Bulgaria Ski discussion board

The chalet is pretty nice compared to most hotels and very close to the gondola lift which is good but a few things to know are:

1) there will be little bits of mould in the corners of your room. they paint over it every couple of weeks but it comes back. no health risk but just looks a bit shit

2)the ski equipment depot downstairs is not very good. if you have pre-purchased through crystal you can use your vouchers at any borosport depot. i'd recommend the ones on the foot of the piste outside the rila hotel. if you can pay extra to upgrade then definitely do it, this will make all the difference to your week. On the first day i'd say get up as early as possible and get your gear rented before breakfast, otherwise the queues are huge.

3)always lock your door and the chalet main door, and take your wallet with you. a few people including myself got things stolen from rooms. the police won't issue crime numbers, thus making your insurance useless.

4)if you are thinking about buying ski equipment, wait until you get there. it is less than half the price of the UK and you can get good deals if you like to haggle. Keep your receipt for anything you buy and you'll also get all the tax refunded at the airport when you leave.

5)Go on the skidoo safari

6) remember to be nice to your chalet host!!!

i could go on all day. any specific questions just let me know

The chalet is great for large groups, if there are ten or more of you, you'll be guaranteed the whole place to yourself, which makes it feel really comfortable and means you don't have to worry about noise or when other guests want to eat etc.

There are 3 or 4 cash machines in resort which you can use with overseas cards. A couple of things to know are that you'll get charged a few quid every time you use it, most of them have a max withdrawal of 200leva (which was about 60 quid last year), you get a better rate at them than you will changing money elsewhere, and that quite often the power supply in town goes down for hours at a time meaning no cash machine access (amongst other things). If your card is in the machine when it goes down you'll have to sit there til the power comes back on because the first thing it does is spit it back out!!!

I would say change a couple of hundred quid and take it out with you cash. keep it on you all the time. you'll be able to get more if you need it. Nowhere will accept travellers cheques, and paying with your card hadn't happened yet when i was there.

The snow at new years would be enough to ski every day, but won't be brilliant deep powder i don't think. Around xmas is usually the first big dump, then a couple of days for them to piste it before the lifts get going and you can hit the snow.

One other thing to know is that if you're going with crystal, its much cheaper to buy lift passes and hire ski equipment through them when you book the chalet. You'll pay more if you wait to do it in resort.

hope that helps