Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hi

I got back from Bansko last night and thought it would be helpful to write about my experience for anyone who is going. I went with six friends and in general we had an amazing holiday. Here are the pros and cons that we found:

Pros
We stayed in Chalet Montagne and it was excellent. Quite spacious, good location. very clean and good showers and facilities.
The weather was good all week. We had snow/sleet for a lot of the week and a few sunny days. There is plenty of snow just gets a little bit icey nearer the bottom and slushy on the ski road but definately good enough skiing conditions.
Our ski instructor was excellent (Vladimir), very thorough and teaches at a good pace.
We had good meals every night in various different restaurants. Our favourites were Sir Galahads (Good steaks, excellent live music and sky sports!) and the steak house where they do amazing Shasliks!
We found eveything such good value for money compared to other European ski resorts. As i said we ate out every day, and night, bought breakfast in and drank quite a bit. Each person only spent about £100 each!! and an average 2 course meal with drinks for six cost around £50!

Cons
Bansko is a bit of a building site, but we knew about that before we went and if you look past it, it is a charming little town.
The queues for every lift including the beginners drag lift were very long indeed especially for the gondola. We were there for the first lift most days and still had to queue at least 15 mins! Also some people do not seem to have any concept of queing and you get very pushed and shoved!
I dont think Bansko is ideal for beginners because all of the slopes are quite steep and most people i spoke to didnt get off the nursery slopes (which in some parts would be green/blue runs in France).
The resort in general is steep and graded differently to other resorts. Some of the blues would normally be red and some of the reds would normally be black. This was the general consensus in our group and there were some experienced members amongst us.
We came across some very rude people in particular a female instructor in her 50's called Lydia who seemed to think that the world owed her a massive favour!

In conclusion the pros out weighed the cons and we had a very good time but we agreed that it probably isnt somewhere we would go back for a few years until the building work has finished. We also agred that we would probably rather save up and pay a bit more to go back to the 3 valleys in France again next year.

I hope this helps people and if you are about to go to Bansko im sure you will have a good time. Enjoy!

Jill, That was a good honest report the only point I would disagee with is the run grading.
I have been skiing for about 25 years and I would class myself as a strong intermediate skiers and had no problems doing the black run at Bansko. However, lots of Brits go skiing once and consider themselves experts. I couldn't believe the amount of people I saw last week skiing with only a basic snow plow trying to pass their skills or should I say lack of skills onto other members of their family. I sometime think of the saying "a little knowledge is dangerous"
Bansko is no more than a beginners/intermediate resort, I will be going again next year but after that I think I'd probably get bored with the skiing, but I would never get bored with the 45-50p a pint.

Gogs

I'm just back as well. Mostly agree with report above. Had a great holiday staying at the Lion Hotel. Lovely hotel good facilities could walk to gondola or take frequent buses. gondola queues - we got there at 8.30 had to wait for ski store to open. In that 10 mins queue was massive. Sat in it for over an hour not moving because those in the know push in. the trick is to take your skis and boots back to your hotel. next day on run by 9 - wonderful!
Run grading- 1st year last year at pamps, had only done the green run there. found Banskos blues much more challenging - no greens there. Daughters were fine,loved it but being a bit older and not quite so brave.....! Some people in my group really lost their confidence on these runs but once our instructor realised he was very patient and helpful. i think the answer is to speak out and dont worry about those who just want to go fast, a bit of back to basics never does anyone any harm! We had a brilliant week