Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Just returned from Pamporovo, can not fault the place or the Bulgarian people. Four days skiing out of six.

But Balkan Holidays.... well were do we start?
Got up at 5am (3am UK time) coach travel 1 1/2 hour to Plovdiv to be told we would be delayed for 1/2 hour eventually take off at 10.40am (8.40am UK) after a very scarey take off was told we would be diverted to Stanstead due to fog in Cardiff (first drop off), landed 11.45am UK time.
Taxied up the run way parked up 2 miles away from main building, sat on the plane for about an hour Cardiff passengers asked to leave plane and board waiting bus. After many B'ham passengers asked how long before we take off to B'ham, Air Stewards basically say 1..2..3 hours she really hadn't a clue. Balkan expected us to sit on the plane. Then we were told to leave the plane get on bus to main terminal. Arrive at passport control not knowing what to do or where to go, eventually about 1/2 hour later we were told to go through passport control into arrivals to collect our luggage........or so we thought, after a very long telephone conversation and no help at all from Balkan holidays, B'ham passengers managed to collect luggage from carousel 2 no number 3 or could it be number 2. Four hours after we got off the plane yes repeat four hours our luggage arrived at carousel number 4.
Now 13 1/2 hours later after leaving Pamporovo we are taking to a coach. At this point just like to point out the only thing we have eaten is a bread roll, rubber cheese, slice of ham and a very interesting biscuit. So we are now on the coach to B'ham hungry, tired and extremely P*** off with Balkan.
Our party mainly adults and teenage boys, feel like Balkan Holidays just abandoned us at Stanstead, there were familys with small children and people who missed there connecting flights at B'ham.
What at lot of people couldn't understand is why our plane which was due in at B'ham at appx 12.00 could not land in its slot, allowing the Cardiff passengers to be taken by coach which would of be a much more acceptable approach and a lot less time consuming for everyone involved. We arrived home 16 hours after leaving our hotel.
Hopefully everyone due to fly with Balkan this coming season will not have to endure what we went through and all have very enjoyable holiday.
We are a very well travelled group and have never come across a shambles like this before.
We are in the process of putting this in writing to Balkan Holidays. Stanstead and Birmingham airport hopefully to receive a good explanation why there was no communication.
Would still return to Bulgaria but not with Balkan.

in fairness i wouldnt blame a tour operator for this, i worked in travel for 10 years and once passengers are on a plane we had very little control, its down to the airport as to what info they give passengers, no one can control the weather especially fog and lets face it bbc cant forecast the weather in 10 minutes so what chance do the balkan trolly dollies have, your home safe id be glad of that, better to be diverted because fog and put up with a delay than crash into a hillside, know what id rather do, life will seem better tomorrow after a good nights sleep and lets not forget all the poor souls who didnt make it last year on boxing day because goverments wouldnt heed safety warnings about waves, at least Balkan take safety seriously although inconveniencing us at times

Nick,
In fairness to us passengers, we were told so many reason why wouldn't couldn't fly to B'ham one being the weather was bad in B'ham. We have friends who work there and they have told us the weather was fine. Understand the fact there was fog in Cardiff but When arriving into Stanstead the ground staff didn't even know we were there. Lack of communication.
People who were collecting passengers from B'ham were told we were stuck in snow at Plovdiv that's why we were late. We didn't have snow for two days in Plovdiv or Pamporovo.
Notsogood,
Secound time this year in Pamporovo, we did have a great time and we do love the place. Thou Balkan rep was a total idiot first night we arrived he accused our teenange boys of stealing a phone from another holiday maker not a Balkan customer, our lads are a lot things but they are not thieves took him three days to apolgise to the boys. That was the only time we saw him.
Piste conditions were great for four days then the rain came wednesday never went up as people who did only returned an hr later soaked and not very happy. Thursday did go to the top but conditions were still not great. So spent the day in the casino's around the resort and came away with a very tidy profit. When we were leaving friday sorry to say it was lashing it down with rain, I have faith the snow will come, someone of our party are retuning the 12th Feb. There are also a couple of new runs a red and green may be more.
For those that are travelling to Pamporovo try the chinese restaurant Red Sun good food and value for money.
In short space of nine months there are many new hotels and apartments being built just hope they don't spoil it by making it to big.

Ali,
Totally agree with you about safety but lack of communications and it taking four hours for our bags to be unloaded of the plane so we can continue our journey is taking the P***, we sat in the aiport listen to other passengers about there stories of Balkan it's really laughable.
Balkan seem to be the biggest tour travel agents in Bulgaria but have noticed more tour operators now:
Thomsom, Panarama, Inghams, Crystal and First choice all offering reasonable offers so in future we will not be booking with Balkan.
Happy New Year.

I Can't beleive what we all went through yesterday, my husband hit the nail on the head - we had a great holiday but none of that was down to Balkan Holdiays. The planes were ancient, the rep was invisible, the flight times changed hourly, the journey home was torture and BALKAN HOLIDAYS SHOULD BE ASHAMED!! We also travel a lot and have a friends waiting for a report of our holiday, we won't reccommend Balkan but will reccommed Borovets. Balkan have lost a lot of custom this past week and I hope they suffer for it. It won't ruin our memories of Xmas 2005!

Figured I would add to this, we used Balkan in 2004 to Pamps and had NO PROBLEM whatsoever with them. Only reason we have not used them since is becasue we now arrange the trip independantly. As has been said already, they cann't control the weather and would rather be a little over protective about safety - sounds like a good idea to me.

Generally the faults at the airport (luggage etc) lies not with the tour op (Balkan) but with the the co that run the airports. Still, you got home safe and had a great time, I guess you won't use Balkan again, but remember - it's not always like that, maybe you were just unlucky.

IMT