Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hi Guys..

Just thought i'd give a report from Pamporovo. Was my first time to bulgaria and thought i'd share my views.. or if anyone else wanted any info etc..

Skiing - Was good, we were lucky with the snow, had a large dump just before we arrived then another big dump on tuesday. Slopes were pretty empty, so no ques and slopes pretty quiet which was great! Im more of an intermediate skiier so enjoyed all the slopes, plenty of green and blues.. with a few good reds for a challenge. On the other side of the mountain were more challenging black and reds for the pro's, but i stayed away from them!! All in all we had a good time skiing, but probably wouldnt return.. Have previously skiied in Austria and felt the skiing was a milion times better, could ski for miles and everyday saw something different, where as in bulgaria it was the same thing everyday up and down, up and down.

Pamporovo resort - Was dead! Maybe due to the time we went.. getting towards end of season i supose, but there was only 1 pub open, the White Hart, but they charged 9lev for 1 bottle of corona!!! absolute rip off!! There was nothing to do in the evening and town was very very quiet. Theres a nice italian restaurant though in town which was nice, i recommend that.
Taxis were a rip off, charging 20lev for a 5 min ride. We usually got them down to 15 or 17 lev, but one time we agreed 15lev, paid with a 20 and he wouldnt give us our change.. so watch out. Myabe pay upfront next time..

Food - We got the impression before we went that everything was cheap as chips! which was the reason for choosing bulgaria in the first place.. although everything was very expensive.. on the slopes we got charged 6lev for a hot chocolate, 4lev for a small bottle of coke.
There is a nice irish pub just up from the mid way station which was nice, we usually ate there at lunch, done pizzas, pasta etc and at a reasonable price.

Hotel - We stayed at the Orlovetz, which was lovely. Would definately recommend it. Was nice coming back to a comfy hotel after a hard day skiing! Had a spa area too, where you can have masages etc at a reasonable price.
Food was ok there, we stayed HB, the food was all buffet style, wasnt great but there was always something you could find. But food is luke warm!!

To sum up.. it was good value for money.. whole holiday and ski hire etc was alot cheaper than any other country, but was just dissapointed about Pamporovo itself. Had a great trip, although probably wouldnt return..

Anyone with any other reviews or wants to add to this or has any questions.. please feel free to comment.

p.s. sorry for the long essay!!

hey vicki

got back at 2am this morning! stayed at the Snezhanka, no problems with the hotel, nice room and plenty of food. Although a couple in our group not used to travelling struggled a little as they expected more english food...... oops, Pool wasnt too cold either and we always had it to ourselves. The dance music playing at breakfast was a bit random but it at least woke you up!

I'm an intermediate boarder, rest of the group were beginners but I still found it really enjoyable with the nice mix of runs.

Like you though I probably wouldnt go back, I could get from the top of the mountain down to the bottom in 7 minutes.... yes I got bored one day and left the others resting with hot chocolates so did a couple of runs on my own!

really enjoyed the week though and we were pretty lucky with the snow, bottom of the new blues was pretty shocking but managed to get through it with some hard work...

Shame the resort was so quiet, I was amazed every morning though by the lack of people up and going to the slopes first thing. We were the only people on the bus at 8:30 in the morning and after that they only put buses on from 9 onwards. Then on checkout day there seemed to be loads of people we hadnt seen all week, maybe they just lived in their hotel rooms.... god knows

didnt get any taxis as i knew they would be a rip off so we walked any short kind of distances.

drank the local beer all week which actually wasnt that bad, and only £1.70 for a massive 1.5 litre bottle from the supermarket. But yea the prices of things like redbull and corona were harsh but we were all happy to try the local stuff

everyone really enjoyed the week though and I think we all spent about £100 each throughout the week, which isnt bad at all

Yes Pete, I made sure the whole group went to Tescos before we flew out to buy 20-30 snackbars, 3 for the slopes each day, then a choc bar or something for a snack in the evening or after dinner

we all ate plenty for breakfast and then just got a drink on the slopes and ate the snack bars, a couple of days people got some chips and a hot chocolate but that was about it

In the evenings we all ate plenty at the hotel and got a free drink with our meal each night.
Then drank the local beer which was cheaper, and also mixed in some of the massive 1.5litre bottles of local beer aswell, which only cost £1.70 or 3.40 lev, bargain

We didnt really drink too much at night, the beginners in the group were knackered but we amused ourselves a couple of nights with some cards i took over and then played some other drinking games


we ate out a couple of nights but that only cost us about £10 each person, most people had a mixed grill or a pizza

Didnt do any of the touroperator trips, bowled on the last day and had a meal and watched the footie while waiting for our transfer coach to arrive

apart from that we all paid the 20lev for a husky ride, £10. short but was worth it.

Also one of the bars was closing down one night, the orange bar i think it was, and was selling everything for 1 lev


Here's a few of our pictures, there were over 500 taken

I have to say this sites been really useful and helped alot with information. 2 of the group hadnt been on holiday for 10 years and loved it.


http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/DPS1984/Pamporovo/IMG_0611.jpg

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/DPS1984/Pamporovo/IMG_0289.jpg

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/DPS1984/Pamporovo/IMG_0127.jpg

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/DPS1984/Pamporovo/IMG_0212.jpg

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/DPS1984/Pamporovo/IMG_0222.jpg

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/DPS1984/Pamporovo/IMG_0252.jpg

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/DPS1984/Pamporovo/DSCF3028.jpg

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/DPS1984/Pamporovo/IMG_0391.jpg

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/DPS1984/Pamporovo/IMG_0301.jpg