Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Booked everything seperately this year not only to save money but to have a bit more flexibility , flights with easyjet , car hire with atlas choice , apartment with anoosh in the flora ans ski packages with skiholidayextras .
Car hire was ridiculously cheap even with excess insurance and winter tyres still only came to around £75 for a week . only used £15 worth of fuel for 265 km in the week .
apartment was large and comfortable , very warm even when temps dropped low .
Booked 3 full 6 day ski packs and 1 6 day kindergarden package for £493 . its so cheap because skiholidayextras price their packages in euros and the exchanage rate is good at the moment .
the packages were with borosport you hand in your printed voucher at the office on the right side of the gondola building they hand you lift passes and equipment and lesson vouchers . you then get your equipment from the ski depot behind the gondola , the equipment isn't top grade but the boots were comfortable and ski edges were sharp and skis waxed ,couldn't ask for more really . lessons with borosport were well organised and instructors all spoke good english . Myself and my 16yr old son john were in an advanced group with around 6 others all good skiers . Todor the instructor just guided us around the mountain and gave us little tips here and there to help us improve . really enjoyed the first 4 days until the half term influx when the groups just became too big to be manageable . This was the same right across all the ski schools , samokov , hunters etc they all had groups of 12 plus . My partner was in a beginners group and really enjoyed the lessons , she was very nervous and quite frightened of falling but she had managed to progress to doing stem turns by the last day which isn't bad at all , my 5r yr old was in kindergarden and wasn't looking forward to being left there but he really had a great time , they
give the kids 1 hours ski tuition in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon which is split by lunch you can collect them anytime from 3- 4.30 . He'd never even seen a pair of skis prior to this holiday but by the final evening when i took him night skiing on the rila he was turning and stopping himself with confidence even on the rotata which is pretty long and steep for a little one it was great to see the big smile on his face and the confidence he had .
Having the hire car allowed us to drive into samokov to exchange money and for evening meals . we visited target bar there which was cheap and a nice atmosphere , good food too . we also went to the old house a traditional mehana , lovely old building , friendly staff , great food and very cheap . both places were less than half the price of borovets .
The conditions on the slopes were pretty much perfect the whole week, huge dump the day before we arrived followed by fairly low temps and sunshine , every slope open , even marky 3 :-) , which is an odd slope you either have to walk or ski uphill a bit to the bottom of the drag lift or do what most people do and traverse off piste from the marky chairlift to ski down marky 3 to the drag lift ( which is the most brutal draglift ive ever been on almost snapped my neck setting off and literally lifted me off my skis more than once on the way up .)
This was my second visit to borovets and my 4th to bulgaria in all , i noticed the sex club / strip club scene seemed to have been toned down quite a bit since my last visit 2 years ago , big improvement ! . the village of borovets does seem to have a charm all of it's own , it's a nice place to be, particularly when the trees are fully laden with snow . all 4 of us had a great holiday and we will definitely be back again , i don't think there is a better place to learn to ski , yes the slopes are limited but when the conditions are good there is more than enough variety except for people who want a lot of off piste or very steep black runs .
Borosports have responded really well to last years snow drought by installing many more snow cannons which have put down a good base for mother nature to compliment with real snow . rumour has it they will be installing even more this summer to cover more slopes for next year which can only be a good thing .
All in all a great value family ski holiday