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  1 of 5, "No tourist in Bansko never again" 28/12/2011 @ 14:47 |
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| Price Paid |
| 500 |
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| Times Visited |
| 2-5 Times |
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| Review Detail |
Because I want to prevent someone from thinking that I am prejudiced, I want to state that we were in Bansko at November with a big company and it was very nice. Because of that we arranged our Christmas vacation to be in Bansko. If I was prejudiced, I was positive prejudiced.
But, after what we faced, I can say only one thing: NONE IN BANSKO, NEVER AGAIN.
It proved in more than one occasion that Bulgarians have hostile intentions against the foreigners. I can't say why is that. Maybe, now that they have put some euros in their pockets (5-6 years ago they were starving to dead) they are showing their true character and not the fake servile they showed before.
Bulgarians are total barbarian and uncivilized people. I think that it was a big mistake that we accepted them in the European Union. Just imagine that, when we were there, we saw doormen in clubs hitting women! That kind of brave men are the Bulgarians.
The behaviour of the waiters and the staff was offensive and absolutely rude. And the prices were the same like in Greece and sometimes even higher.
To say the truth we went in some restaurants / clubs that the behaviour was barely acceptable. In 1-2 occasion it was even fine. But that was the exception.
I recommend that for the next 10 years, no tourist from other country must go to this hostile to the tourists Bulgarian village. We must show them that their rude, hostile and uncivilized behaviour will not be accepted.
No tourist in Bansko. |
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| Strengths |
| beautiful nature |
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| Weaknesses |
| uncivilized, hostile and rude people |
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| Reviews: 1 |
| Nottinghamshire |
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 3 of 5, "Just OK, thats all" 22/05/2010 @ 11:11 |
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| 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Price Paid |
| £500ish all in |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Holiday City |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Ok the reason I decided to go to Bulgaria was purely to keep the costs down and find a decent resort which would suit beginners for my girlfriend.
The Hotel - We stayed in the Lion Hotel which is a 4* hotel and a 5 min walk from the gondola. The hotel to be honest was faultless, a good location, impressive rooms, open log fire in the bar and shuttle bus running every couple of mins. I would recommend this hotel who is wishing to go to Bansko.
The Town - You can clearly see from just walking around that Bulgaria's property market has also crashed and plenty of builders have gone out of business half way through projects. There is a large amount of unfinished hotels and apartment blocks up for sale "as is" not the prettiest of places.
Crystal / Thompson - Again faultless the rep Vladimir was a top bloke, It was my girlfriends Birthday while we was out there we asked him for some advice on where to go and he arranged to pick us up and take us to his favourite spot and then even came back and fetched us. When ever we was in and around the hotel he was always at hand.
Nightlife - I didn't really explore to much at night, we had the occasional meal out and then ended up back at harry's bar for the odd drink. Harry's bar is one place that I would recommend trying nice atmosphere and snowboard movies played on the big screens.
Instructors - I decided to take lessons with my girlfriend so I could stick with her, and to be honest it was a bit of a shambles. We had one instructor for one hour (who was a top bloke and actually taught me quite a few things such as fall lines and avalanches) then for the second hour we went with another guy who was useless. a different women the second day, and someone else on the 3rd day. I think it was a one off with us, as some other people I met had the same instructor through out the week, were as we just felt like we was tagging along.
The slopes- The snow conditions weren't actually that good at the start of the week but things got a lot better towards the end. There are loads of snow canons all over the slopes which are on through out the night so there was always some snow. To get to the main ski area you have to get the main gondola from bansko, now I had read many review of people complaining about the size of the lift queue, which was a real concern for me when I booked this holiday. But now that I have been I can say that if you DON'T want to queue just get there for 8.30am or 9am and you wont, couple of min at the most. The ques are massive at 10am to 11am but that's nearly half the day gone in my eyes, so just get up slightly earlier.
Because I was with my girlfriend I stuck to mainly to the blue run,which there are some nice ones from the top going down. What I didn't like is when you get towards the bottom you have to take some narrow runs which are stupidly busy to get back to the gondola, its not a very nice run to do and my girlfriend hated them as someone went straight into the back of her creating a trip to the hospital for us.
on the last couple of day I venture slightly off piest, there are some nice runs under the chair lifts, but they took me all week to find a safe way to them but it was worth the wait.
There was enough to keep me busy for a week but I would of been bored by the second week.
Hospital - My girlfriend woke up in the morning with her shoulder looking out of place, so I asked at the hotel reception for the nearest doctors and she said one would come and see us in the room. 30 min later a doctor knocked on the door had a look and insisted that we would go to the hospital and that the ambulance was out side waiting. I WILL NEVER EVER CRITICISE THE NHS AGAIN, this place was a sh*t hole, the true colours of Bulgaria was beginning to show , I had seen abandoned factories in the uk in a better state than this hospital, thank god it was only an x-ray needed. Anyway to cut a long story short we had to pay £250 cash in hand for an x-ray and they expected us to claim it back from the insurance. we paid for 3 doctors opinions, it was just day light robbery as they knew we had insurance which would cover it. I would say don't see a doctor unless you can't wait to get back to the UK.
Airport - DO NOT TRAVEL TO BULGARIA WITHOUT A LOCK ON YOUR SUITCASE. On the way bag someone had been through our case and stole 200 fags. its not worth risking it.
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| Strengths |
Cheapish
Some Nice Restaurants
Hotel lion |
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| Weaknesses |
Hospitals and robbing doctors.
Thieving airport staff
Very busy narrow slopes at points
Limited runs
Lessons that we received |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
Romania- Poiana Brasov
Andorra - Arinsal |
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 4 of 5, "Good Beginners Resort" 19/02/2010 @ 22:35 |
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| Price Paid |
| not sure - was a present from my dad! |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Neilsen |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Ok, so as my dad has now retired, he wanted to try something different and when he asked my brother and I where we would like to go on holiday we decided to finally take a trip to the slopes and learn to snowboard.
We went to the ski and snow show in London, and after much looking around and asking various reps - and my dad's mate - we decided on Bansko.
We landed in Sophia, and got on our transfer coach, little did we know it was a 3 hour transfer to the resort! Lukily we are all used to long journey's so didn't really bother us, but if you hate long coach trips, then it might be one to avoid.
We stayed in Hotel Pirin, which for the price we paid was quite a good hotel. Relatively close to the main town, and right on the edge of the old town - where all the traditional Bulgarian restuarants and bars are - everything we needed was in walking distance.
The hotel itself had all the facilities we needed - free swimming pool and sauna/steam room, table tennis and games room, bar, sports shop, and half board all you can eat breakfast and dinner.
The food at the meals was pretty much the same everyday, but wasn't anything wrong with it.
The room was cleaned everyday, new towels etc, and the staff were friendly and answered all questions as best they could.
We went for a week and being our first snowboard holiday we decided to book six 2 hour lessons (1 a day) for the week. We had a talk with our instructor who basically said he will teach us enough to get us on to some blue runs, and if we want to carry on with the lessons we can, otherwise let him know and we can do our own thing.
As the resort only has one mountain, and the mountain is relatively small compared to other ski mountains, there are a lack of ski lifts/gondolas and thus the queues can be massive, and some mornings we had an hour or more wait just to get on the first gondola to get up to the first runs.
As well as lack of ski lifts, there are also limited runs, although there is a pretty easy going run that goes from top to bottom, which was a nice way to round off the week. The lack of runs does mean that the slopes can get crowded and there is quite a lot of places where ski lessons seem to cut across in front of the boarders. Whether these are problems everywhere I don't really know as this was my first experience, and I don't really have any ski/boarder mates.
Overall I was relatively impressed with the whole resort.
Staff were friendly and helpful. Although the resort is small, the runs seemed to be a good length - at the least the ones i went down, and there is a good selection for the size. As a beginner, I would recommend it to other beginners and first timers... whether i would go back as an advanced rider I don't think I would... but maybe if a group of mates wanted to go over of mixed ability, with some beginners. |
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| Strengths |
Small resort - everything in good location
Friendly staff
Locals are friendly
Everything is cheap from Bulgarian currency to the UK pound |
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| Weaknesses |
Small - crowded slopes, lack of runs
Not great for advanced boarders |
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| 3 of 5, "Long weekend wanted? Bank on Bansko" 07/02/2010 @ 12:29 |
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| 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Price Paid |
| £250 for a week with flights |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Internet |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
I went out to Bansko for the first time in Feb '09.
The thing that all that have been to Bansko will agree on is that the transfer is a doozy! It averages about 3 hours and it will seem like a long 3 hours too. The roads are in a poor state so, our taxi driver was changing into oncoming lanes without any hesitation. This does take some getting used to! As did the ramdom stop by a police car who was then paid off to let us carry on - strange!!
The resort itself looks like it needs some real attention, it isn't the prettiest of places.
Sure, there are unfinished buildings. Sure, the place could use a couple more bars and restaurants.
But, I go for the slopes not the town. The limited slopes that are there are good, a bit choppy, but to me it's good to learn how to ride more difficult terrain - otherwise stick to an indoor slope back home!
For me it's good for a long weekend, you should be able to get it all covered in that time, if you are of 'red/black' run standard.
There is a standard board park at the very top which has some nice kit - but is best to create your own kickers.
The slopes are very pretty being tree lined - my girlfriend really liked them. It's also got some decent off piste areas - but you will have to do some investigation to find them.
The best part for me, was the ride home - get yourself to the very top and then take the 16Km ride back home and believe me, you will know you've had a good ride by the end - you've earnt your beer!
The slope side bars, are as you expect slightly more expensive than in the resort and we paid around 5lev for a hot drink and 7 lev for a kebab meat and chip wrap. So, with the lev being 2/1 against the pound it beats paying 5 Euro for a Kit-Kat in Merribel.
The bars at the gondola, (by the way the queues for the gondola are a pish take so go real early or take your time and go later) are a little pricier, 5/6 lev a pint. Walk 200-300m to another and you can get a pint for around 3lev, sometimes even cheaper if you go a little further away from the centre. This resort is not the best for food - so catered chalet may be a prefered option or if you can live off of pizza you can get huge slices for 2lev.
The locals - well being a guy I found the women friendly and the men rude - some local people don't like the tourist place that Bansko has become.
The lift pass was around £25-30 per day, which for the number of runs isnt the best value.
All in all - the resort is worth a try. It's not France - so don't expect good food and wine. It's not Austria - so don't expect the hospitality or apres ski.
This is a GOOD place to go if you want a fair priced long weekend break.
We're going back in a couple of weeks time and have paid £250 for a fully catered 4 night stay with flights and transfers. And will be able to drink in the bars every night and after all will spend probably no more than another £200. If you can get that cheaper at other places - let me know!
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| Strengths |
Good value
Scenic slopes
Good for begginers/novice/intemidiates
Hidden Gem bars off the beaten track
Fantstic long run from top to bottom - around 16Km |
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| Weaknesses |
Transfers
Small resort
Food choice is limited
Only one way up - so queues are likely |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
Three Valleys
Maryhoffen
Tignes
Val Gardena |
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| 4 of 5, "Top atmos in Bansko" 25/09/2009 @ 12:14 |
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| 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Revision #3 (Last edited: 25/09/2009 @ 16:26) |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Chalet Soltir, Mark and Amy |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Had a fantastic holiday in January 2008 in this lovely Bulgarian resort. Stayed at the beautiful Chalet Soltir owned by a great English couple Mark and Amy. The house itself has kept a lot of it's authentic qualities such as beautiful thick wooden doors and beams but has modernised tastefully and was a really spacious and cosy place to chill and have fun. It was really nice to visit Bulgaria and experience refreshing old school customs and values from friendly, genuine people. I have been to Courchevel, Soll (Austria), Whistler and Bansko and had the best time in Bansko so far. The mountain was great for all levels of rider. Of course it's not the biggest mountain in the world but still plenty big enough for most levels with great layout and terrain. I enjoyed drinking authentic Bulgarian beer in the piste side bars and found a lot of qualities lacking in more well known European/Canadian resorts. Oh when you go, watch out for the 'overfriendly' taxi drivers at the airport and sort out your transfers beforehand for a much better deal.
www.boardingbansko.co.uk
Source: www.ba |
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| Strengths |
| Good buzz all round. |
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| Weaknesses |
| Taxi drivers |
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| Read more reviews for resorts in BULGARIA. |
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