Bulgaria Ski discussion board
Half Term Bansko Review
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posts : 13 (Beginner)Date : 02-27-07 15:19Half Term Bansko Review
Bansko Review – Half term week 17-24th feb 2007
Hi all, been reading a while but never posted so I thought I would add into the forum with a review of our holiday last week.
First off, let me just say, hopefully without bragging, that I am quite experienced for a Brit holiday skier, numerous weeks of snow under my skis, spread over 25 years, plus military ski training so I do have a fair bit to compare to!
This was to be my second time skiing in Bulgaria, my first time was in ...
Hi all, been reading a while but never posted so I thought I would add into the forum with a review of our holiday last week.
First off, let me just say, hopefully without bragging, that I am quite experienced for a Brit holiday skier, numerous weeks of snow under my skis, spread over 25 years, plus military ski training so I do have a fair bit to compare to!
This was to be my second time skiing in Bulgaria, my first time was in ...
Bansko Review – Half term week 17-24th feb 2007
Hi all, been reading a while but never posted so I thought I would add into the forum with a review of our holiday last week.
First off, let me just say, hopefully without bragging, that I am quite experienced for a Brit holiday skier, numerous weeks of snow under my skis, spread over 25 years, plus military ski training so I do have a fair bit to compare to!
This was to be my second time skiing in Bulgaria, my first time was in Pamporovo in 1982!. The last time we skied was in Colorado in 2001 so not only have we had a few years off, we also have 2 small children now, a four year old and a toddler.
We went to Bansko in a large group of four families, some “loose” adults and 7 children ranging from our toddler to a 9 year old boy, a group of very mixed ability. We travelled with First Choice although the bulk of our party travelled with Crystal.
First Impressions.
The journey was pretty painless really, we paid the extra for valet parking at Stansted which was an absolute godsend with the kids, pushchair and three large bags. Just drive up to the front of the airport and leave the car with the valet staff while loading up a trolley. Flight was Ok with hot grub and the transit through Sofia airport was as good as any package holiday I’ve been on.
Ski transfers are always a pain as the resort is generally a long way from the airport and it was getting late now so we were a bit worried about how the kids would cope but it was absolutely no problem. We were loaded onto a fairly small but comfortable coach and out of the airport with no hanging around at all. The rep gave us the gen on the bus about the lift passes, ski hire etc. and then we settled down to rest for about an hour until we stopped for 20 minutes for a leg stretch and then on to the resort about a further one and a half hours away. We arrived at the Hotel Perun and were greeted by a porter who whisked our cases away very efficiently. Since we were the only ones on the bus checking in at this hotel, we were greeted and checked in very quickly and presented with a sandwich and an apple each, which was a nice touch at this late hour (about 1am).
Rooms were nicely warm but not stifling and there was a thermostat control on the radiator so none of the too-hot to sleep problems experienced by some. Room was nicely laid out and very spacious, with a balcony overlooking the Karaoke bar, two twin beds, a kid bed, a sofa bed and a cot for the littl’un. Very nice indeed.
And so to bed. (after raiding the mini bar)
Day 1
A leisurely breakfast, which was excellent if you were prepared to wait for omelette or pancakes (setting the tone for the most queueingest holiday I have ever been on). It seemed that unless you were pretty early on for breakfast that things did run out towards the end, especially white bread rolls and croissants but this is a pretty minor gripe as to be honest the omelettes were worth waiting for.
Now to the ski hire depot. I have to say that I have never experienced such appalling organisation. I have my own boots but gave up on ski ownership when the new technology arrived, even so it took me about two hours to get my skis - to have several hundred people congregating in a tent, trying to get boots and skis with no organised queue control was just madness. I don’t know if this is a throwback to central command and control or what but next time I would forget about hiring equipment as part of the package and maybe try either the hotel or one of the many smaller hire shops located around the top of Pirin Street. Or for the ultimate convenience, hire from the depot at the top of the gondola – anything but the shockingly bad system that the tour operators use. I paid 15Lv a day extra to upgrade to the better quality ,VIP ski package only to discover later in the week that this package can be had for half of this amount through many of the other hire operators.
Once out of the tent, we joined the gondola queue which was half way round the building and not moving. In fact it didn’t move for about an hour. We discovered later that this was because other tour operators had used the ski depot inside the building and that once these people had been kitted out they were just jumping into the queue inside the building. Although there was a metal barrier to stop this I witnessed people removing sections of the barrier and simply pushing into the queue. The lift staff just didn’t seem to care, although if this was policed then the queue would keep moving as these selfish idiots would be forced to join at the end instead if the front of the queue. In fact, this threatened to ruin the whole holiday for me at this point as up to now, in my extensive skiing experience I had never witnessed such terrible queues, both for delays and mis-management. I’m sure my party was sick to death of me saying “this would never happen in America!!”
And so to the skiing.
Once up the mountain, the gondola kicks out into a large plateau with a selection of expensive restaurants a fairly long uphill walk to a trainer button lift, a nursery slope with a travelator and two chairlifts. One of these chairlifts serves a very easy blue which runs down to the “middle station” so off we went to see if ski legs had deserted us or not.
Thankfully not, and in no time we were schussing the final stretch down to the middle station to start some serious exploring. Over that side of the moutain, the snow was good and queuing for the excellent chairlifts was minimal. The two reds from the top were in good condition and reasonable fun, the blues similar, although a couple of members of the party had gone straight to the top and found themselves skiing off the side of the mountain towards the fun park in total whiteout conditions. One of them had the presence of mind to recall that they hadn’t passed under a lift and so got them back on track to ski the steep (ish) top section of the blue back down until visibility was better.
I headed back to the gondola to ski back to the village to collect the children. The ski road had had cannons on that morning and so was reasonably quick although I was in a hurry as I was late so I didn’t do much more that just head straight down. (It takes about ten minutes). The ski road has some fun bits but ends up as mostly a skating exercise for the last mile or so.
At the morning meeting with the rep in the big tent, I had booked our 4 year old and his friend into the ski kindergarten – this costs 260Lv for the week and runs every day from 10 until 3. This is based at the top of the gondola and worked extremely well, they ski for an hour in the morning, an hour in the afternoon and provide lunch as well as indoor and outdoor games and entertainment for the rest of the day. Suffice to say the kids loved it and it was also very convenient for us too as we could see them skiing and also enjoy some free time for ourselves.
The experienced skiers met in the restaurant and we had a couple of expensive beers before I decided in my infinite wisdom that I was going to try the black run on the first day. At the top it was foggy and visibility was pants so I swapped sunglasses for goggles and headed off down the bumpy and steep top section. Alas, the visibility got worse and I could barely see the bumps ahead, never mid where I was going and I took a minor tumble (first of two for the week – more later), skis stayed attached though and I always loop my hands through the poles so no walking back up the hill for gear and I was quickly back on my skis.
Once the bumpy top section of the black is negotiated, it opens out into a very pleasant wide piste with good, firm snow and loads of room for manouvre, good fun, although I was out of breath and my legs were knackered at this point, so I was glad to call it a day.
Back in the restaurant I discovered that all the beginners from our party had decided to skip ski school as they had quickly got bored with walking up the nursery slopes and standing around in groups of up to 25 people. This is obviously ridiculous, no adult can learn in an enviroment like that and I have to say that my recommendation would be to forget ski school and get together in a small group of 3 or 4 and book a few days of proper lessons. When you have spent several hundred pounds on a holiday, the few extra quid to actually enjoy it and learn to ski more quickly in a less tedious enviroment has got to be money well spent.
However, in their wisdom, the absolute beginners (three adults) had decided that they were going to try the ski road to get back to the village. This rang major alarm bells with me and I did my best to try to dissuade them as I had just done it and I knew that there were some steep(ish) sections and some very long flat sections. It’s a long way to walk, that’s for sure and that’s exactly how one of them got down – finally arriving at the gondola station at 8pm, vowing never to ski again. One of the others tumbled his way down but didn’t dent his enthusiasm and he went on to become a competent beginner, the final one had a nasty fall at the top and wisely decided to walk back up, getting the last gondola down. There’s a lesson in there somewhere!! I suppose I could have helped more but I had wanted to get that last run of the day in and left my wife to bring the puschair down in the gondola while I skied back down carrying her skis over my shoulder. They got heavy very quickly and so I just hacked down to get rid of them. Berk!!
On this first night we put the skis in the ski depot and went off back to the hotel tired but happy that because it was Monday tomorrow that we could have a leisurely start and get to the gondola, collect the equipment and have no queues to deal with.
WRONG!!! – but more later
The Hotel Perun
I have to say that the hotel was very impressive for the money. In fact by far the best ski accomodation I have ever stayed in. Good bar areas with reasonably cheery staff, indoor and outdoor pools (excellent outdoor pool) spa area with steam rooms, saunas, massage and invigorating cold water plunge pool. Games rooms, pool tables, table tennis etc. etc. great for the kids.
As we found out after day 1, the ski and (heated) boot storage facility right at the entrance was very good and the ski bus worked well too although the traffic chaos at the gondola station could easily add fifteen minutes to the five minute journey. Once again, poor queue control and traffic management leading to bedlam.
The restaurant was a bit hit and miss but I suspect that this has more to do with the conservative British palate rather than the quality of the food. As many have said, the food is lukewarm rather than hot as is the local custom and this causes many gripes but isn’t really that much of a problem. Again, white bread was in short supply and although I’m sad to say it the rare dishes of french fries were very welcome.
The best thing about the restaurant was the sommelier; he was just excellent, fantastic spoken English and a good sense of humour. We talked about wine a lot and sampled rather too much of the expensive stuff which doesn’t appear on the wine list. Which just cofirms that the Bulgarians are no different to many other wine producing countries in that they keep all the best stuff for themselves and ship the rubbish over to Blighty in tankers for us to glug. This guy (name pronounced Dee-Metal, although we just called him Dee) also arranged the most amazing Birthday cake for one of our party when we ate in the Mexana under the Karaoke Bar (well worth a visit by the way – whether or not you are staying in the Perun).
And so to the cocktail bar and from there to bed.
Day two started with that leisurely breakfast and moved onto the gondola at 9:15, bearing in mind that all we had to do was collect the skis and get to the top for the lessons at 10:00 for those that were booked in.
At 11:00 we were climbing the stairs into the godola station. What an absolute shambles, no control, people pushing in from the ski store like it was a private queue. Tempers were flaring and I was already saying “never, ever again”. So by the time we had got to the top, all the ski schools had disappeared and the kids and novices were left stranded with us, the little ones could go to kindergarten but had missed their morning skiing. This total screw up and mismanagement of the crowd, coupled with the extremely selfish behaviour of the queue jumpers had threatened to ruin another day of a perilously short holiday.
However, I’m getting on a bit so I was actually finding that a half day of hard skiing was enough for me and I was happy to mess around with the kids and do a bit of basic teaching so it wasn’t all that bad after all.
As an aside, we stopped over at the middle station for lunch on this day, to discover that not only was it cheaper than the top of the gondola but it was also a lot nicer and friendlier too with better food and more choice. And the hot wine was better. Yum.
We had managed to get the toddler into the creche at the Kempinski today too, although at 10 Euros an hour it worked out quite expensive, the staff there are great and she had a great time, full of smiles (and yoghurt) when I went to collect her.
The next day I vowed to get up early and keep the skis at the hotel. The downside is that late nights and early mornings are not good for a four year old so he wasn’t enjoying his kindergarten as much as he should and this made the day really tough.
However the skiing was still good and we had found that one route down from the top was bringing us down a lovely wide red which cut across onto the bottom section of the black and this was making for some great skiing although the very bottom was getting slushy and there was plenty of opportunity for water skiing and soaking the crowd in the deckchairs in front of the café if you timed the stop right !!
On a couple of days there were giant slalom and slalom courses set out on the black which no-one seemed to mind us playing on so we had some fun there too.
Towards the end of the week the snow was thinning badly and many of the “steep” sections of the blues were showing rocks and stumps, often leading to gathering crowds at the top staring into the run and then setting off in long snakes traversing backwards and forwards. The narrow strips at the edges were great though, good snow and no skiers so we just skied down the edges! The ski road by this time was very slushy and hard going at the bottom although I mostly skied it towing kids behind so it didn’t spoil the enjoyment that much as they were having so much fun.
Also later in the week, the hotel brought breakfast forward to 7:30 which meant you could eat and still make the gondola before the queue. Which was nice.
Back in town, we never really ventured out much from the hotel as we had the kids in tow so I can’t really comment on this other than to say the bit we saw at the top was a building site and very dusty.
Well I have just realised how much I have waffled so I guess I have covered most of what I wanted to apart from the obligatory summary of good and bad points.
First the bad
The queue management is appalling
The ski rental organised by the tour operators is equally bad
The snow was melting badly towards the end of the week but that’s no-ones fault
Some sections of piste were very crowded and there is no control of “wild” skiers and snowboarders who do not have the skill to go as fast as they think they can!
This is not a resort for a group of competent skiers who just want to ski all day, they will quickly get bored with the runs and frustrated with poor queue management
Town is a building site and very dusty and dirty
Traffic management was non-existent at the start of the week but did seem to improve by the end
Ski school was a disaster for all of our party who booked it
It remains to be seen how all the building of additional accomodation will affect the over crowding in future years
The good
This is a perfect resort for families with young children as all runs lead back to the same place, meaning that the competent kids can ski off and always be sure of finding us again.
Hotel was excellent, modern, clean and very kid friendly, we had no problem with the staff whatsoever - they were helpful and mostly cheery.
Hotel facilities were superb.
The lift operators were also great with the kids, even to the point of reserving a car and slowing the gondola to get the pushchair on (sorry folks)
The ski locker at the top of the gondola charged us 5Lv per set of kit, which was a small price to pay to save lugging it around town for a couple of days.
Although I have listed more bad than good, the good points do outweigh the bad and because of the kid friendly nature of the place we are more than likely going to be back to do it all again next year.
See you there then….
PS. That second fall I mentioned was on the bottom of the ski road after I sat down on the back of my skis like I used to, to cruise the last flat section – only to find that I no longer have the strength in my legs to pull myself up again and I had to sit down in order to get back up again – embarrassing….
Hi all, been reading a while but never posted so I thought I would add into the forum with a review of our holiday last week.
First off, let me just say, hopefully without bragging, that I am quite experienced for a Brit holiday skier, numerous weeks of snow under my skis, spread over 25 years, plus military ski training so I do have a fair bit to compare to!
This was to be my second time skiing in Bulgaria, my first time was in Pamporovo in 1982!. The last time we skied was in Colorado in 2001 so not only have we had a few years off, we also have 2 small children now, a four year old and a toddler.
We went to Bansko in a large group of four families, some “loose” adults and 7 children ranging from our toddler to a 9 year old boy, a group of very mixed ability. We travelled with First Choice although the bulk of our party travelled with Crystal.
First Impressions.
The journey was pretty painless really, we paid the extra for valet parking at Stansted which was an absolute godsend with the kids, pushchair and three large bags. Just drive up to the front of the airport and leave the car with the valet staff while loading up a trolley. Flight was Ok with hot grub and the transit through Sofia airport was as good as any package holiday I’ve been on.
Ski transfers are always a pain as the resort is generally a long way from the airport and it was getting late now so we were a bit worried about how the kids would cope but it was absolutely no problem. We were loaded onto a fairly small but comfortable coach and out of the airport with no hanging around at all. The rep gave us the gen on the bus about the lift passes, ski hire etc. and then we settled down to rest for about an hour until we stopped for 20 minutes for a leg stretch and then on to the resort about a further one and a half hours away. We arrived at the Hotel Perun and were greeted by a porter who whisked our cases away very efficiently. Since we were the only ones on the bus checking in at this hotel, we were greeted and checked in very quickly and presented with a sandwich and an apple each, which was a nice touch at this late hour (about 1am).
Rooms were nicely warm but not stifling and there was a thermostat control on the radiator so none of the too-hot to sleep problems experienced by some. Room was nicely laid out and very spacious, with a balcony overlooking the Karaoke bar, two twin beds, a kid bed, a sofa bed and a cot for the littl’un. Very nice indeed.
And so to bed. (after raiding the mini bar)
Day 1
A leisurely breakfast, which was excellent if you were prepared to wait for omelette or pancakes (setting the tone for the most queueingest holiday I have ever been on). It seemed that unless you were pretty early on for breakfast that things did run out towards the end, especially white bread rolls and croissants but this is a pretty minor gripe as to be honest the omelettes were worth waiting for.
Now to the ski hire depot. I have to say that I have never experienced such appalling organisation. I have my own boots but gave up on ski ownership when the new technology arrived, even so it took me about two hours to get my skis - to have several hundred people congregating in a tent, trying to get boots and skis with no organised queue control was just madness. I don’t know if this is a throwback to central command and control or what but next time I would forget about hiring equipment as part of the package and maybe try either the hotel or one of the many smaller hire shops located around the top of Pirin Street. Or for the ultimate convenience, hire from the depot at the top of the gondola – anything but the shockingly bad system that the tour operators use. I paid 15Lv a day extra to upgrade to the better quality ,VIP ski package only to discover later in the week that this package can be had for half of this amount through many of the other hire operators.
Once out of the tent, we joined the gondola queue which was half way round the building and not moving. In fact it didn’t move for about an hour. We discovered later that this was because other tour operators had used the ski depot inside the building and that once these people had been kitted out they were just jumping into the queue inside the building. Although there was a metal barrier to stop this I witnessed people removing sections of the barrier and simply pushing into the queue. The lift staff just didn’t seem to care, although if this was policed then the queue would keep moving as these selfish idiots would be forced to join at the end instead if the front of the queue. In fact, this threatened to ruin the whole holiday for me at this point as up to now, in my extensive skiing experience I had never witnessed such terrible queues, both for delays and mis-management. I’m sure my party was sick to death of me saying “this would never happen in America!!”
And so to the skiing.
Once up the mountain, the gondola kicks out into a large plateau with a selection of expensive restaurants a fairly long uphill walk to a trainer button lift, a nursery slope with a travelator and two chairlifts. One of these chairlifts serves a very easy blue which runs down to the “middle station” so off we went to see if ski legs had deserted us or not.
Thankfully not, and in no time we were schussing the final stretch down to the middle station to start some serious exploring. Over that side of the moutain, the snow was good and queuing for the excellent chairlifts was minimal. The two reds from the top were in good condition and reasonable fun, the blues similar, although a couple of members of the party had gone straight to the top and found themselves skiing off the side of the mountain towards the fun park in total whiteout conditions. One of them had the presence of mind to recall that they hadn’t passed under a lift and so got them back on track to ski the steep (ish) top section of the blue back down until visibility was better.
I headed back to the gondola to ski back to the village to collect the children. The ski road had had cannons on that morning and so was reasonably quick although I was in a hurry as I was late so I didn’t do much more that just head straight down. (It takes about ten minutes). The ski road has some fun bits but ends up as mostly a skating exercise for the last mile or so.
At the morning meeting with the rep in the big tent, I had booked our 4 year old and his friend into the ski kindergarten – this costs 260Lv for the week and runs every day from 10 until 3. This is based at the top of the gondola and worked extremely well, they ski for an hour in the morning, an hour in the afternoon and provide lunch as well as indoor and outdoor games and entertainment for the rest of the day. Suffice to say the kids loved it and it was also very convenient for us too as we could see them skiing and also enjoy some free time for ourselves.
The experienced skiers met in the restaurant and we had a couple of expensive beers before I decided in my infinite wisdom that I was going to try the black run on the first day. At the top it was foggy and visibility was pants so I swapped sunglasses for goggles and headed off down the bumpy and steep top section. Alas, the visibility got worse and I could barely see the bumps ahead, never mid where I was going and I took a minor tumble (first of two for the week – more later), skis stayed attached though and I always loop my hands through the poles so no walking back up the hill for gear and I was quickly back on my skis.
Once the bumpy top section of the black is negotiated, it opens out into a very pleasant wide piste with good, firm snow and loads of room for manouvre, good fun, although I was out of breath and my legs were knackered at this point, so I was glad to call it a day.
Back in the restaurant I discovered that all the beginners from our party had decided to skip ski school as they had quickly got bored with walking up the nursery slopes and standing around in groups of up to 25 people. This is obviously ridiculous, no adult can learn in an enviroment like that and I have to say that my recommendation would be to forget ski school and get together in a small group of 3 or 4 and book a few days of proper lessons. When you have spent several hundred pounds on a holiday, the few extra quid to actually enjoy it and learn to ski more quickly in a less tedious enviroment has got to be money well spent.
However, in their wisdom, the absolute beginners (three adults) had decided that they were going to try the ski road to get back to the village. This rang major alarm bells with me and I did my best to try to dissuade them as I had just done it and I knew that there were some steep(ish) sections and some very long flat sections. It’s a long way to walk, that’s for sure and that’s exactly how one of them got down – finally arriving at the gondola station at 8pm, vowing never to ski again. One of the others tumbled his way down but didn’t dent his enthusiasm and he went on to become a competent beginner, the final one had a nasty fall at the top and wisely decided to walk back up, getting the last gondola down. There’s a lesson in there somewhere!! I suppose I could have helped more but I had wanted to get that last run of the day in and left my wife to bring the puschair down in the gondola while I skied back down carrying her skis over my shoulder. They got heavy very quickly and so I just hacked down to get rid of them. Berk!!
On this first night we put the skis in the ski depot and went off back to the hotel tired but happy that because it was Monday tomorrow that we could have a leisurely start and get to the gondola, collect the equipment and have no queues to deal with.
WRONG!!! – but more later
The Hotel Perun
I have to say that the hotel was very impressive for the money. In fact by far the best ski accomodation I have ever stayed in. Good bar areas with reasonably cheery staff, indoor and outdoor pools (excellent outdoor pool) spa area with steam rooms, saunas, massage and invigorating cold water plunge pool. Games rooms, pool tables, table tennis etc. etc. great for the kids.
As we found out after day 1, the ski and (heated) boot storage facility right at the entrance was very good and the ski bus worked well too although the traffic chaos at the gondola station could easily add fifteen minutes to the five minute journey. Once again, poor queue control and traffic management leading to bedlam.
The restaurant was a bit hit and miss but I suspect that this has more to do with the conservative British palate rather than the quality of the food. As many have said, the food is lukewarm rather than hot as is the local custom and this causes many gripes but isn’t really that much of a problem. Again, white bread was in short supply and although I’m sad to say it the rare dishes of french fries were very welcome.
The best thing about the restaurant was the sommelier; he was just excellent, fantastic spoken English and a good sense of humour. We talked about wine a lot and sampled rather too much of the expensive stuff which doesn’t appear on the wine list. Which just cofirms that the Bulgarians are no different to many other wine producing countries in that they keep all the best stuff for themselves and ship the rubbish over to Blighty in tankers for us to glug. This guy (name pronounced Dee-Metal, although we just called him Dee) also arranged the most amazing Birthday cake for one of our party when we ate in the Mexana under the Karaoke Bar (well worth a visit by the way – whether or not you are staying in the Perun).
And so to the cocktail bar and from there to bed.
Day two started with that leisurely breakfast and moved onto the gondola at 9:15, bearing in mind that all we had to do was collect the skis and get to the top for the lessons at 10:00 for those that were booked in.
At 11:00 we were climbing the stairs into the godola station. What an absolute shambles, no control, people pushing in from the ski store like it was a private queue. Tempers were flaring and I was already saying “never, ever again”. So by the time we had got to the top, all the ski schools had disappeared and the kids and novices were left stranded with us, the little ones could go to kindergarten but had missed their morning skiing. This total screw up and mismanagement of the crowd, coupled with the extremely selfish behaviour of the queue jumpers had threatened to ruin another day of a perilously short holiday.
However, I’m getting on a bit so I was actually finding that a half day of hard skiing was enough for me and I was happy to mess around with the kids and do a bit of basic teaching so it wasn’t all that bad after all.
As an aside, we stopped over at the middle station for lunch on this day, to discover that not only was it cheaper than the top of the gondola but it was also a lot nicer and friendlier too with better food and more choice. And the hot wine was better. Yum.
We had managed to get the toddler into the creche at the Kempinski today too, although at 10 Euros an hour it worked out quite expensive, the staff there are great and she had a great time, full of smiles (and yoghurt) when I went to collect her.
The next day I vowed to get up early and keep the skis at the hotel. The downside is that late nights and early mornings are not good for a four year old so he wasn’t enjoying his kindergarten as much as he should and this made the day really tough.
However the skiing was still good and we had found that one route down from the top was bringing us down a lovely wide red which cut across onto the bottom section of the black and this was making for some great skiing although the very bottom was getting slushy and there was plenty of opportunity for water skiing and soaking the crowd in the deckchairs in front of the café if you timed the stop right !!
On a couple of days there were giant slalom and slalom courses set out on the black which no-one seemed to mind us playing on so we had some fun there too.
Towards the end of the week the snow was thinning badly and many of the “steep” sections of the blues were showing rocks and stumps, often leading to gathering crowds at the top staring into the run and then setting off in long snakes traversing backwards and forwards. The narrow strips at the edges were great though, good snow and no skiers so we just skied down the edges! The ski road by this time was very slushy and hard going at the bottom although I mostly skied it towing kids behind so it didn’t spoil the enjoyment that much as they were having so much fun.
Also later in the week, the hotel brought breakfast forward to 7:30 which meant you could eat and still make the gondola before the queue. Which was nice.
Back in town, we never really ventured out much from the hotel as we had the kids in tow so I can’t really comment on this other than to say the bit we saw at the top was a building site and very dusty.
Well I have just realised how much I have waffled so I guess I have covered most of what I wanted to apart from the obligatory summary of good and bad points.
First the bad
The queue management is appalling
The ski rental organised by the tour operators is equally bad
The snow was melting badly towards the end of the week but that’s no-ones fault
Some sections of piste were very crowded and there is no control of “wild” skiers and snowboarders who do not have the skill to go as fast as they think they can!
This is not a resort for a group of competent skiers who just want to ski all day, they will quickly get bored with the runs and frustrated with poor queue management
Town is a building site and very dusty and dirty
Traffic management was non-existent at the start of the week but did seem to improve by the end
Ski school was a disaster for all of our party who booked it
It remains to be seen how all the building of additional accomodation will affect the over crowding in future years
The good
This is a perfect resort for families with young children as all runs lead back to the same place, meaning that the competent kids can ski off and always be sure of finding us again.
Hotel was excellent, modern, clean and very kid friendly, we had no problem with the staff whatsoever - they were helpful and mostly cheery.
Hotel facilities were superb.
The lift operators were also great with the kids, even to the point of reserving a car and slowing the gondola to get the pushchair on (sorry folks)
The ski locker at the top of the gondola charged us 5Lv per set of kit, which was a small price to pay to save lugging it around town for a couple of days.
Although I have listed more bad than good, the good points do outweigh the bad and because of the kid friendly nature of the place we are more than likely going to be back to do it all again next year.
See you there then….
PS. That second fall I mentioned was on the bottom of the ski road after I sat down on the back of my skis like I used to, to cruise the last flat section – only to find that I no longer have the strength in my legs to pull myself up again and I had to sit down in order to get back up again – embarrassing….
re: Half Term Bansko Review
Hi Mr C - great report!It's good to hear both the good and the bad told as it was - not through rose tinted specs or from someone intent on finding something to complain about
Great to hear the mid-term was enjoyable.
pirin-mountainsdotcom
re: Half Term Bansko Review
Hi Mr. C
Good report and I would say from my experience pretty accurate. Our family were effectively first time skiers (I did it some 25 yrs ago so doesn't count) and we generally had a great time. Re the ski school - we had a very good instructor and whilst there were quite a large number of us no where near the 25 you mentioned - 15 at max and that soon reduced as the week wore on. It was a pretty good mix of people and we enjoyed their company.
We also stayed at the Perun - ...
Good report and I would say from my experience pretty accurate. Our family were effectively first time skiers (I did it some 25 yrs ago so doesn't count) and we generally had a great time. Re the ski school - we had a very good instructor and whilst there were quite a large number of us no where near the 25 you mentioned - 15 at max and that soon reduced as the week wore on. It was a pretty good mix of people and we enjoyed their company.
We also stayed at the Perun - ...
Hi Mr. C
Good report and I would say from my experience pretty accurate. Our family were effectively first time skiers (I did it some 25 yrs ago so doesn't count) and we generally had a great time. Re the ski school - we had a very good instructor and whilst there were quite a large number of us no where near the 25 you mentioned - 15 at max and that soon reduced as the week wore on. It was a pretty good mix of people and we enjoyed their company.
We also stayed at the Perun - great hotel and would agree with all your comments including the one concerning the sommelier.
The main downside to the holiday was the gondolar and the resultant queues. Soon realised the best thing was to keep the skis at the hotel and get up early and to the gondala station by 8.15ish when the queues were short. Whilst it did mean an early start it did mean my blood pressure was kept on an even keel!!. By the way we were some of the people who "pushed in" when we picked our skis up on the Monday - unbeknown to us as there is no queue management - sorry!
The skiing from our perspective was good - i.e. blue runs and really enjoyed it albeit the number of people on the slopes was a bit disconcerting at times.
Overall really enjoyed the holiday but would I go back there again - the answer is probably no - despite being significantly cheaper I believe the queuing issue will only get worse as the developements are completed and I don't like queues!
Good report and I would say from my experience pretty accurate. Our family were effectively first time skiers (I did it some 25 yrs ago so doesn't count) and we generally had a great time. Re the ski school - we had a very good instructor and whilst there were quite a large number of us no where near the 25 you mentioned - 15 at max and that soon reduced as the week wore on. It was a pretty good mix of people and we enjoyed their company.
We also stayed at the Perun - great hotel and would agree with all your comments including the one concerning the sommelier.
The main downside to the holiday was the gondolar and the resultant queues. Soon realised the best thing was to keep the skis at the hotel and get up early and to the gondala station by 8.15ish when the queues were short. Whilst it did mean an early start it did mean my blood pressure was kept on an even keel!!. By the way we were some of the people who "pushed in" when we picked our skis up on the Monday - unbeknown to us as there is no queue management - sorry!
The skiing from our perspective was good - i.e. blue runs and really enjoyed it albeit the number of people on the slopes was a bit disconcerting at times.
Overall really enjoyed the holiday but would I go back there again - the answer is probably no - despite being significantly cheaper I believe the queuing issue will only get worse as the developements are completed and I don't like queues!
re: Half Term Bansko Review
Bloody hell what a report and your first post
Really good thanks very much for that. Bring on March 9th 
re: Half Term Bansko Review
Fantastic report !!re: Half Term Bansko Review
Great report, I haven,t been to bansko but 4 times to borovets and would recommend you go there next time,
it might be better with the young children. Stay at the Rila, chairlifts are right outside the hotel, gondola is a five minute (max) walk, there's a new kids area for the kindergarten, children (and adults) can tobaggan on the nursery slopes outside the hotel in the evening. Everything is within a five minute walk, no buses to slopes because of the two main chairs and the gondola the ...
it might be better with the young children. Stay at the Rila, chairlifts are right outside the hotel, gondola is a five minute (max) walk, there's a new kids area for the kindergarten, children (and adults) can tobaggan on the nursery slopes outside the hotel in the evening. Everything is within a five minute walk, no buses to slopes because of the two main chairs and the gondola the ...
Great report, I haven,t been to bansko but 4 times to borovets and would recommend you go there next time,
it might be better with the young children. Stay at the Rila, chairlifts are right outside the hotel, gondola is a five minute (max) walk, there's a new kids area for the kindergarten, children (and adults) can tobaggan on the nursery slopes outside the hotel in the evening. Everything is within a five minute walk, no buses to slopes because of the two main chairs and the gondola the 'traffic' is spread about, they do get queues at the gondola, but early starts can avoid this and it is not the only way to get up the mountain for everyone to ski - as the other area with chairs is good. Reports say the skiing is not so good for experts as bansko, but for beginners and intermediates its great.
it might be better with the young children. Stay at the Rila, chairlifts are right outside the hotel, gondola is a five minute (max) walk, there's a new kids area for the kindergarten, children (and adults) can tobaggan on the nursery slopes outside the hotel in the evening. Everything is within a five minute walk, no buses to slopes because of the two main chairs and the gondola the 'traffic' is spread about, they do get queues at the gondola, but early starts can avoid this and it is not the only way to get up the mountain for everyone to ski - as the other area with chairs is good. Reports say the skiing is not so good for experts as bansko, but for beginners and intermediates its great.
re: Half Term Bansko Review
Never been there but fantastic report. Think i will stick to pamps next year. 