Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Just got back from a week in Borovets staying at the Hotel Zodiac.

7 of us went, 5 of us never having skied before. All in all we had a brilliant time, and for those that are interested here is a breakdown of the holiday.

Hotel Zodiac.

Decent enough hotel for the money, food was ok although the evening meals were alot better than the breakfasts.
Rooms were basic but clean and comfortable and the staff were friendly although some did try to add a little extra to the drinks bills until the discrepency was pointed out and then they did'nt try again.
Liked the location of the hotel which was roughly 10 - 15 minutes walk from the centre (hotel's Rila/Samakov). Free Bus was provided by the hotel and taxis charged the tourist standard 10 lev for the journey. All in all none were dissapointed with the accomodation.

Learning to Ski.

We were very lucky in the sense that we ended up with just the right instructor, his name was Lubo and apparently he is an ex Bulgarian champion and came 13th in the Winter Olympics.
Lubo had the patience of a saint with what could have been a very awkward group.
Now the reason i say we ended up with the right instructor was that he was quick to assess what we were and were not capable of and did not push anyone into anything they did not feel like doing. By the end of the week all but one of us was doing red runs. Some of us did a red run on the second day...thanks to a mix up with chairlifts by one of our party that could ski...we did forgive him after a few days!


Thought Borovets was a decent enough place to learn to ski, although i have no frame of reference as this was the first time i have been skiing...all that went will be returning the same time next year, but the only difference is that we will be going for two weeks and probably staying at the Rila.


Borovets.

This was my third time in Bulgaria, but my first time in Borovets, and although i loved every minute of it there were some things i noticed there that i did not notice before. The first thing i noticed were the rpices in the centre...they were quite a bit higher than other places i have been to in BG, but i had been informed that this was the case..so nothing really to surprising there.
The thing that surprised me the most was how the waiters in many bars and pubs, like the Rila Irish Bar and Funky's bar and the Resturant at the bottom of the Nursery slope (forgot it's name) tried to add their own bit to bill, some of them were totally blatant with it by trying to add 30 - 40 leva extra to the bill whilst others try to add the odd 5 or 10. If i jad'nt been to BG before, then my party would have willingly paid those prices and not realised they were paying far to much over the top. The thing is my group are big tippers anyway and when they realised we were being over charged by considerable amounts, started to resent tipping...so the dishonest few ended up spoiling it for the honest majority as is always the case.
I had one waiter in Funky's bar try to convince me that a small bottle of water cost 7 leva, whilst a Red Bull and Shark only cost 5 leva lol.

Apart from that the resort is excellent and the majority of people friendly, honest and helpful, as with my other trips to BG i have ended up with a hat full of new mobile numbers and addresses and new friends.

Snow wise it basically snowed everyday we were there and the conditions always seemed good to me, except for on the Wednesday when we had already decided to take a day off from skiing anyway.

We also went on Quad Biking, Skidooing and Horse Riding, all of which were great fun, but the Quad Bikes being the best laugh..so good we infact went on them twice.....it is highly recommended.

Took a 2 hour lesson snowbarding with the infamous Bobby, and would like to try more when i go back as it just felt more natural to me than skiing did.

Anyway enough of the rambling and time for he synopsis.

Great Place
Great People
Great Skiing
Great Fun
Great Holiday