Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Came back from Borovets on Saturday after a great week's skiing. To be fair, I reckon this is one of the better resorts for beginners/intermediates, but let's get the beefs out of the way first:

Half term is not a great time to book. The queues for equipment hire were terrible. People were queueing for well over an hour. On the first day the gondola had to shut down & it was sheer murder on the ski slopes. It did get better - more snow made for great skiing on top of the mountain, but the slopes were a bit too crowded for my liking. Don't even get me started about snowboarders.

Tuition: I was lucky enough to get into a group with an instructor who could speak English. My friends who booked into a beginners class had a nightmare instructor. He couldn't speak a word of English - was showing them pictures out of a book then saying "copy me!" He took them up the four man chair lift on day 3 when most of them barely knew how to turn. Also he showed up late in the mornings because he was a waiter in one of the hotels. In the end they left the group & got some private tuition. This is simply down to Borosports not having enough instructors for the week. We were supposed to be understanding about this, but let's get real - people pay money for this facility.

Hotel food: we stayed at the Rila Hotel. This is fine if you like your rooms to have a distinctive smell to them & you enjoy queueing for lukewarm buffet food. But it is CLEAN, as many wise people have noted. Pool was freezing cold & lethal. About the food & queues - it did get better & the food was tasty enough for me. Breakfast was fine, but at the start of half term week they were queueing out of the hotel to get in. Took them two days to sort that problem out. It seemed to come as a surprise that they had so many guests to cater for. Did nobody tell them?

Next instalment coming soon......

i found it was ski'rs that gave us more hassels i was cut up many a time buy them and many times the ski schools just take u a nice parked possition in the middile of a run and all the way across which was nice of them , i spen most of my time looking out for rouge skiers chopping me up not to say that i didnt get cut up by the odd snowboarder but only a few and many many skiers with no attention to what else is going on ,

just thought id say that . totally agree with the food though . we got there very early for our kit so was ok

I also returned from Borovets on Saturday. We as first time skiers were lucky enough to get an excellent instructor Krassee (Chris). He put in extra hours every day, also arranged a piste basher on day 3 or 4 to get us to the gentle winding country slope which was unaccessible to beginners due to the 1 man chairlift no longer working. He did however seem to take over our holiday abit by arranging skidoos, evenings in restaurants etc. however it was always good value and we enjoyed it. Stayed at the Rila, I have no complaints about the standard of the food, or rooms. However our room was at the front of the hotel above Funkys bar and I found that incredibly noisy at night. My biggest complaint was my 10 yr olds instructor who dropped the kids at the bottom of the main slope at 3pm and left them to their own devises (he probably had another job). Also one morning after dropping my son off, the instructor gathered his group together and went to slope 3 minus my son. I just happened to not ski that day as I had a rough belly, so I went in search of my sons group to take photos. I was horrified to realise that his group had left him and gone up on the drag lift. My son was found in floods of tears at the main slope ,on his own. thank goodness I didn't ski that day. The insructor had also sent a 7 yr old to look for him??. Our group was often late back due to queues on gondolas etc. and despite telling the instructor not to leave the children, he did every time. On the Friday he finished at 2pm and didn't inform any of the parents that he intended to do this. I enjoyed our holiday and Borovets for us ( excluding my childs experience) was a great first ski venue, but I wont be going again.

I thought I'd pick up on your point about your instructor who 'seemed to take over your holiday a bit'. Our instructor was also fantastic, but kept pushing us to go out for drinks in the evening, go to a restaurant, go on special visits etc..There was only one common denominator in all this; he wasn't paying a penny for his night outs. Don't get me wrong - I know these people are not very well off, but it got on my nerves being reminded virtually every day about how little our instructor earned. I go on holiday to relax, not to have pressure put on me. When we said no to one of his requests he looked a bit annoyed & said "I'm only trying to save you money". Yeah, right.

Sorry to hear about your son's experience - that's pretty damning, he obviously didn't care too much for the kids safety. On another note I'd also heard from some parents that kids were getting ripped off in the shops by not being given the correct change or being given a small bit of chocolate for 1 or 2 leva extra. I know that's not a massive amount of money, but it's the principle isn't it?

Have also returned from Borovets and also stayed at the Rila.
Fortunately all the family are experienced skiers so we did not use the ski school so can not comment.
As for the queues I would suggest that wherever you go there will always be long queues on the first morning for skis etc. unless you have your own skis and boots you've just got to accept it as part of your skiing holiday !!
Like wise the queues for the lifts. On the Sunday the 4 man chair was very busy but that was because the gondola was closed due to high winds. After that it was fine.
I found it was just a matter of planning. The queues for the gondola were long each morning so we skied on the slopes outside the Rila during the morning and then at lunchtime took the gondola up the mountain. In general the slopes were quiet, especially the ones served by the gondola. If you thought they were busy then you have never skied in the Alps at half term.
On the whole the Rila was ok. the rooms were warm (too warm at times), clean and ours was quiet (we were in an appartment).
Yes there was queues for food but again if you timed it right you could walk straight in. I noticed there were a lot of very unadventurous people as the queue for the chips was always long - typical Brits, go aborad but still want their British food then complain when it's something different!! The only thing i would criticise is that the food could have been warmer although it did not come as a suprise as it's been mentioned on this discussion board in the past.
Nightlife was great and cheap. Everyone was very friendly.
If they get the extra lifts and runs that seem to be planned in the next year or two then the place will be even better.
I for one will be returning