Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hello everyone, are you sitting comfortably? Good, then I'll begin.

Flew into Plovdiv (which is always an experience) where we were met by our rep. To say he seemed a bit unsure of things is an understatement of the week! Anyhoo, arrived at Bansko after about 4 and a half hours on the bus and into the hotel Lion. Stayed last yr so knew what to expect. Cant compliment the staff of the hotel enough. Every one of them was extremely helpfull and polite.

So, first morning we got to the gondola station for about 8.15am - no queing at that time however 20 minutes later the que was down the road. if you have to hire ski's and boots, GET THERE EARLY! Unless youprefere standing very close to other people for hours at a time that is! Met our instructor and went up the mountain. The first day was very cold but loads of fresh snow, all good! I was however very windy which resulted in some of the higher lifts not being open which again resulted in massive ques at the lifts that were open.

Imperssed to find i was still born to ski! had a great day. went out to a restaurant that night and enjoyed some local bulgarian quisine. Went for dinner with our ski group and instructer onw night. Please beware! We got the distinct impression he was on commission at the restaurant he took us too. The bill came to about 3 times what it normally would have....but hey, you live and learn. Dont let the instructor buy the wine and order the food!

We had 2 more frustrating days of skiing due to the lifts not being fully open meaning ques everywhere. Infact we only had one day where the whole mountain was open. That was great...minimal ques everywhere and lotsmof fresh powder. the slopes were all in great condition, only one or two which hadnt been bashed out yet but moguls and deep powder is fun eh! Last day we had that bomb scare/militia/eco-warriors/wind/technical difficulties/bulgarian national holiday/resort scam which meant no skiing and more boozing.woop! Such an anti-climax to the last day of the holiday. Had a few beers with Pamporovo Pete at the hotel bar, he didnt seem to mind too much though, he was off for another week in Pamporovo! Jammy git!

One thing that i feel has to be mentioned is the quality of the reps - terrible. Didnt seem to know anything or really care. From companies such as thompson and crystal i expected better than that.

Thought i should write a wee post, i always enjoyed reading others reports who had just returned.

For everyone heading out to Bansko, have a cracking time!

Glynis - you dont say where your flying to but its about a 3hr flight and then roughly a 4 hour transfere from plovdiv. So when you add on the 2 hr time difference you will be arriving in the early hours. Its worth going early on your first day...i cant stress this enough. Have a nap when you come back down the mountain!

Saskia - There is a ski storage room at the hotel by the front door. No lockers as such but nobody seemed to have any problems. There are probably lockers at the gondola, but we didnt use them.

Great report. I was there the same week. A couple of other points worth noting.

1) The snow conditions seem to remain really good. The slopes are North facing so whilst it was sunny every day there was very little melt and freezing. You could ski with confidence that you could hold an edge. Some really enjoyable runs too.

2) Bansko is too small to hold a ski race. Having 50% of the uplift from the top gondola closed off while the competitors practiced and then raced (well the race was called off due to wind) did not help the queues. This was the case for three days.

We had a great time in the Perun. Great facilities.

One real bonus was the use of ski storage at the bottom gondola station. This meant we could leave skis and boots at the point you left the ski road or gondola and hit the town in decent shoes and no ski worries. This facility was offered by Balkan as part of the cost of ski carriage. (Ski carriage and ski storage, at the gondola great value at £17.)