Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Ok just got back from Bansko (on Saturday 8/3) here are my thoughts:

The flight with Balkan was good, if a little basic. The in flight meal was a cheese sandwich but i had been warned about that so took my own food for the plane aswel. In terms of time the flight touched down at Sofia well over 30 minutes before the advertised time.

In terms of the transfer, i had asked Balkan prior to leaving and been assured that the transfer to Bansko was "just over two hours" when we landed, after waiting an hour for our luggage at Sofia, we were told we then had a three and a half hour drive to get to the resort, which didnt go down particularly well amongst the group!

As for the resort of Bansko; well, i was quite impressed. Mt only other Bulgarian ski trip had been to Borovets, which is basically two streets, one full of bars and one full of strip clubs. Bansko, however, was much bigger than this. Much more of a town. However, i found the whole place to have a thick layer of smog hanging over it, which made it difficult to breathe given the high altitude.

We stayed in Mountain Residence 1, by Winslow. This is a fairly new complex and we were impressed with the apartment, which is within walking distance of a numer of decent mehanas and bars. It is a little bit of a trek to the Gondola though, around 20 minutes.

On to the skiing, well, we were there when the womens world cup was in full force, and having been given out ski-passes at 9.10am, were queueing until 1.45pm to get on the gondola, a problem which was exacerbated by the fact that the rude and ignorant bulgarians thought they were too good to queue and simply pushed in at the front.

When we finally got up to the top of the mountain (a half an hour gondola then two 20 minute chailifts) we were actually very impressed with the amount of snow, there was powder covering the lower legs which made for interesting skiing. However, it was clear that none of the slopes had been pisted for at least a week, which made some interesting mini-moguls, but did also get a little repetitive (and sore on the old thighs!) Later on in the week this problem was rectified as they got the machines out on the snow.

Bansko at night we found to be reasonable, half of our party wanted to have dinner then a few beers before bed, while the other half wanted to go mad and go clubbing. Both sides are catered for (unfortunately this resulted in being woken up at 4am every day by them getting in from the nightclubs) the prices vary throughout the resort, but expect to pay between £1.50 and £2.50 for a pint of local beer, and between £10 and £20 for a decent steak.

The return leg was horrific. We were picked up from out hotel at 5.10am, which was completely ridiculous as we arrived at the airport 2 hours before we could even check in. we were travelling for a total of 14 hours.

Overall, i would sum up my stay by saying that it was reasonable for the price i paid (£325 including lift pass and ski carriage) had a paid any more than that i would have been disappointed. Would i go back? probably not, because i prefer France (More expensive but better quality, and without the stray dogs and smog) but I can definately see the attraction that some people have with the place.

Surely the ridiculous pick up time cant be blamed on Bansko generally aswell???

We landed in Sofia at 19:15 a few weeks back and arrived in our aprtments before 22:00. This was also without our taxi driver driving like a mad man.

Agree about the dogs - but smog???? Alot of the older places do burn wood as there source of heating but smog is a bit OTT.

My view - Like for Like Bansko cant compare with France. Bansko is still only about 5 year old as an up and coming resort so needs time to evolve and find itself. France is great and expensive. Bansko serves a great purpose even in its current state, i for one have hope for Bansko.

I'm now getting ready for the bullets that are sure to fired!!!!!!