| Reviews: 2 |
| South Yorkshire |
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  1 of 5 23/03/2005 @ 12:56 |
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| Price Paid |
| 370 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Neilson |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Borovets can only be described as a combination of Shanty Town style buildings mixed with large ugly hotels. It definitely caters for the cheap package holiday crowd and is best described as “Benidorm with Snow”. If your scene is cheap alcohol, Sky Sports in every bar, full English breakfast, and you don’t mind being accosted in the street by bar owners touting their business, then I guess Borovets is ok. There are a number of “Erotic Bars” and prostitutes plying their trade in the hotels which gave it a seedy feel.
The boarding/skiing was surprisingly good at first, although I did have fairly low expectations from the start. We were lucky enough to have good conditions (excellent at the top and rare according to frequent visitors) but this soon deteriorated over the week as it warmed up and lower slopes became muddy. It was very limited in size and closure of the Gondola due to high winds significantly reduced the opportunities. There is no park for snowboarders.
Borovets has 2 main areas: Martinovi Baraki accessed by a fast 4 man lift, and Yastrebets access by a Gondola which then leads to another higher area called Markoudjik only served by 3 drag lifts. There are some long nice reds from the top of the gondola and after the 3rd drag lift in the higher area there is some off piste bowl riding. There is only one black which is nice and has between trees off piste riding on either side. Last year the gondola was closed for 36 days(!) and we had 2 days closure - it really reduces the already limited area.
We stayed at the Rila which in no way meets the 4 star grading it has and the food was awful (not much better in many of the restaurants)
I can't recommend it. If you are on a budget go to Andorra. If you want a holiday drinking with the option of some occassional snowsports then maybe.
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| Strengths |
Er... I'm stuck - Makes everywhere else look great?
Cheap booze - -4 beers at happy hour for £3, a good way of drowning your sorrows |
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| Hot Spots |
| Buzz bar, and Mamachitas/Katys Steak house for eating |
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| Weaknesses |
Limited area
Closure of lifts further reducing area
Un linked runs
Poor piste maintenance
Very poor mountain food
Crap town
Swindling locals (careful when changing money -many people reported problems)
Cheap but not worth it
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Andorra, Banff, Verbier, Zermatt, 3 Valleys (all), Tignes, Val D'Isere, Livigno, Mammoth, Pila, Sol, Chamonix, Flims, La Plagne, Courmayeur |
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 4 of 5 05/03/2005 @ 00:43 |
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| Price Paid |
| £350ish |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Crystal Ski |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Surprisingly good. Pretty cheap and you get what you pay for, so limited runs. But lots of off-piste and you can see the resort growing.
Borovets is split into three areas; Borovets, Yastrebets and the high-altitude area (can't remember the name).
Borovets slopes had some nice reds (if a little short) and is fed by chair lifts.
I preferred the Yastrebets area (they had some sort of World Cup ski thing on it). It's fed by a gondola and chair lift, but had nice long reds and fun off pistey bits under the gondola.
The high altitude area was a bit annoying cos of the fast and evil drag lifts, so stayed clear of it! But having said that, saw a video of some wicked looking powder runs up there.
Stayed in the Breza which was comfortable, had a cosy little bar and food was basic, but satisfying!
Not the greatest resort, but definitely one I'd go back to - pretty quiet, pretty good. |
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| Strengths |
Cheap(ish)
Quiet slopes - no queuing
Good place to experiment
Kora, the lovely girl outside the Apres-Ski bar! |
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| Hot Spots |
Franco's bar - good craic, general boarder hangout
The off piste from the top of the gondola down to the mid station |
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| Weaknesses |
Limited on-piste runs
Not much to challenge experienced riders
Probably get cheaper lastminute deals to Andorra or the like
Avoid the greens - they seemed to be totally flat/cross-country ski routes! |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Arinsal, Poiana Brasov, Postalm |
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| 1 of 5 03/01/2005 @ 17:54 |
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| Revision #3 (Last edited: 03/01/2005 @ 21:22) |
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| Price Paid |
| 300 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| travel agent |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
I would not recommend this resort to snowboarders.
Especially beginners.
The lifts are mainly buttons, they're badly groomed and steep.
Many runs the only way back up is via a scary button lift.
Having been skiing for many years in Pamporovo I didn't expect Borovets to be anywhere near that bad.
Pamporovo has much more mountain to take advantage of.
Especially if you like off piste with trees.
(Still both small resorts compared to many in Europe)
If you're on a budget I'd recommend Pas De La Casa in Andora. |
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| Strengths |
It's all about budget, but they're catching on and prices are not as cheap as they used to be.
You pay for what you get though. |
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| Hot Spots |
| - |
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| Weaknesses |
Lifts - mainly buttons, not good for snowboarders.
Equipment hire in general is not great.
Food in most of the package deal hotels is shocking. |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
Pamporovo in Bulgaria - better for boarding, but not much of a challenge.
(Also been to Whistler, Pas Del La Casa, Andorra/Morzine, Courchevel 1850) |
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| 4 of 5 21/04/2003 @ 21:12 |
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| Price Paid |
| 500 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| ingrams |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
| great on new years day with fresh powder runs/good nightlife/ no long waits at tows/very cheap good standard of hotel ELA not so good food but great heating and bar but cant complain when 6 can go out and eat and drink for £50 a night. more skier than a boarder resort |
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| Strengths |
| runs not that busy week we were there cheap drink and food good nightlife good snow great holiday |
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| Weaknesses |
| hotel food rubbish no park area . smell from the horse taxis |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| none |
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 2 of 5 03/04/2003 @ 15:55 |
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| Price Paid |
| 432 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Going Palces |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
8th - 15th March 2003
Hotel (Rila) was ok if a little basic for a 4 star hotel, food was piss poor. Slopes were Reds & Blacks and very icy. My mates' instructor was brilliant, even took us around Sophia on the last day (went straight to Kentucky). Plenty of bars/resturant (I'm being polite here) in resort. |
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| Strengths |
| We only had to be there a week!/cheap |
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| Weaknesses |
| Steep/Icy/dirty/lazy/pro's in the hotel/too few runs/nothing for begineers. |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Banff/Lake louise. |
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