Bulgaria Ski discussion board

The section between Dupnitsa and Blagoevgrad is under construction, work starting in January due to the mild winter. Progress is rapid, the intended completion should see that section ready by next spring, 31km of dual carriageway.. there have been some issues, 10 sites of interest have been unearthed, Thracian by all accounts, and investigation is underway, if it does lead to hold ups the contractors have said that they will move the carriageway. If we are to consider the last section and the time saving, i expect this new section could again take off 20mins, giving us a transfer of just over 2 hours... The final pieces will take a little longer, the section from Blagoevgrad to Kulata is under review due to rising costings, estimated to be in the region of 200 million Euro, a planned 17km tunnel to pass under Kresna is going back to the drawing board.. the other piece, perhaps the most exciting, is the planned connection of the A3 Euro highway to the A2 Sofia-Bourgas highway.. this plan has been accepted and funding made available, the route of which will almost follow the old E75 Varna road above Sofia airport.. this when complete will take away the need to enter Sofia at all, a 17km addition to the journey, but all carriageway... this when in hand with the completed A3 to Greece will see the magical one and a half hour transfer at legal speeds, the A3 having a limit of 140kph....
Timescales are sketchy, but i would predict around two years...
Appreciate that access to skiing via Geneva within one and a half hours limits you perhaps to the Portes du Soleil, the Chamonix valley and the Grenoble region.. not areas to be sniffed at i accept, but other resorts are a far longer journey.. conceivably Bansko could start to be considered for long weekends in the future... just need the flight prices to be more reasonable Anyway, hope this helps

Hi Steve, good report on the road improvements from Sofia to Bansko.
A while ago there was a proposal for a new highway from Sofia to Samokov. It was supposed to go from the Sofia ring road via Bistritsa to Belchin and then to Samokov. If this road is ever built the journey into Sofia from Samokov would be about half an hour making Samokov very commutable for working in Sofia and a very quick journey to Borovets.
At the time there were reports of bank funding being in place, it is probably a pipe dream but have you heard anything?

Thanks Steve thats a great update.

I'd say currently Door to Door (Reading UK to Bansko) we leave the house at 4.30am getting to Heathrow T5 for 5.15am (flight 8.30am) - flight is 3hrs 15 mins out so 11.45am UK time, collecting bags etc 45mins so 12.30 then currently its roughly 2hrs30mins so arriving in Bansko at 3pm UK time.

So give or take 10.5hrs which could decrease to 9.5hrs once all the additional roads are complete. (We could possibly take off 2 hours at the start but that would really be pushing it)

Update to this post, the section of A3, Dupnitsa - Blagoevgrad though progressing well has been reported as now likely to be delayed in opening till the end of the summer, various reasons, but still hopefully available for winter 2015/6.... The section mentioned in Sofia is also progressing well and is on target for completion hopefully coinciding with the A3 section completion
Other than the renovation of the Bistritsa road, i have heard nothing Gerry ? It is a good road now anyway, the issue in the winter though is the snow going over from Bistritsa to Belchin, if they could sort the cleaning it could be good, but my last experience was, lets just say, short of that ;-) Fingers crossed it could happen, and then jobs a good'un

15mins might not seem that much but it's 10% quicker than before plus safer plus more relaxing. Plus less wear and tear on vehicles and better mpg due to less stop start.

This is on top of the fact the road in Sofia on our return trip had just opened again speeding it up a little.


Does this now go all the way to the Bansko junction? If so the only decrease from now on is
1. The north circular - years to decade away
2. Slight improvements in the current Sofia road / the road into Sofia from the E75. 2 lanes down to one could be made 2 lanes all the way to Sofia entry.

I didn't expect them to actually finish it in time so well done to them.