Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Have just returned from 1 week in Borrovets staying at the Rila Hotel.

I have had a fantastic holiday and met some great friends, this was my 3rd skiing holiday after going to Kitzbuhel and Finland and I won't say it was the best as I have enjoyed each one for slightly diferent reasons however I had a brilliant time, I don't think I have ever laughed so much and my skiing has never improved so much as this holiday. I was initially sceptical about going to Bulgaria skiiing and if I'm honest a bit snobby about it too I expected the food to be poor the village to be ugly and service to be poor. Thankfully all of these things were untrue.

Our instructor was Emo / Emil and he really made the holiday for us, nothing was too much trouble he arranged a birthday cake for someones birthday bought us all Granny March bracelets and gave us chocolate when we needed energy, he also meade us all laugh with almost everything he said. Most importantly he encouraged and praised everyone in the group and everyone’s standard improved. Considering there was 12 in the group there was always something challenging for the better skiers and the less experienced skiers were never forced to ski above there ability. By the last day we all did some off – piste and a few of us did some jumping (badly). Our group were all great and it still makes me laugh thinking about all of our stupid behaviour, the Bulgaria night especially was a rioutous evening.

The Rila Hotel may not be the prettiest hotel in the world but the rooms were large and clean with TV and large bathrooms the beds were comfy and the views from the slope side balconies were fantastic. There was a sauna and swimming pool which was a good way to rest tired legs. The bar was lively and sold pints for under £1. We had breakfast in the hotel most days and there was a wide selection of breads, cereals, hot food and continental breakfast foods, alright the bacon was a bit weird and the scrambled eggs were sometimes a bit burned but there was tons of food and it was hot and tasted good. We ate dinner in the hotel 3 times and it was good each time, 1 night we had stuffed vine leaves and kalamari which was just the job.

We ate at a number of restaturants around Borovets, our favourite is probably Katy’s Steak Bar where we had the mother of all steaks, 16oz fillet with sauted potatoes with pepper suace for under £10, it was outstanding quality meat and obscenely large but perfectly cooked. We also had breakfast at Titanic an excellent alternative to the hotel and very cheap. We ate dinner 1 night at the bar opposite the Rila, (can’t remember the name) but had excellent steaks. We really wanted to eat at Mamacitas but never got the chance we went there a few times for drinks and saw the best covers band ever. We had lunch at the Red Lion a few times also at some restaurant at the top slopes and a couple of other places and always had good food and cheap beer or wine.

I thought the slopes were brilliant even compared with Kitzbuhel, they were bashed frequently and there was tons of snow, sometimes on lower slopes the middle of the slope would get icy but it was manageable. There was plenty of different levels of piste and even by the last day there were still pistes we hadn’t been on, I believe next year this will be even better as they are planning a 12km blue run.

We had a few hours to kill on Saturday prior to our flight home and got the Thomson trip to Sofia for about £8, it gave us about 5 hours in Sofia. I was very impressed with the city and to top things off it was even cheaper than Borro for food and drink, also got a a nice Diesel jumper for cheap from the Diesel store.

To people moaning about touts encouraging you to go into their bars, quit whinging, your not being forced in at gun point and you’re in a very different and very poor country where people are trying to make a buck or two.

To people moaning in general about other aspects of Bulgaria, for Crying out load its Bulgaria you can’t expect everything to be tip top all time and as constistent levels of service you get here. I know I would always be happy paying a 3rd of what I pay at home with a margin of uncertainty than going to France and be overcharged for what we get back home.

So in summary thanks to, Sam, Kelly, Sally, Jason, Beverly, Joanne, Steven, Paul, Lucy, Vicki, Lee, Amy, Nicola and Elmo for a brilliant and memorable holiday. I will be setting up a website with photos and video for people to check out soon.

Thanks Andrew

I am not sure that there is the same extent of really long runs as there is in Kitzbuhel, i especially liked the 25 and 26 (red and blues) but I also loved the Hahnenkahm which I did twice (missing out the really steep section which had been made a mogul field when I was there).

There is one very long very good fun run down from the Gondola station in Borovets which swaps between mostly red but with a little blue and a reasonable amount of black, there are different paths down it as with routes in Kitzbuhel I would say that this route is a very good route and there are sufficient alternatives on it to keep it interesting.

There is also a great off piste run called the Avalanche high above the Gondola, I have never been off piste on skis and it was very good fun and quite long.

There are some nice red runs up from the Rila hotel with lots of alternative routes.

Enjoy.