I visited this resort about 4 years ago, and it really has stuck in my mind as a quite amazing place, for all sorts of reasons.
I wouldnt say its a very high class resort - but this you can work out by the price! However for an affordable ski adventure, and definitely a great place to learn, I wouldnt hesitate to recommend it.
Right from landing at Sofia Airport, you know you are what can still be described as behind the Iron Curtain, and you immediately see "Russian" style airport guards, patrolling in Russian hats and machine guns!! The airport is very small and very basic, with no amenities, and the luggage carousel all made out of wood, creaks and grinds, but it functioned enough for there to be
organised chaos, as we were all ushered onto our various coaches for the journey to the resort. This is where the fun began, as our courier immediately started selling everyone Bulgarian champagne for about 50p a bottle!! What a way to start - completely off our heads before we even got there!
It didnt really stop after that. Everything is so cheap, you can't believe its true. Change up £10 or £20 and you have a fortune in Levs, and the world, quite literally, is your oyster! All the drink you can imagine for a pittance. It was great.
The main night life centres around the cluster of main hotels, as most have bars, and even "clubs" with dancefloors, but with the Bulgarian peculiar slant on club music, which can be anything from the Spice Girls, to Boney M!!
There are also small bars, shops, and stalls, dotted around.
We had ski lessons booked every day, but they were really early in the morning, and it was very difficult to drag ourselves onto the slopes, after each night of excess we put our bodies through. In fact I didnt make it on 2 occasions.
The skiing: Great place to learn, with some challenging slopes for those more advanced. The Borovets mountains were incredibly beautiful, with some nice mountain swisschalet style bars and restaurants high up in the mountains. The chair lifts I felt though were a bit rickety looking and quite hair raising.
The hotel was great and easily looked after our hired gear, overnight, and very conveniently located.
Mainly though - I loved the the Bulgarian people, who, if you get the chance to get to know them, are INCREDIBLY friendly, everywhere you go. The ski instructors are so nice, and they really do seem to like us Brits. I have been to a number of countries now, and no-one has beaten them for their willingness to have fun and have a laugh, and the general kindness and patience they showed.
Another incident I must talk about: At the end of the week, I went out on my own, but I got completely stuck on one very difficult slope where I unfortunately lost my bottle, but I was "rescued" by a snow plough driver, who couldnt really speak much English, but we somehow we got on, and I found out he not only knew my instructor, but also the hotel manager, and the local taxi driver. It's a small world there! Anyway, I quickly found myself, together with my friends, on the end of an invitation to dinner with them all , and his wife in their local villagerestaurant which the taxi driver took us to! Can you imagine that happening anywhere else in the world? The food in that village restaurant was excellent - but - one word of warning - the food in the hotels really left a lot to be desired. HORRIBLE is the mildest word I can use. But - for a week's holiday, you can survive it. I wouldn't have liked to have gone there for 2 weeks though.
Also, beware of the hamburgers being sold around the resort by little stalls, and which the stall holders like to shout out as being Big Macs (which they pronounce "Big Mucs".) I think this is how they "recycled" the local donkeys which you see everywhere around the resort, once they were past their usefulness. ie these burgers were very gristly and not any kind of meat I could recognise! The other thing to look out for and maybe avoid are all the hookey stalls selling counterfeit everything (CDs tapes, clothes), and also people coming up to you asking you to change pounds or dollars with them for a "gud rate". Change money in the hotel. Its safer.
So - go to have fun, get drunk, have a laugh, dance to some really bad music, spend spend spend without really spending anything oh and maybe learn to ski a bit, but dont go for sophistication, the food or a jet set lifestyle.
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Cheers Deck. You've described Borovetz exactly as I remember it, right down to the donkey burgers! I went twice in the early 90's because it was so cheap and I was with a big bunch of mates but wouldn't go again. Good op. Chris.
Mercury 01.03.2001 16:03
I vaguely remember going to Borovets about 8 years ago... seem to remember some fairly potent Astika beer... fantastic Russian dancers in the Samakov Hotel... skiing wasn't that good but a fun holiday nonetheless... good opinion. SB.
KarenUK 19.02.2001 14:01
Really good opinion, that one, enjoyed reading it & I liked the humour too :-)
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Advantages: brilliant skiing, alpine village prettiness,great English speaking ski school, Close to Italy and other resorts. Disadvantages: Not to great for veggies and nightlife fairly low key.
Fiona_Tims 15.12.2000 ·
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