Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Just got back from the best time ever in Borovets.
Last year when our group went, it was brilliant. This time it was even better.

Hotel: Rila (studios)

We had 3 studios booked between 9 people all of which were comfortable, pretty spacious and cleaned everyday by the maids who were great at their jobs and very nice people to boot. No hassle with the booking either. All 3 studios were next door to each other, unlike when i have booked other group holidays and ended up with our rooms spread all over the place.
The food was pretty decent with quite a good selection. One night the even served fish fingers, chips and peas. 2 of our group are very fussy eaters and they always found something they would eat and enjoy. Personally, as long as i have meat, potatoes and veg i am happy no matter what style it is cooked.
The hotel bar as stated before is a little pricer than other bars in resort, but was a great place to have a few jars after dinner & meet fellow hotel guests, before heading out for a bit of apre ski.

The skiing conditions: Most of the runs were pretty decent first thing in the morning, (except the main green run which was very icy all week) even though we had no snow fall all week. As the day wore on though, the lower slopes became more and more icy. The slopes at the top of the gondola were more or less perfect and had been kept very well.
Now although there was a slight dissapointment from our group that we had no snow fall, we could not fault the weather. The sun at times was blistering and one day me and my friends enjoyed a cold beer at the top of the gondola, sitting in just our t-shirts. I even witnessed the bare chested boarders skiing down the mountain.
I was told that they are expecting snow either tonight or tomorrow, although when i left resort today it was a whooping 14c.

Apre Ski:

A list of the usual suspects really, karaoke bar, 101 cocktails and The Buzz Bar. Just be careful in the buzz bar not to chat up any girls when the owner is around as he tends to get jealous when he see's you doing what he is incapable of (being charming) and gets his goons to try to remove you from the premises even when the girls tell him themselves they are not interested in him.
Things that night could have turned ugly if it was not for our Bulgarian friends we had made last year calming the irrate and irrational owner. All that said though i feel the buzz bar is still the best night out and would just like to say a massive hello the Pascal, you are a total babe and made my last night pretty memorable cause not only are you gorgeous, ya also a raving lunatic.
Also try Funky's Bar. The food is pretty decent best pizza i had there, and the staff are second to none. They show all live sports in there and the last night they opened the bar especially for me and lady friend after they had just closed up and fed and watered us, all the time turning other people away telling the they were closed.

Crystal Holidays: No problems at all. The reps were brilliant. Stuart the rep was very helpful and a decent fella. If you stay at the Rila and have booked with Crystal, Stuart will most likely be your rep. Also Ally/Amy? the rep was a great laugh too....just wish i could have remembered the first night and then i might have not have offended her in anyway, even though i am totally unaware of our i did.

One of the best laughs we had was the night we hired the sledges and came down the red run. Not advisable for the faint hearted, but a great thrill when there are 5 of you racing. As i say not really advisable to the sensible ones out there, but a must for thrill seekers.

The only injuries our group sustained was due to alcohol and nothing to do with skiing. I fell down the stairs drunk on my first night and smacked my back up and i hate to think our it will be after 2 days without skiing and it gets time to stiffen up.
The other injurie was my friend hurting his back by slipping over in the street.
A warning to all...tread carefully as a guy slipped and fell in the street yesterday, smacked his head and died. This was the only downside of my holiday, knowing i had seen a dead guy lying in the street with people trying to revive him.

All in all it rates up there with one of the best holidays i have ever had and 4 of us are looking at going back in 3 weeks time...the other 5 want too, but they can't

If i remember any other points or if anyone has any questions then please feel free to ask.

I wish i could say it is good to be back...but it isn't

Another point just came to me.
We all took old mobile phones to swap for stuff.
One of my mates got a very good snowboard for a couple of pretty old Nokia phones, another sold his nokia phone for 150 lev, even though here in the UK you could only get about £40 max.
I swapped my old samsung mobile for 5 tequila/vodka/redbulls and one of the ashtrays they had in Funky's that i wanted to have has a momento.

The Bulgarian people are some of the best in the world i have met. It always seems that you have to make the effort with them first, but once you do you will find warm, kind, fun loving people.