Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Concidering it is the best snow conditions in Pamporovo for over 20 years and the prices remain low, European ski championships, more activities, bars, restaurants, better service, lower taxi prices, flights into Plovdiv, good exchange rates etc Pamporovo is the quietest season i have seen, there are half the tourists in the resort, the resort is so quiet. I guess no lining up for the lifts! I can't believe people are not seeking out last minute bargains to enjoy the powder. I had a great night out, ate a nice lamb roast with friends, it was a lovely evening at Marconi. Dori is quite a good cook

Hi all, this season is really the very best ski season i have ever seen, the numbers of tourists are down but there are many advantages, one is that the number of people in ski school have much smaller groups. There are many great places to eat, may restuarants in and outside of the resort are offering free return transfers and live entertainment. There are also many last minute bargain ski holidays to Pamps, or why not build your own package, get flight with Ryan air to Plovdiv from 70GBP return, arrange airport transfer from 40 Euro accomadation from 350 euro for upto 4 people and 6 day lift pass aprox 125Euro thats about 300GBP per person for 1 weeks ski hol

Amanda you are wrong again:
"the numbers of tourists are down" maybe the number of guests in your hotel but NOT in Pamporovo and Chepelare. Pamporovo and Chepelare were both almost fully booked the whole season
6 day lift pass aprox 125Euro - according to the official Pamporovo web site : http://winter.pamporovoresort.com/special-offer/marchdiscounts/marchskiservices/ the 6 days lift pass is 111 Euros ( of course cheaper with tour operators BUT not with you)
I can go on and on ....

Hi,

I am sorry i may not have worded my last post as intended, i was refering to the bars and restuarants being quiet with tourists this year. I think that you will find that hotels in Pamps are far from full for the whole season but there have been 3 weeks when hotel were full. My hotel is new therefore expected to be quieter than well established hotels, my hotel is not actually in the resort, it is in Smolyan lakes area, therefore not as well located for the bars and restaurants in resort. Also i was giving an average to the price of ski lift passes, you can only get the lift price that you quote out of resort, my post was clear when it stated aprox! There are many forum members that have been to Pamps this year and they will confirm that the resort is quiter than previous years. I was having dinner with friends from this forum last night and said the same thing, the bars are quieter than they have seen them for 15 years. P.P is in resort and i am sure will say the very same thing!!!!!!!! S.W was in resort recently and will have also noticed that the resort was quieter than previous years and she was here half term. FULLY BOOKED means no availability, all major hotel in resort had availability with exception of 10 days so far this year!!!!! you only have to view one of the live webcams to see just how quiet the resort is!!!

Official:
The numbers are down for this winter according the figures for Dec Jan and Feb.
Around 10 percent down .
Massive lost on the Russian and Romanian tourists (60 and 80 percents down) a little conpensated by the record snows.
But very few skiers on the slopes means no queues and the good snow means one off year (don't forget that this season is a 70 years record best so if you don't go now you will not have second chance in your life time.
That's why I had made it happen this season and gone to BG for short trips twice with another one coming soon to witness this record first hand.
Enjoy it whatever is left of it.

Certainly numbers were not down in Snezhanka for the whole of this season. Are your stats on BG as a whole Mr M? or specifically Pamporovo? Our bookings are up by a considerable amount and it has been the best season for us for years. I can't comment on whether there were less Russians and more UK and Irish - it did appear to be that way but then I suppose that is to be expected during the UK half term.

The resort itself was very busy when I was there - it was half term, and there were some queue's particularly when the ski schools were trying to get up the mountain. What I did comment on (to Amanda) was how quiet the resort seemed during the evenings. Many of the restaurants and bars were empty. It was almost like there was a huge party going on somewhere to which we hadn't been invited (perhaps that WAS the case ) Or was it because some of the focal points of the resort had gone. No White Hart, No Ice Skating rink (anyone know why the skating rink had not opened this season??)

Perhaps more people were on half board packages and so were tending to remain in their hotels rather than venture out? who knows? Either way, we never had any problems getting the table we wanted in any restaurant and never needed to book. I'm not complaining either - it made the holiday much more pleasurable knowing we didn't have to push through crowds to get served etc.

I really think that this season will really help the bookings for next ski season, hotels in and around Pamps already have good bookings for next ski season which is great. Next ski season will be much busier and if i do my snow dance early again we may just have the same levels of snow (well not the 1 metre over night) Many people are choising DIY hols now to Pamps as apposed to tour operators which helps the local businesses etcBut the snow is great right now with more to come so there is plenty of time to bag a bargain yet