Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hi there everyone bound for pamps. ive just returned so ill tell you all.
Firstly it was one of the best holidays ivce ever had. But i will give you what i think was the down side first.
the only problem i had was with the ski bus. It seams the Bulgarian word for que, translates to scrum down in english. the crush was stupid and i often found myself, a 14 stone 6 footer, walking away and getting a taxi. after day 2 the civilised amoungst us had it down. Get the bus before 9:15 down to the sloaps, and dont come back till after 4. Get a shower straight away though becausde the hot water is always gone by 5.
other than that i can only find one fault with the holiday, that being that British yobs had been there before and given the usual impression of single british men, imediatly making the locals somewhat weary of the rest of us. No suprises, infact ive never been to a country where that isnt the case. Its about time the Brits abroad cleaned up there act.
Anyway as for the rest of the holiday, over a meter of snow and glorious sunshine most of the week, although one day it was -27 at the top station. I would recomend getting a face mask, which i bought in the maugavets, to perilik shopping complex, for 18 leva. About £6 and well worth it.
The ski equipment wasnt entirly new, but most was in very good condition, only really ski poles that were poor. The 3 chair lift broke down for about an hour one morning, due to ice. The rest of the time everything ran well. The slopes were great, as was the ski instruction, and the locals in general, were freindly, and nice.
The sling shot, (Bungie in reverse foir the unititiated), at the mid station is well worth ago, had to talk a couple of mates into it, but neither has a confidence problem on the slopes anymore.
I was the only one able to ski, although it had been 16 years when we left, but the whole of our group was able to keep up reasonable down the mountain from top to bottom without too many misshaps. 3 of us did race iot one evening, only on the green slopes, but we made it all down in around 25 minutes. Anyone who has Mima for a ski instuctor, tell her Daytun says Hi, and be assured your in very good hands. she is both very modest, but if you push youll find a very accomplished skiier as are her entire family.
The hotel was very comfortable, but i did hgave a twin room to myself. The food was excellent other than being a little cold for my taste, but far far better than alot of people have said on here. I can however only speak for the perilik, but the food and service were superb. I can only think that the complainers, are too used to junk food, and dont like fresh meet and vegetables. there was a varied choice every day for all, both at breakfast and dinner, which were both 3 course's, bufet style.
Watch out for some of the lifts as they have no internal doors, and seam to take forever to arrive on floors other than the bottom.
Alot has been said about money as well, well take it from me you can get lev's in the UK, you can take the money into BG, and they will change anything in the resort, or in the airport. One tip though is to head for BJ's in the Perilik foyer, and ask for the barman KOKO, as he gives a better exchange rate then everywhere else. He will also change anything.
APRES SKI,
Not bad, there is more variety in most resorts its true, but never the less there is still plenty too keep busy with. The fashion Cafe, (UP the stairs to the left of the Perilik restaurant and bj's entrance) offers Pool tables at 15 leva per hour, Bowling is offered in many places. We took a ski doo safari which cost £20, but was worth alot more as far as im concerned. Unbeleivable fun, managed to get it airborn, at about 80k's and just the one power slide, but for my first go i was impressed. If you take the safari from the maugavets hotel then try and get a black ski-doo, the yellow ones are for deep snow and handle not so well on the roads, i had a yellow one. THE BLACK ARE FASTER TOO, BUT ALL THE SAME THEY ARE ALL BLOODY GOOD FUN.
Finaly there are trips, activities, although i wouldnt do the bar crawl, i was bored. only visited 4 bars, all odf which id found the night before, and they were a bit too, well either old or young not sure. The music definantly wasnt my seen, i got fed of of YMCA when i was 12, and although the site here lists, the clubs as dance clubs, they dont play Dance music. im a serious die hard dance fan, and only found one playce that came close, but still fell short of the grade. the Pepsi bar, which stocks 40 different vodka's alone and is worth a vist. again its situated between the maugavets and Perilik. again here is the white hart which is branded as an English bar. Rowdy and had football on the telly were enough to keep me away, without the fact that it claims to be english sells, irish beer, which dosnt travell well, and is in BG. Nit my kind of place when im at home, and certainly not oaboad. I AM BIASED IN THAT FOOTY BORES THE LIVING DAYULIGHTS OUT OF ME. Oh and the toilets in the clubs, if they have them are rather inadiquate, there are just not enough of them.
It is very much a resort and is set up too atract people, i dont think that its very representative of BG in general, which i would love to have seen more of.
The taxi's are definantly fun, most wouldnt be alowed on the road here, but they go and they get you there, and the drivers are cheerfull people, one who drives a very old lada, is a real comedien.
Finaly once you leave on the ski bus for the slopes, you dont come back, so take money for meals at lunch time. The ski instructors tend to take each group to a different mountain cafe every day. the average cost for a full hot meal is 10-12 lev's. for which you get quite alot. I wasnt impressed with the Husky hut at the bottom station by the tripple chair lift, but the rest were very good. There is a good cafe up the TV tower at the top, but the lift up costs 5 leva, but i think its worth it for the veiw alone.
I have to say to all those who now want some closure to this, you can take france, ive been, spain ive been, italy ive been austria, cos guess what ive skiied ther too and even andora, you can keep, cos from now on BG is going to take some beating. GREAT slopes, EXCELLENT service, FREINDLY people, Nice food and hotels, and a wonderfully high concentration of beautifull local women, coupled with OUSTANDING sceanery, Spectacular veiws from my balcony and from the mountain, WOW what a wonderfull place. Im jelious, of all lucky enough to live there, (apart from the never seam to stop working) and all you lucky people on your way out now. Warning though it will be extreamly busy come half term, crowded slopes and lifts may spoil it abit.
Im trying romania next year simply as it will be another country i havent visited, but i have a fealing when my kids are old enough to learn to ski, BG is the place they will be doing it, and probably pamporovo at that.
My final statement is simple, if you enjoy the holiday like i did it will be about a week before you catch up on the sleep you will have missed, and if anyone has any questions feal frre to ask, ill do my best to answer them.
email is [email protected].

Great great great report. nice comment about taking food with you for lunch on the mountain and excellent point about footy being on in the bars... when I went to Corfu last September with some mates I couldnt believe how many english louts there were and football was blearing from every bar on the street...certainly enough to make me stay well clear.

Good to hear you enjoyed the Perelik! We're staying there in just under 7 weeks and have a twin room with a balcony. I hope our view is just as great as yours!

p.s. I will be searching for the black ski-doo