Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Got back from Borovets early Sunday morning. We had a great time off the slopes, local beer was cheap and the food in restaurants was great. Locals were friendly and the nightlife was good!

Ive been boarding for years now, usually 3 Valleys, Tignes or Chamonix (I know Ive been spoilt) I booked this holiday because it was cheap to learn snowboarding, 3 of my friends had never done it before! By the end of the holiday they could still not really board and neither could many others we spoke to at the end of the week. It seemed that the boarding instructers were not very good and had far to many people to teach in each group, the boots and bindings were also falling apart! The runs were no good for boarders, very little off piste and lots of flat runs where boarders had to take off their boards and walk. I must say though, all skiers appeared to enjoy the runs and were very happy with the lessons.

If you want to learn how to board spend a little extra money and go to one of the larger french resorts I named above!

For a different view: I went to Boro to learn to board. Our instructor, Bobby (Samokov school) was excellent and very friendly. We were a group of ten, on black runs on the day 3 and properly turning down the steepest blacks by day 6. He offered us extra lessons very cheaply, which gave us the confidence to try new runs, although like I say we were already able to link turns and tackle blacks within the inital three days of lessons. (This also meant we could stop using the annoying button lifts.) We also chose ourselves when the lessons started after the first day.

In case you think we must have had a super-talented group, we were all complete beginners and when I got really scared and exhausted on a black he patiently helped me down. The other learn to board group for that week (with a different instructor) were also on the blacks like us. Bobby took us out one evening, recommended some good places for lunch (good cheap Bulgarian food, not just so he could get free food for taking us there), and gave us brandy on the slopes! Our lessons usually over-ran by an hour, Bobby never rushed off unless he had another lesson starting, so there was no problem being slow down or taking a long run. If we saw him later in the day he'd always shout out some tips (usually you'd fall over and hear a god-like voice saying "bend you knees!" from the chair lift above!).

He even took us to the ski jumps where we slid down on our bums(!), boarding through 6ft snow drifts, on lumpy paths through the trees, and out of the Olympic slalom starting hut (ok I wimped out of that one).

I had an EXCELLENT time. I would recommend Bobby (he's helping in the hire place at the Samokov when not on the slopes, find him for private lessons, or he'll recommend a friend, he also skies). He had so much patience to help me when I was ready to give up. I haven't been to other expensive resorts but I don't imagine you'd get this level of service. Friends tell me lessons last for exactly the scheduled time and no more, as instructors are booked out all day.

I think perhaps your experience is greatly influenced by whether you get on with your instructor and the rest of your group, and surely this would be the same anywhere, just cheaper in Bulgaria. Nastrave!