Has anyone been?

Booking a ski trip again for about 15-20 people and thought I may try Bulgaria as it is becoming popular.

What airlines are best to use? Im looking at flying to Sofia as that is closest to the resorts I'm looking at.

Any travel tips?

I'm guessing its quite cheap out there, wherever I have been skiing before we end up paying at least £2.50 - £3 for a pint. What are the usual prices for beer and food? Obviously they will be inflated in the ski resorts.

Even better if anyone has been there on a winter sports holiday, any recommendations.

Thanks

My neighbour is in the process of buying a place in one of the ski resorts. He and a seperate group of friends went there last year and had a good time.

It is cheap, but, you do need to go to one of the main areas. Some of the other parts are OK but not busy enough yet, with very few runs.

HTH

Mark.

We fly there but you'd have to come to Malta first lol

I've been skiing there twice - Borovets in 2005 and Bansko in 2006. Can't fault the place at all, friendly people, incredibly cheap food and drink - best was 60p a pint for local beer, 50p for 35ml shot of local spirits, wine £2 a bottle, generally prices a bit more than this (especially on the slopes) but not a lot. Imported drinks are not very cheap but still much better than France and the like. Food was pretty good, both the buffet-style half-board meals at the hotel and the food at local restaurants.

Mountains are not that high compared to many other places so don't go late in season. First tripwas around easter and there was lots of slush and mud but second trip in January everything was perfect. We booked through Balkan Holidays online which came out to be a very reasonable price including the various online discounts etc.

[Edited on 3/8/06 by matt_claydon]

We just got a place in Bansko if your interested

My friend and her boyfriend are in the process of renovating a place in Bansko to use as accommodation for snowboarders and ski folk, they can't fault the place, well except for some red tape surrounding the setting up of businesses!
Unfortunately though, they are not ready to take bookings yet.

I went to Plovdiv in September 2004 for the World Savate (kickboxing) Championships.

I felt Sofia is a bit of a dump but Plovdiv which I gather is sort of the 2nd city and main ski resort was really nice.

Bulgaria was great. Cheap, great weather (in summer! ) and fantastic women to look at as far as the eye can see.

We were paying 11euros a night including dinner (with beer) and breakfast!


Cheers,
James

Went to bansko last year snowboarding! had a great time not too much to do at night! 1 lap dancing club!(bonus) few taverns! make sure ya take a good bunch of people with ya ! 4 hour transfer was a bit of a bind! overall though a good hol!

Friends just come bach from there. They had people making a porno movie infront of everyone! Not a problem but it was a family holiday and half the people were kids!!!!! Country is run by Mafia apparently so beware!! Unless you want to see porn being filmed!

Sh1t place, Sh1t lift systems, Sh1t skiing, but cheap.
OK for novices and lower intermediates.
All IMHO of course.

Been there twice on skiing holidays. First to Pamporovo and second to Borovets.

Was our first two skiing trips and I would expect it would not challange experienced skiiers much but we loved it.

People were great, instructers very friendly, fantastic snow, hardly any queues and really cheap compared to rip off Europe.

Borovets was best as it's only 1 hr or so from Sofia by Bus. Bankso 4 hrs and Pamporovo are 2 hours ish.

It's by no means up market but we have no complaints whatsoever after 2 trips. We did have perfect weather though but that is a risk wherever you go.

My Boss went to Whistler and we had better snow, better weather and payed less than 50% of what he did.

We went both times with Balkan Holidays.

Pamporovo


Pamporovo 2


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Borovets



Borovets 1


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