Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Back last night from our first visit and I have to say it wasnt great.
First the positives
Hotel
We stayed at the Orlovets and it is a great Hotel. The food which i was expecting to be a problem after reading reviews on other sites was absolutely fine. Granted it can be a bit samey towards the end of the week but on buffet style its the same story at most hotels throughout the world towards the end of the week. The hotel itself is clean, tidy and the staff friendly all in all no complaints whatsoever with staying there.

Snow shack
We decided to do the snowboard taster session one afternoon and have to say the guys over the road at the snowshack are brilliant. Really friendly, helpful and great tuition. A group that we met who had hired their boards through Crystal took the hired boards to the snowshack left them over night and they set the boards up properly for them and waxed them all free of charge. I also witnessed a girl in there to buy a board and the guy advised her of a better place that was a taxi ride away where she would get a better deal. I managed to bend one of the clips on my ski boot again left it with them and they sorted it. When I asked him how much do I owe you he wouldnt take a penny. If anyone fancies trying boarding get yourself over to them they are spot on.
Piste management
I had heard bad things about them but have to say they played the hand they had been dealt superbly. Make no bones the conditons are extremely poor but they did their best to make skiing on some runs possible.
Prices
Couldnt find the elusive 2 lev pint but cheap as chips as far as ski resort prices. No complaints here.

Now the bad
It was brilliant sunshine all week except Thursday and temps were high (I didnt need a ski jacket). It was due to snow Thursday but all that happened was it was very foggy and very light sleet fell for about an hour
Without stating the obvious it needs to snow and lots.
The green from top to bottom was open all week but was icy first thing and very slushy in the afternoon,
Blue 1 was just ice all week with grass patches at the top of it. Red 5 was very icy and had rocks and big stones on it too making it dangerous which was a shame as red 5 is a great run. The blue/red run that leads down to the six man lift was probably in the best condition all week but that too was very icy in the bends section in the middle and the steep last section before the lift. The wall was mega icy at the top getting slightly better towards the bottom of it. That was all that was open all week and I have to say we were both bored by Wednesday. My girlfriend, who has skied a lot more than me said she had never seen such poor conditions anywhere.
I am of the strong belief that tour operators and pamporovo itself have a responsibilty to its customers to tell the truth and at the moment I think they are letting people down by giving out poor information regarding when the season starts i.e mid December. Having never been before I booked based on what I read on the tour operators websites it was only after I had booked that I found my way to this site. I must admit that if i had found here first I would not have booked 2nd week of Jan as regulars clearly know that the weather is dodgy until Feb. my point is that if the regulars know then so do the tour operators and by advertising the season length they do is leading to a lot of very unhappy customers who then have a very negative view of the place. I spoke to our rep on the last day and asked her if any snow was due. She replied nothing forecast until next Saturday but she was praying it changed. I can imagine she will have a lot of disgruntled customers if it does not snow as conditions were only getting worse by the day. I found myself sat at the airport watching the new batch coming in as we were waiting to go actually feeling sorry for them. All I can say is I hope it snows soon!!!

Great review Lee, just what those of us that have not been before are looking for.

Glad that the only let down was the snow. Having read everything on here over the past few weeks I am in complete agreement that the tour operators need to re-assess when they sell their holidays.

Time and time again on here, those in the know have said that any time before Feb and you are taking a risk on conditions in Bulgaria. The country can do nothing about it's snow season. It is completely at the hands of the tour operators to only sell what they market as ski-ing holidays when there is the best chance of actually ski-ing.

Rant over!

We aren't going out until 12th March and we are looking forward to a really good holiday, first time on the slopes. Hopefully the conditions will be good for beginners then. If not then.............

Interesting point is that 12th March is the last week in Pamporovo for our tour operator (Inghams). Are they missing a trick?

Jason

Lee - we went to Pamps every February half term for five years. The first time we went it never occured to us to worry about whether there'd be snow - it was a ski resort, so we assumed snow was a cert. However, the third time we went, there was little snow and we struggled, although we did still ski every day. But ski packs were cheap and you didn't have to spend a fortune once you got there.
However, prices have risen since then, making it no cheaper than other countries where the snow record is far better. Also, since the major tour operators have stopped using Plovdiv, the transfers are simply too long for us. We've skied both France and Italy and would not consider returning to Bulgaria unless the prices came down and the transfer situation improved.