Borovets ski resort
Bulgaria has some excellent under-developed ski and snowboard resorts and Borovets is a fun if a little small resort. The slopes are well looked after, wide and safe. They are well bashed at night and during February, the snow falls almost every night, whilst in the day, the sun shines. The lifts are a little antiquated, but most slopes can be accessed without a button or drag life. The night life is very cheesy – and a little Anglified. Every evening you will find touts shouting at you to get people into their bar which invariably has cheap booze (plus point) and Karaoke (minus point) with benidorm-type English tourists gallore. Be very wary of the rip-off money exchangers who offer fake rates on their boards.
Borovets travel tips
Airport transfers from Sofia to Borovets are a bit of a pain if you try to use public transport. You’ll first have to get into Sofia (Either by taxi or bus), then a coach to the nearest town of Samokov. This is cheap (around 10 Lev) but takes a fair while – about 1 hour. Once in Samokov, you have to take a small minibus (about 3 Lev) to the resort itself, where you will be dropped just near the main strip. A much better way is to pre-book a taxi to pick you up from the airport. I used Motoroads airport transfers service. It’s about $35 but you get a good service, dropped to your hotel door and if you travel in a group of 3 or more it actually works out cheaper than public transport.
Borovets ski accommodation
We stayed in a lovely hotel in Borovets called the Villapark Residence. It an’t be more than 5 years old, and has well kept warm rooms, a swimming pool and sauna. There is also a bar showing sports. The Villapark is a little walk from the main strip of bars, but not more than 10 minutes from the lifts. There are many big hotels off the main strip, however the closer to the lifts, generally the more expensive the hotels were. The Villapark residence in borovets was 360EUR for 6 nights for 2 people sharing in 2010.
Borovets lift pass and ski hire
There are plenty of places to hire skis or snowboards in Borovets – and most of the guys can be haggled. We got our skis for 60Eur for the week and they were good enough for me as an intermediate. Snowboards were good too, with the guys happy to change or wax them. We hired ours from the small hut to the left of the yasterbetz lifts, and could leave them there after which was handy for keeping the walking to a minimum. We bought our borovets ski pass from Ski holiday extras. They were 132EUR each for a six day all lift pass (called the Balkan Tourist) which is very cheap compared to French Ski resports and cheaper than buying the lift pass in the resort – about 150EUR for a week (2010 prices).