Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Just thought I would give my comments as I think the resort has a lot of bad press on the internet, in particular the hotel we stayed in, the perelik, and i think most of it very unfair.

Firstly the resort...
Unfortunatly we were plagued with warm temperatures, which was nobodys fault of course. This meant conditions were not great and lots of ice and rocks by the end of the week. Could not be helped. Despite this we had a good first skiing break and went from total beginners to skiing red runs in a few days thanks to a brilliant private instructer from interski. Would reccomend private lessons from them at 100lev for 4 hours for 2 people, it worked out at 5 pounds an hour each and we had 8 hours. much better than being a sheep in the ski school with groups of upto 14. plus no queing for skis in the morning, whereas they had huge ques due to tour operaters using them at the other ski school. I think it was a cheap place to learn, but not neccisarily that great as the nursery slope was very very crowded, and the only open green run was narrow with lots of bends, and no fences to stop you going over the edge. i found it a steep learning curve as its harder to control speed on thin runs. That said they were long and fantastic scenery, stunning.
If you are going to eat the bottom shops were cheaper than the shops at the top of the slopes. Nothing is particularly cheap in resort, with some places charging 15 lev for a burger, and 6 lev for a small bottle of coke. We spent 315 pounds for the week each and we were half board, to give a rough idea.

As for the resort where the hotels were, i really enjoyed it, with plenty to do including an outdoor ice rink, bowling in the perelik, plenty of bars with good music etc and live music. The reps (inghams etc) organised some fun pub crawl, quiz, bulgarian night and new years parties all of which were fun. One bar even had 2lev vodka cokes! Locals were friendly and reps couldnt do enough to help.

Hotel perelik didnt deserve its bad press. The rooms were smallish but everythnig you need for 2 people, apart from no double bed. Shower was very hot and powerful, plenty of storage space, balcony with amazing view. Food ~(half board) was lovely i thought and never cold. Always a choice of 4 or 5 meat dishes and potatoes, veg salad bread and soup aswell as cakes for desert and fruit. I guess if you were vegetarian it wouldnt be so good, but i dont think anywhere in bulgaria is, as they seem to love meat. Rooms were hot too, had to open balcony door a few times, so no complaints atall.

Overall i would rate the place 7/10 and it lost points due to there being not so many ski runs to try but perhaps that was just because they were not open when we were there and the snow was poor. had a fab holiday even with bad skiing and for all you worried you wont like it, dont!!! i would go back, just at a time where more snow is likely and not around the beginning or end of season!.

hope this helps