In this review I will tell you about my ski holiday in 2009 with Balkan Holidays London
Balkan holidays was originally formed in 1966 by the state of Bulgaria and was privatized in 1999
The company do Scheduled flights to Bourgas, Sofia, Varna, Dubrovnik, Split, Pula, Rijeka, Tivat, Ljubljana, Bucharest from various airports around the UK, they also do charter flights under the name of BH.
They also sell summer and winter holidays to Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, although I note Montenegro has been dropped from their winter destinations for 09/10.
Holidays sold direct as well as through various travel agents,
They also sell golf holidays, mini breaks and things like car hire, travel insurance
Balkan are members of ABTA, ATOL and IATA
I first came across the company in 2007 and was going to book a holiday in mid January. The web site was reasonably good, prices were OK and when I enquired the response was swift and polite
Ended up in Poland instead.
It was the following year I booked in October 2008 a week in the ski resort of Pamporovo, in Feb 2009. The deposit was low £50 and the balance became due early December. There was a credit card supplement of 2% or something around that mark
The total bill was under £700 for two rooms for a week in a 4 star hotel half board, including ski carriage, ski passes, taxes, transfers and single supplements
Checking was easy, pleasant and fast, my bags were taken on the desk the skis and equipment was checked in separately at a different window
The flight was OK, the crew pleasant enough, food was a barn with cheese or ham and tiny cup of coffee. The plane was obviously old, an Airbus 320 apparently most of their fleet consists of second hand planes bought from Air Canada, so I understand
A small can of Coke coast £1.40 though on the plane!
I had the unpleasant surprise once we landed, the skis did not arriving with the plane. The rep at the airport was very good, he took charge, quickly established that the skis were stil in Manchester, help me fll out the paperwork. His English was good, he promised me that the skis that also contained my ski clothes and stuff would arrive next day
The transfer time was over 4 hours, the coach was new and comfortable although crowded and operated by a transfer company, the only member of staff on the coach was the driver whose English was poor.
We stopped for a break at a petrol station which served sandwiches about 2 hours into the journey, what was required was a place that served meals, or at minimum McDonals or something similar
We got to the hotel at 1am, in the room waiting for you was a bag of sandwiches which I guess is a nice touch, there was also water, fruit and a wafer in the bag. Restaurant was closed
The hotel was new, rooms large, comfortable, tidy, warm. I can not fault the hotel or staff apart for food, it was average and for a four star hotel poor. A lot of the staff struggled with English
The holiday rep in the hotel was next to useless. He was available for a short period in the morning at the ski resort and in the evening at the hotel for a short period. He did not once come to seek me out to sort out the missing ski things, or to advice on buying or renting replacement.
When I saw him he just told me the skis will be here tomorrow, it was five days before the skis arrived
I was advised to claim insurance rather then to Balkan, so I wrote a letter to Balkan and claimed insurance. Insurance refused to pay so I asked Balkan for some compensation. Balkan have denied receiving any letters and are hiding behind their rules
I feel soooo disappointed in this company as i would happily travel with them again had they been more responsible for their actions which ruined a holiday
To Ciao
Please provide a NA option on your options. I mean how do I know how well it caters for children or how does it cater for disabled!
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Aug 27th, 2009
(Aug 28th, 2009)
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