Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hey!

Just been having a look round the site and decided this forum is probably the best place to get reliable advice and help!

As the title suggests I want to organise a surprise snowboarding holiday for me and my bf. I'm a complete snowboarding novice though (other than a few lessons on a dry ski slope about a decade ago!) so I'm looking for somewhere I can get lessons whilst my infinitely more able boy can go off on his own (and maybe have some refresher courses)

I'm so in the dark I don't even know what time of year the best conditions are...so...

1. What resort would you recommend given the above
2. When would you go
3. Rough budget for a week s/c (and all the hire stuff/lift passes etc - for me, bf has everything equipment wise)
4. Rough cost of living in Bulgaria?

hey pootle,

First i would deffo advise going to one of the Indoor real snow slopes and having a few lessons, no point wasting 2 days of your holiday on the baby slopes. (google xscape for info)

When looking for a resort you would want one with lots of beginner/intermediate slopes

For most resorts if your new to skiing/boarding i would go slightly later in the season so you get sunnier conditions, then when your well practiced go earlier when its colder to get lots of powder

budget is normally 90-170 pound per week for lift passes depending on where you go on top of the holiday cost.

Not sure about ski hire, always used my own but sure someone on here can help

Hi, if your bf is good then pamporovo may not be suitable, it's a lovely place but the ski area is not very big.
Bansko has a larger ski area, we went this year and had a great time, we only booked one lesson with a private instructor and boarded on our own the rest of the week. You can book your lessons and equipment and lift pass as a package, and just book a lift pass and "ski" carriage for your bf it's cheaper to book before you go.
If you have already had a few lessons I would recommend a private instructor, there are loads of schools around, we used method ski school in bansko (they have a website with prices) . We booked the lessons last year and did ok, but progressed more in 2 hours with a private instructor this year than the full week last year. Don't know about borovets, havn't been there, but the ski area is also supposed to be quite good.
Can't really comment on food prices as we ate in the hotel all the time, beer is around £1.50 but according to other posts the prices have gone up, so they may go up more by next year, but it's still cheaper than france & austria. Hope this is of some help, I'm sure you'll have a great time wherever you go.