even though there was hardly anyone using the "race" chairlift. If they had let tourists share the chairlift to access the pistes next to the race piste they could have eased the incredible stress experienced by everyone - poor organisation!

The fact is that if Bansko wants to be successful it is going to have to increase the number of runs by expanding onto neighbouring mountains, install more chairlifts and introduce lanes at the bottom of chairlifts to manage the crowds and to increase the resources within the piste grooming department.

Thankfully, most of the instructors, hotel staff and general local public in Bansko feel the same way as almost all of the tourists I spoke with. I have never seen so many formal complaints in Bansko before.
I honestly hope that the resort management can sort this out because there is so much going for Bansko if only the management can get a grip of the level of organisation needed to run a ski resort on the scale that is currently being developed at the moment (mass construction).

I will be returning next year as usual and really pray that some sense of urgency and attention to organisation has been addressed or I fear that many, many tourists will be scared away as has been witnessed and is evident this ski season. Bansko can't afford to be building on such a massive scale if there are not going to be any tourists wanting to invest in their apartments or stay in their hotels!