Skiing in Borovets, worried by forum reviews, should I cancel and go to Alpes

Not sure, but if they are going they are probably feeling quite depressed by now.

Sorry Spice!

I'm quite interested now to find out if spice went to Borovets or not. Where are you spice tell us where you went and what you thought of it!!! :lol:

Hi Queen of the snow plough.
Just got back from Borovets. Just read in your earlier post that all your instructor said was 'follow me'. I had a similar experiance at ski school. Just curious but who was your instructor ?
Cheers.
Peter

Queen of the Snowplough wrote:Been to Borovets twice and would not really go again. It has a sort of charm, but a lot going against it.

Where do I start!
. No Snow
. Bad runs
. Not many lifts and really slow
. Not many slopes and always crowded
. Locals always trying to get money out of you
. My son got his drinks spiked and it was really scary
. Lots of people with broken bones and set in wierd positions! - Don't go to the hospitals.
.Terrible ski hire
. Prices going up all the time
. Very basic
. Can't go out at night without locals trying to drag you in their bars - very tiring!
. Food awful
.Toilets on slopes - Can't even describe how terrible they are and have to pay.
Could think of a lot more, but it might depress you. You will either love or hate it! But if you have been anywhere else it will prob be the latter...Sorry

That doesnt sound massively dissimilar from what was said about going there earlier this season on this forum by a number of people.

Tony_H wrote:

Queen of the Snowplough wrote:Been to Borovets twice and would not really go again. It has a sort of charm, but a lot going against it.

Where do I start!
. No Snow
. Bad runs
. Not many lifts and really slow
. Not many slopes and always crowded
. Locals always trying to get money out of you
. My son got his drinks spiked and it was really scary
. Lots of people with broken bones and set in wierd positions! - Don't go to the hospitals.
.Terrible ski hire
. Prices going up all the time
. Very basic
. Can't go out at night without locals trying to drag you in their bars - very tiring!
. Food awful
.Toilets on slopes - Can't even describe how terrible they are and have to pay.
Could think of a lot more, but it might depress you. You will either love or hate it! But if you have been anywhere else it will prob be the latter...Sorry

That doesnt sound massively dissimilar from what was said about going there earlier this season on this forum by a number of people.

The best way to sort this problem out is Don't go :evil:

We went to Borovets, 6 years ago, because it was the cheapest holiday on offer at the time, by a long way.

My elder daughter had been ski-ing with the school for the 2 previous years, and it had cost about £800 just for her (because they went to Geilo in Norway and Stowe in the U.S.A.), and she was feeling guilty about spending so much of our limited resources, and said she wouldn't go. I felt bad about that, and tried to find a ski holiday that she and I and my younger daughter (9 at the time) could all go on for the same money.

Amazingly, I found one to Borovets for a total price of £820, including half board for the 3 of us, flights, ski passes, ski hire, and lessons for the children.

Which is why we went to Borovets. If it hadn't been so cheap we wouldn't have gone ski-ing at all. Unfortunately, as I said elsewhere, I ended up not ski-ing because I broke my shoulder before I got there, but the other 2 skied. And it got me interested in ski-ing again (after 30 years), so that next year I did ski, but at a much better resort (Zell am See in Austria).

I was expecting Borovets to be bad before I went, so I was O.K with it. I told the kids it would be like visiting what was virtually a Third World country, still suffering the effects of years of Communism. I thought it would be educational for all of us.

If you see it like that, then it's O.K. The blankets had holes in them, yes there were beggars in the streets in the evening, some of the lifts were ancient and very slow, there was no free ski bus, the hotel food was very basic - cheese and potatoes mainly, the pavements were really dangerous and icy, and on the way there we drove past some of the poorer Bulgarian houses - fairly awful but nothing like as bad as the shanty towns I'd seen in Zambia.

I do think you have to feel sorry for the ordinary Bulgarian people. They have had a fairly rough time - first the Ottomans, then the Communists, and now apparently the Mafia. And they're bound to feel jealous and resentful of wealthy Europeans, so it's not surprising really that some of them try to cheat you on your change (one of them tried this on my 9 year old at lunchtime, but she was too smart to be caught like that).

The forest and the mountains are really beautiful, far more beautiful than Val Thorens which has no trees. And when we were there the lift attendants were really kind and helpful, especially with the younger kids helping them on and off the lifts. One of my kids had a good teacher, and one had a bad one, but that could have happened anywhere.

My husband's niece went to Bulgaria with family and friends in January. It seems to have become more expensive now. It cost her over £500 for flights, half-board, lift pass, and beginners lessons and skis. But she had a great time. She really enjoyed it and she wants to go ski-ing with us next year (but we're not going to Borovets, we've moved more upmarket now and we're going to Courchevel).

So, Borovets seems to be a good place to get introduced to ski-ing. If you don't like it you can spend the week in one of the many bars, and it won't cost you the earth. But you have to be prepared. Don't go thinking it will be like Courchevel.

Ally

I think its unreasonable to compare one end of the market to the other like that. My honest opinion is that you can get cheap package holidays to Austria for roughly the same price as Bulgaria and have much better standards of everything.

I hear Bulgarian potatoes are far superior to Austrian ones.

(May not be true)