Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Boro Report 18-25 Feb

Flights & transfers - Bulgaria Air / Balkan Holidays

Ancient Boeing 737, temperature was so high that a number of people were sick despite it being a smooth flight. Cabin crew were pretty surly on the way out. Transfers were well organised & efficient. Took only about 1.5 hour from/to Sofia

Accommodation - Iglika Palace Villas

Ok, the villa was reasonably clean. Really dodgy electrics, socket fell out of the wall & wet room shower/loo lethally slippery once used. Great location for slopes & restaurants.

Snow conditions

Weather was unseasonably warm for most of week. This was great to ski in, just T shirts required, but the snow on Sitnyakovski was poor with the grass coming through in a number of places. Much better on Yastrebrets, particular after overnight snow on Wednesday. Snowed all day Friday but meant that the Gondola was shut, & everyone on Sitnyakovski. Got a little dangerous with a large number of skiers congregated on relatively few slopes, also quite icy. Skied Andorra as a 1st timer last year, and the interpretation of blues & reds seemed quite different

Ski Tuition

Seemed to be quite patchy in quality (Borosport). My group were all second timers but all agreed we didn’t get much out of the instructor in terms of teaching. We just seemed to follow her down various slopes without any training on our technique or what we were trying to achieve. She didn’t seem to speak much English which I think was the root of the problem. Other people I spoke to seem to have had a much more positive experience.

Food & value for money

Pretty good, though not quite as cheap as expected. We were a family of 5 and spent about £500 on food & drink for the week (self catering). Prices on the mountain were typically expensive, burger & chips plus a soft drink was 20levs or about £8. Seemed to be some sort of scam with ski instructors who all accompanied their groups for lunch. I noticed on a couple of occasions that after a group had finished, the instructor remained behind & was given cash by the restaurant staff. A member of our group was told that they get 30% of the food bill for their group. However as they only earn a basic 320 levs a month, I wouldn’t begrudge them something extra

Overall

Nice compact resort & you get what you pay for . We all had a very enjoyable week, (bum boarding excellent fun) but personally I wouldn’t rush back to Borovets. Disappointed with ski tuition given the good reputation beforehand & still some way to go with the lift facilities (gondola queue about 1.5 hrs each morning) & slope management. Maybe Bansko next time