Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hi Sarah,

The first thing you have to accept is that skiing is not a cheap holiday

I don’t know whether your friend will be able to get you a cheap lift pass if he can it will be for a Bulgarian resident (cost 50 GBP) half price of a foreigners lift pass, but be aware every time you go through a lift gate it flashes up that it’s a Bulgarian lift pass and if you are caught it will be taken off you. Bulgarian lift passes are checked regularly (we have these as we are residents) and when we are stopped we have to also show our residents card.

If you buy a lift pass at the lift station it has your photo on it (you don’t need a photo, they take it there) and your name and all this information is shown on a computer screen at every lift. You would be much better off accepting you will have to pay 100 GBP.

Your other option is for the first day/or two just buy a gondola pass cost 16 leva, this allows you one trip in the gondola both up and down at this point on the mountain is the nursery slopes you do not need a full lift pass for the nursery slopes but you do for the green slope, but you can easily side step or walk up the green slope without using the drag lift, here you can learn to ski and then buy the full pass when you are ready to move onto the blue slopes.

Also if you don’t plan to ski before 12 noon you can buy a half day pass for 35 leva this gives full access to all lifts.

Ulen offer a full ski or board package with 6 day lift pass, four hours a day ski school; and all ski equipment for 584 leva (approx 200 GBP)

If you use the independent ski shops ski/boot and pole hire is 1 day 20 leva, 6 days 100 leva

And ski school/groups is 1 day 30 leva, 3 days 80 leva, 6 days 140 leva for 2 hrs a day

Individual lessons are 1 day 50 leva, 3 days 140 leva, 6 days 250 leva for 2 hrs a day

Right having accepted these costs your other costs will be food and drink.

You can eat in the local Mehena’s for about 10 – 15 leva including a couple of beers, beer costs about 1.50 leva, a glass of wine 3 leva, a bottle of wine 10 leva and a vodka 50 ml 1 leva.

If you go to the tourist bars or night clubs a beer will cost 3 leva and a vodka 5 leva

The restaurants up the mountain are 3 leva for a coffee and 3 leva for a beer, a bean soup with a slice of toast is 2.3 leva (highly recommended), chicken and chips 8 leva

There are plenty of small supermarkets in town where you can buy bread (0.5 leva)and milk (1.7 leva) meat, cheeses, veg, fruit but I would recommend you eat out and just buy in stuff for breakfast and a few beers/wine to have in the apartment.

You can probably have a good time on 50 - 65 leva a day (not including lift pass, ski hire, transfers etc) depending on how often you plan to go clubbing, about 130 – 170 GBP

Hope all this information helps, I would recommend at least one 2 hr ski lesson unless you have someone in your group who is good enough to teach you the basics

Hi Gorden,

The only time you do not have to register is if you are only staying one night, if it's any consolation, bulgarians on holiday also have to register!!!!

If you are staying at a hotel they will register you with the police, but as more apartments are built in bansko and individually owned, the people staying in them are going to need to register. Problem is no one in the police station speaks english!!!
You will need to know the address of where you are staying and take your passport, if you are in an apartment which has a porter go and see them they may register you as part of the service.
You need to register in order to get an exit visa which is taken off you at passport control
Hope that helps