Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Just got back from Pamps today, a day later than planned!
We booked around April time through Balkan Holidays, Our flight was to leave Gatwick around lunch time so thought we'd get to the hotel around 8pm, we were notified so time in advance that our flight had now changed to 18.15, We had already booked Friday flights from Aberdeen & a hotel as we couldn't get there in time if we were flying lunch time. It was too late to change our flights to the Saturday, we could have at £176 each. So we thought doesn't matter we'll have no rush to get there on the Saturday. After being at Gatwick for 4hrs it's on the departures board that we are delayed till 8pm, Better get another pint in then. Ended up flying at 9pm. Landing is a bit hazy due to not being able to remember getting there after drinking so much. Think it took an age to get onto the bus, when we did the bus was like an oven, it was torture for the 12 of our group going to that hotel. We arrived at our hotel Evridika at 6am. Oh we also had to change bus at another hotel because ours couldn't get up the hill! We were told that our rep would meet us at hotel at 8.45am. So after 2hrs sleep were up to meet the rep, The hotel was like an oven anyway but we had our ski gear on. Rep never appeared & there was a man looking for 6 people from 2 rooms. He couldn't speak a word of English. After being in the oven room for an hour it turned out the man was looking for 2 groups of 6 which was the 12 of us! Finally were on our way to the slopes, got the passes & ski hire sorted out then were up the lift. Like what we see, the views from the chairlift are impressive, Enjoyable days skiing but conditions were patchy. Was extremely quiet with very small queue's. Back to hotel & since I couldn't remember our arrival it was my first look. Rooms were basic but clean, TV didn't work & shower head wasn't on the pole because there was no pole. The shower head was just hanging over the taps. My mate sat on his bed & it collapsed, were 2 blokes so it was quite funny how bad it was, Not too funny if your a family staying there. Got ready to go out for Hogmanay, as we left we pulled the door shut & our door handle fell off.

Went to Apres Ski for the Balkan Holidays New Year Party, I have to admit it has to be one of the best Hogmanay nights I've ever had. The band were brilliant, the drink helped too & with 16 in our group it was a great laugh. Went skiing on New Year's Day feeling amazingly good for 5hrs sleep in 2 days & enough drink for a month, Skiing was poor down the runs, very patchy and icy. Gave it a miss on Tuesday due to the warmer weather. Checked the internet & seen there was going to be 1 or 2cm of snow so thought that will help a little, woke on the Wednesday to see so much snow made me like a kid at xmas. Amazingly no hangover, conditions were good on the runs but everyone had flocked to Pamporovo, the queues were very long. Thought we'd get up for the first chair on Thursday to beat the rush & get a clear run down, arrived at 8.30am. No hangover again-brilliant, already plenty people there. The chair didn't start until 9.50am We had stood for over an hour waiting, after finally getting up we got a great run down with maybe only 50 people before us. As the day went on the queue's were lengthy, over an hour at the bottom chair the 2nd time we got there, over 2hrs queuing for 2 runs down. Not great, also with so many ski schools & the runs being tight it's not great near the bottom with so many skiers.

We ate out most nights and found the White Hart pub to be the best for food. We decided to stay at the hotel one night & the food was disgusting & cold & very little choice, not even chips!

The night life was brilliant, most of us had a great time there & we a bit sad to be leaving that & the skiing.

Saturday 6th we were picked up by our bus for the journey to Plovdiv, wasn't too bad a journey but then we arrived at Plovdiv, had to stand outside because it was so busy then we hear someone say flight to Gatwick is delayed from 16.15 to 18.00. A bit of a nightmare when we had a flight to catch at 19.40 from the North Terminal. Our original return time was early morning but this had changed with our departure time leaving us very little time for any delays. Plovdiv is a hell hole & just can't cope with the amount of passengers travelling through. We thought we'd have 40mins to get off & rush to the next flight but by the time the bags started to arrive our plane had been gone 10mins. Since it was the last flight of the day we had to book again for this morning & a hotel for a cost of around £270.

So if your still reading which some might not since i've went on a bit my thoughts are

Night Life & Enjoyment with group I was with - 9
Hotel - 4
Transfers - 2
Holiday Rep - 0 Never seen him
Skiing - 7
Plovdiv - 1
Aircraft - 3
Organisation by Balkan - 0
Delays - 0

All in all it was great fun & very cheap except the extra flight.

God, this mahem is still happenning 12 months on since I last travelled with Balkan Holidays. Our Plovdiv, transfer filght package was hell on earth too. I rally complained when we got back to the UK but with no response. We are heading back in 3 weeks with Inghams and only pray that this will be better, oh and we've learn't our lesson alright and booked to fly to Sofia which, apparently, is a real Airport and not a 2nd World War Military Airbase pretending to be an international airport! Glad your holdiay in the snow was good. We can't wait to get back there.

Bruce, Good report....

We were in the Evridika at the same time and thought it was okay. Clean and tidy and too warm as always. We are used to the glum hotel staff after 5 holidays in Bulgaria. I thought the food was average hotel fare for Bulgaria, the usual luke-warm chips and grilled meat or sausages.

Overall we had a good week, especialy after the snowfall on Wed, but there were a couple of really bad points

Nighmare transfer from and return to Sofia. Return Flights delayed by 4 hrs. The main three man lift broke down on Friday resulting in queues of over 1.5 hours. (We were told it will take most of next week to fix.)

But the worst thing... the beginners ski school were in groups of 20 to 22 people. The instructor tried her best to teach 21 students in my childrens group but it was all too much. They each had to wait 20 mins at a time to attempt each exercise and she kept losing people as they crashed.

I complained to a Pamporovo ski school chief instructor and he shrugged and assured me that it was always the same there.
I don't know if it was a overbooking thing over the New Year Week or it it always happens. It wasn't like that at Borovets or Bansko