Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Got back yesterday. Went to Boro with 3 mates, all did snowboarding.

It was our first time for Snowboarding (none of us were Skiers or even skateboarders so absolutely everything was new).

Stayed at the hotel Flora which was actually ok. Staff were pleasant enough. Didn’t eat one meal there (in the hotel) so I couldn’t comment on the food! Looked ok! Location was good, close to everything but not so close at to be bothered by all the noise and the clubs and bars that have the habit of putting speakers outside! Hotel flora is near hotel Breza, around 150m up the road from the Gondola place (black and yellow building where many get their Skis).

Rooms were all simple, had balconies. The only thing I didn’t like was the way they bunched two single beds together all of the time. Would have been better having a single bed and then the couch and then the other single bed! Hated waking up in the night around an inch away from my mates face! A pint was only 2 lv in the bar, which was nice!

Had a young Snowboard instructor called Daisy, she was nice enough although we were all beginners so we all had a lot of trouble! By the end of the trip we were still unable to safely stop without falling over! I think maybe we were in the wrong group, everyone else in our learning group were experienced skiers, so they progressed much faster and we did feel pretty left behind.

On our last lesson we turned up to find the instructor couldn’t make it that day, she had personal business to take care of and that the lesson would happen the next day! We were all looking forward to a lie in! Unfortunately we got a bit hammered that night and never made it to the rearranged lesson, a few of our group were pretty annoyed that they had dragged their hungover selves out of bed to be told there would be no lesson! We never made it up the lifts to the top, we were happy on the low slopes.

There was also much confusion regarding the presentation night. We were given little and incorrect information regarding the date of the night. We were told it was Thrusday, then Friday, then Thursday again. Our rep checked, said it was Thursday night in the Rila. Well we went to the Rila on the Thursday and found nothing on, nothing in the nightclub, the restaurant, nowt. The bar looked as normal, no sign of our instructor. Then we were told it may be in the Samokov, so we go back and forwards for an hour or so before giving up. We felt bad because we wanted to give a tip but didn’t know how to get it to her, we kinda didn’t trust anyone enough to give cash to pass on!

We did the Skidoos and would highly recommend them at night. They are great.

Nightlife is good, usually went Rila club or the Buzz Bar after drinks at various places.

Like many people we HATED the guys who stand outside trying to get you in. It got to the stage where we would take certain routes around to avoid a few of them for the simple reason that they annoyed us so much. We also mostly stayed away from any places that had these guys outside. “Hello my friends, maybe something to eat, maybe just something to drink, cheaper than asda price, cheaper than tesco price, maybe later boys’. Grrrrr. It’s amazing how easily something so trivial can get on your nerves. We ate at places by how popular they seemed and by what people on this board said.

Best places were the Red Dragon (?), Katy’s Steakhouse and Franco’s. Golden chicken was ok. Franco’s was very very good. I would say that the Titanic did the best English Breakfast by far – we tried around 9 places and found this to be the best – it’s amazing how many places say ‘Real English breakfast’ and when you get it there is not one thing on the plate you would consider remotely similar’. I know you’ve got to experience foreign food but don’t call it an English Breakfast if you don’t know what one is!!

There were many places we wanted to eat but found we ran out of time! One place was the White Magic Bar. Had chicken soup in there one afternoon. Chris was very nice, seemed to enjoy spending time talking to his guests and was very funny. Wish we coulda had dinner or some drinks in there but ran out of time.

Worst food experience was the Mountain Rescuers restaurant / hotel. It’s near the slopes, where the mountain rescue thingy is, kinda near the Taj Mahal place. Food was dire, really bad. Were offered a free beer which they then stuck us for via a service charge.

Also, the place opposite the buzz bar, it’s sorta next to the ice rink. I think their food would be good, we just made a bad choice. Asked for Pizza…..and they fried that base and then good the cheese on top. So we had this hard to cut pizza that we could only eat around a third of because it was so heavy and greasy. We just couldn’t work out why they’d do that!

Didn’t see any trouble in Boro. No rowdyness or any real louts.

Does anyone have any questions?