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  1.5 of 5, "Don't do it people!!!!" 17/03/2008 @ 00:12:40 |
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| 1 member has given this review a rating of 4 of 5 |
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| Revision #1 (Last edited: 17/03/2008 @ 00:16:53) |
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| Price Paid |
| Free (thank God!!) |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Dunno, it was a free do paid by my company |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
This is the first and probably will be the only time I'll ever visit Borovets, all I can say is thank God I didn't pay for this trip as it was a free works do. (yes, even though it's free, my final rating is still justified.)
Ok where do I start?? first off, I wouldn't really class this as a snow resort, it just doesn't have that feel to it, to me it's as if they've thought "we've a mountain with some snow, let's plonk a hotel here and there with a few shops and a few bars/strip joints for good measure." the general infrastructure of the place needs serious investment, there were far too many run down and abandoned buildings, and it's not the best looking resort I've seen, it is quite dirty and I've never seen so much brown snow in a resort before!! (that's brown cause of the mud and all, not because of people crapping everywhere! :p) there are about the same number of bars as there is restaurants and strip joints, you'll have loads of guys asking you to go into their shop, strip joint and bars, plus a few beggers asking for change/money. I also wouldn't recommend walking back to your hotel in the middle of the night on your own if you're staying out of the resort centre, it's quite spooky, I liken it to a scene from the movie Saw!! stay in your group and get a taxi, it's cheap and it's safer.
we stayed in Hotel Lion, a 4 star hotel that's about a 20 min walk from the resort centre (there was a regular hotel mini bus that took everyone to and from the hotel which was free, runs till the lifts shuts). hotel was good I guess, nice sized rooms, access to pool and sauna facilities, breakfast was very basic although the sausages looked proper dogde (you really couldn't tell what meat it was on some days!!)
In terms of the snow, it really wasn't good but to be fair, it is march. borovets is split into 2 mountains (lets call it lower and upper). the lower part needed some serious snow!! on my visit there was only 2 runs with snow on it (one of which was closed off for a junior ski competition), the others had grass, mud, rocks and all. the upper part was ok and has plenty of potential but the gondola lift is regularly shut. I only stayed in borovets for 2 full boarding days, the 1st day the gondola was shut due to high winds so everyone in the resort just piled down this one run. you couldn't turn without bumping into someone and the run was real icy too. it really wasn't fun. after a couple of goes I just sacked it off. 2nd day was better only because this time I managed to get up to the upper part of the mountain. didn't get up there till around 11am though as it was again shut due to high winds. once there, you can see that if it proper hammers it down with snow, it would be quite fun. the runs are wide, plenty of off piste potential, but unfortuantely for me, I had to make do with the snow they had. the upper mountain uses drags lifts to get you back up the top, as an experienced boarder I don't mind drag lifts but these ones are real hard work!! on one lift by the time I got to the top I was absolutely knackered!! even the skiers complained about how hard it was for them and I saw loads of skiers stacking it on the drags, so you can imagine for an inexperienced boarder what it would be like! on the plus side, the off piste had lots of kickers around so even though there's no park in sight, you can still do a few jumps and get some solid air.
for a strong intermediate/good boarder, at most it will keep you occupied for 2 days and that's being generous, and only if one of the days you get pow. if you really wanna visit borovets, I recommend no more than half a week.........but seriously, go somewhere else for a full week, you'll have a better time. |
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| Strengths |
| transfer is only a little over an hour |
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| Hot Spots |
buzz bar - buy one get one free (all drinks)
titanic bar - free shots on entry :) and again if you ask nicely and have spent a few levs on drinks
Mamacitas - good mexican restaurant with live bands |
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| Weaknesses |
poor snow (in some places it just a mud pit)
drag lifts on the top of the mountains
dirty
loads of beginners (skiers and boarders), runs gets real clogged up
high chance gondola that takes you to the top will be shut due to high winds
amount of runs |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
I wouldn't class any resort I've been to as similiar to borovets but I've been to:
Val Thorens, Flaine, Les Arcs, La Plagne, Val D'Isere, Tignes, Soll, Mayrhofen, Zauchensee |
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 2 of 5, "23rd feb 2008" 16/03/2008 @ 16:09:32 |
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| Price Paid |
| £440 with lift pass and lessons |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| crystal |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
stayed in the hotel rila
Nice clean hotel
food was ok with plenty of choice,ok it was not that hot but they had a microwave to heat food up if you wanted.
price of drinks was a p*ss take 9 levs for a brandy and coke
bottle of coke/lemonade 5 lev
could buy a bottle of coke in the supermarket for 1 lev 29
ski hire
Avoid borosports at all costs....the equipment is outdated and needs to be binned,and the ski tecchies are not very helpful,they spoke to you as if you were cattle,they could not be bothered to change ski/snowboards if they did not fit and they never even asked what level you are at skiing,so basically if the din setting was wrong the skis might not release and you could have had a serious accident.
ski school
well did not show up, my party waited for over 2 hrs only for blokie not to show up in the end 1 bloke turned up,he had the hump and could not be bothered with teaching.The group was to large,20 in total.He justt went to a blue run and if you could not keep up you got left.My gruop decided n ot to turn up the next day.
Snow conditions
Rila side lower runs were very poor,the top was ok but both black runs were shut
Yatrebets mountain
was fine but the lift ques were horrendous,we qued for 45 mins just to get upto the top of the mountain,Once up,the snow was good altho the list ques were very long,this was for all the drag lifts.The drag lifts for the red runs are far to long/steep and fast if you are on a snowboard.Another thing to mention is if you fell of the drag lift you are expected to go to the back of a very long que.
The musala path,this takes you the bottom of the rila, this is a very good run when fully open sadly it shut just before we left,lack of snow was the reason.When this is shut the only way back is either get in the very long lift que for the gondala which takes yo to the bottom of the yastrebets mountain and then you have around a 10 mins walk to the foot of the rila mountain the other option is to use the horse and cart but you will have to ski/snowboard down to the mid station or thereabouts,TIP if you do get a horse and cart back to wherever you are going,make sure you agree a price because they will rob you blind.
THE RESORT
plenty of nightlife and strip clubs ( if thats what floats ya boat) they are open for aslong as the money is coiming thru the tills.
The whole place in general looks like dump and really needs to modernise.The bulgarin mafia are present everywhere,but they did not bother us. |
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| Strengths |
Difficult to find any.
oh yes,the lift pass was cheap
quick transfer ofr sofia (1.5 hrs) |
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| Hot Spots |
the titanic
alpina ( cheapest drinks in the whole of borovets,and british run) 1 lev 80 ppint
kebab shop oposite the rila |
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| Weaknesses |
drag lifts
ques for the gondala
having to check your change all the time
prices of drinks/food
ski school.........lack of instructors
hire equipment prehistoric
both mountains not linked up
hire |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| None visited.This resort is stuck in a time warp |
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 3 of 5, "Just got back, better than I expected.." 07/03/2007 @ 18:39:01 |
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| 4 members have given this review an average rating of 4.5 of 5 |
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| Price Paid |
| 240 inc. board + fuel |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Inghams via Lastminute.com |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
This is a copy of a post elsewhere..
I have recently returned from a week in Borovets so I thought I would post some up-to-date thoughts..
The place.
Ever been to Turkey? 'Come in to my store', 'hello guys, come in for drink', etc. is pretty common on the streets of Borovets at lunch and dinner time. The place is clean enough and, contrary to what I was told, not teeming with pimps and ho's.. My hotel was out of town due to AOA deal but food in town was cheap and plentiful if you went to right place's. Maramacita's is very good. Titanic and Chilli's also have good reputations. Drinks can be found allover but Franko's is generally the pre-midnight place to be according to most of the British and the Buzz Bar is the post-midnight till 04:00 place to be for the party people. Happy hour at Buzz Bar is highly recommended.
The erotic dance venues do exist in Borovets though it is your choice to frequent them, there is little hawking for this type of venue on the streets. The girls are to die for and it about £6/dance so fill your boots.
The boarding.
Borovets is split into two places. A 2-chair selectionmof slopes leading back to the resorts at a low altitude serve as the learner slopes but there a couple of blacks there too. I found these slopes to be ice rinks at the best of times and grassy knolls at the worst. I think I boarded in these slopes once in the whole week and that was because the gondala was shut down.
The gondala in Borovets takes 25 minutes to get up a few thousand feet to the real snow. The gondala grants access to the runs from the gondala top station to the middle and another chair and also a selection of drag-lift equipped blue/black/red/red runs. Due to the altitude, the snow here was reasonable all week.
I was fortunate enough to be there for a 15cm snow dump on the Tuesday of my week in Bulgaria and so I was able to play in the snow for wednesday and thursday, by Friday the temp soared and the snow mostly turned to slush.
There are a few well-kept secrets for boarders in Borovets:
1. Come down from the gondala top toward the middle station and stop when you see a mild uphill, get off and walk up here for 5 minutes and you will be trated to a powder field.
2. Strap in at the gondala top-middle run again but immediately go off piste and follow the gondala pylons down the piste - excellent run..
3. For powder beginers, go to top of the blue drag and turn hard right of the drag onto the off-piste and play in there for a while..
For beginners..
Lessons are cheap in Borovets, boarders can get 3 days of lessons for £35 if you shop around. Instructors are a mixed bunch so be prepared to complain if they mess you about. Get them to take you up the gondala as soon as possible and don't let them include the gondala time in the lesson.
The instructors will try to take you to lunch every day because they will eat free for taking you there. Be aware of this, I got annoyed because it was costing me money and time to sit there for an hour and eat a lunch I would usually have had in my pocket from the shop. They only do it because they eat for free/cheap as far as I could see. Some will try and take for dinner too ^^
After your 3 days are up you will have the opportunity to 'hire' your instructor for another few days on a private basis, this is how they make their money. Apparently the instructors get about £200/month hence £50/week total so they might ask for another £15 to meet you in the afternoon and continue your education. This is your choice but if you do take it up then split the money, half up front, half at the end as I heard of a few instructurs taking the money and not turning up for the last couple of days.
Other info..
The Bulgarian night is very good. Lift pass for 6 days costs £95. They DO NOT take EURO's there, take Bulgarian LEV's.. The Hire equipment, for the most part, is completet and utter s***e so take your own or shop around. Don't take the tour operators partner unless you know they are good.
If you are in a shop and the gear is a little to cheap to be true then that is because it is fake, you will be a brave man to buy something from Bulgaria unless it is a very good shop, pretty much all of the North Face gear is knock-off and a lot of the rest is too. Try Ice Angels hotel, Borosport, etc. for real stuff.
For hardware, the Bulgarian merchants do a nice line is board packs (board, boots, bag and bindings) for £100 and upwards but don't expect it to be a name you'e heard of and buyer beware as usual. Again, try the better shops for better stuff but most of the hardware is genuine.. You will not find FLOW gear anywhere in the resort as far as I could find it so take spares if you're FLOW's have a habit of dropping screws.. The hardware is quite reasonably priced though if you do find what you want, I picked up a brand new pair of Nitro Darkseides for £135 and I think they should be £200 in GB..
Summary..
I enjoyed my week in Bulgaria though I was very lucky with the snow. I would recommend a beginner to go here as the lessons and hire are very cheap and the people are very friendly. For a more advanced boarder, this will be OK if there is snow during the week but it hasn't got the breadth of Trois Vallees or the other linked areas in France, etc.
I am a boarder of four weeks experience and I get around quite fast, I was getting bored at the end of the week but my partner in crime for this trip was slightly less experienced and I think that Borovets provided all he needed to get boarding in style.
Hope this helps some of you.. |
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 3.5 of 5, "A good budget / 1st time holiday" 18/10/2006 @ 17:55:49 |
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| 1 member has given this review a rating of 4 of 5 |
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| Revision #1 (Last edited: 18/10/2006 @ 17:57:29) |
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| Price Paid |
| 540 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Balkan |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Went Feb 05 price included board hire /boots & 3 snowboard lessons - Instructor was great
accom was half board & food was decent - Hotel was Iglika Palace - right behind the Rila (which is at the foot of the slope so the walk in the morning to the lift was short cutting through the Rila
see my pic of the slop by night in gallery - 'Borovets by night')
Francos was the bar we used - to meet and spent most time in - all the instructors used it and was like Cheers - 'where everybody knows your name'
Overall the holiday was 8/10 based on
* 1st time boarding so little or no expectations
* cheap to go & stay (after every round of drinks they would put a receipt under the ashtray with a running total which toward the end looked frightening till you remembered it was between 10 and worked out around 15 quid each after a pizza and drinking all night)
* there were 10 of us & that probably helped |
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| Strengths |
friendly atmosphere
everything to hand
low cost |
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| Hot Spots |
franco's bar
Iglika Palace - was a good hotel clean & a little more homely than the big ones like RILA |
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| Weaknesses |
* easy to outgrow the resort - the more experienced in our group would not go back - except as a cheap 2nd trip
* strip bars could be off putting to families (but we are not talking Amsterdam with windows etc)
* young kids begging - even very late at night - not what you want to see when you are trying to be indulgent and have a good time
* Balkan airlines planes wre like a 9C bus |
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 2.5 of 5 24/11/2005 @ 21:50:11 |
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| Price Paid |
| £500 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Balkan Holidays |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Its was my first boarding holiday so the reason I chose the place because it was really cheap. I got half board, Equipment hire a 6 day pass and insurance for £500. This left me a little over to buy the jacket & pants etc.
The lessons where shambolic so we taught ourselves (Yet to find out if this is a good thing or not) , the slopes okay for a leaner because there is nothing to challenging the chair lifts are fine and the gonalda to the bigger mountain was always running.
I think that now I know how to board and have talked with other people who have boarded a while I wouldnt go back to Borovets unless I wanted a cheap 2nd holiday in a year. simply because there isnt much piste compared to the rest of Europe
However its Cheap the night life caters to the English Binge drinking mentality, and I highly recommend eating out, the food in the hotels is crap to say the least |
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| Strengths |
Cheap,
Nightlife Good (However its like being in spain)
Excellent for a Beginner to learn, |
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| Hot Spots |
The Chinese
101 Cocktails
Karokee Bar |
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| Weaknesses |
The place is full of Hookers and Mafia
Limited Slopes
Being pestered to go into bars |
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