Our first ski holiday! This was a bit of a minefield for me. The last time I skied was during a school trip 12 years ago! I wanted to take Faye somewhere to see some serious snow but didn’t know where to begin. With the skiing I knew France and Italy were popular but I couldn’t figure out how best to do it! I was confused (which doesn’t take a lot) by which airport to fly into and which resort to go too and rather put off by how expensive it was looking.
So I was chatting to a friend about all this who said – have you looked at Bulgaria? And I hadn’t even thought about it! After grilling her for information I came straight home and started googling! What I was after was around a weeks holiday over February half term that involved plenty of snow and a bit of skiing. I also didn’t want to be doing lots of travelling as we would only be away a week. Borovets in Bulgaria seemed to check all these boxes with the bonus of it being heaps cheaper than anything I could find in other countries!
Flights were cheap, around £80 a head (booked around 5 months before) into Sofia airport and Borovets was 1hr15mins from there. We stayed at Euphoria Hotel and Spa which was 1.5miles from the town centre. The hotel provided regular buses into town which made getting around pretty easy and if we needed to get taxis it was only 10 BGN (£4.50). Euphoria was great – nice and quiet being slightly out of town and the rooms were of a decent size with kitchenettes. Although worth noting the kitchenettes don’t have any equipment in! You also got a buffet breakfast with the hotel up until 10.30am. A couple of negatives about the hotel – we arrived around 11.30pm and were hoping for a drink and snack but got told the bar and restaurant were all closed and there was nothing they could do. Also the swimming pool at the hotel albeit lovely was overrun with unsupervised kids pretty much most of the time!
Hotels as usual I book through hotels.com because of the loyalty scheme for every 9 nights you get one free so we’ve come home from the trip with 2 free nights to use on another trip. I also use TopCashback all the time now. Something my brother introduced me too about a year ago. I was a bit dubious at first as I thought it’d be a waste of time clicking through TopCashback to book travel and buy things but it’s turned out to be a good way of saving money for me! So as well as the 2 free hotel nights I’m also due just short of £100 cash back for the Bulgaria hotel stay. Every little helps!!
Out of the 7 days we were there I booked 4 days skiing and then chose to extend an extra day once I realised how much Faye loved it! This was another thing I didn’t know where to start with, booking the skiing and I left it very last minute to sort out. I thought I’d sort it out when I got there, but no, don’t do that! I dropped the hotel an email and asked for their recommendation on a ski school and they suggested Hunters Ski School – I then went over to trip advisor and they had really good reviews so got us booked straight in. I did go for private lessons to start with but they said they don’t do them in school holidays so Faye and I both got places in beginner ski schools. Hunters was great value for money I have since found out from speaking to friends who have just come back from France! I paid €170 adult and €130 child for 4 days lift pass, ski school and equipment hire. To extend of the 5th day we didn’t do ski school I took Faye myself and we were kindly allowed to keep our equipment for free just had to pay £30 for both mine and Faye’s lift passes for an extra day.
We also did a session of night skiing once Faye had mastered using the drag lifts which was great fun and a lot quieter, you can only use certain slopes that are lit up in the central area of the Rila mountain and you need to buy a night pass but again that was great value of £18 for both Faye and I.
Ski School did take some getting the hang of, and so did carrying the bloody ski’s, figuring out where to be and at what time, different places for adults and kids but we got there eventually. You have to embrace the organised chaos, you get your skis, drop your kids, leave them with 20BGN for lunch and see them about 2.30pm. This did worry me a little to start with but they great thing about Borovets being a small resort is for the first few days whilst both our beginner groups were on the nursery slopes I could see Faye and what she was learning. When travelling I’ve never put Faye in any kid’s clubs and I was very apprehensive about leaving her so I actually asked my parents to join us on this trip, they didn’t take a lot of persuading. They didn’t ski they just kept an eye out for Faye on the first day to make sure she was happy with everything. From the second day Faye had made a bunch of friends, she was buying them lunch (at my expense) and didn’t want my parents loitering around! She picked up the skiing from day 2 really and absolutely loved it – oh to be fearless!
Overall skiing in Borovets was perfect for Faye and I. Faye a beginner, me petrified. We skied the blue and green runs of the main area at Rila Mountain and also took the Gondola up to the other mountain and did some runs over the other side. [Gondola ride last 25 minutes and worth a trip up even if you aren’t skiing just for the views.] Don’t get me wrong it was absolutely knackering and we were in bed by 9pm every night but watching Faye pick it all up so well was just fab to watch! I would imagine maybe for expert skiers you may prefer a bigger resort but Borovets suited us as a family perfectly!
Borovets had some great places to eat, in fact I think everywhere we ate, including our hotel, the food was great. Bulgarian food is a lot of mixed-meat grills which were fab! Our favourite restaurant finds were; Mamacita’s – mexican with live music, need to book a table in advance – most expensive place we ate. Hunters – traditional Bulgarian food, the Father cooks the meat in the middle of the restaurant on an open fire. Faye had chicken nuggets here (adventurous!) but they were homemade with real chicken and the nicest nuggets I’ve had! The Green King – you also need to book in advance, very close to Hunter’s ski depot. Peter the owner a lovely friendly guy, he explained the menu to us and then said ‘don’t choose beef, the beef not good’, I loved his honesty! Food again was awesome, big portions, great value. The Rila Hotel was a firm favourite for us as well, located at the bottom of the nursery slopes as when the sun is shining you can sit up in the roof top bar drinking Kamenitza’s (local Bulgarian larger)! A massive plus point to Bulgaria is you can eat like a King for very little money.
Borovets it was a blast and we will definitely return! But if I ski again I need to remember to bring lots of ibuprofen and a good lip salve!
OUR TRAVEL DIARY 