Borovets winter holiday

Road to Borovets – sight of Rila mountains from about 6 km away

About

Borovets (formerly known as Chamkoria – this means Pine forest tree) is a ski-in-ski-out resort at an altitude of 1,320m. It provides access to 20 pistes, served by 11 ski lifts and gondola. Gondola and a few lifts will get you up to 2,550m, ensuring skiing and snowboarding through all the season.

Ski area

There are 2 main ski areas:

Center resort just by the big hotels like Rila and Samovets.

At the base near Rila hotel you will find:

2 lifts with 4 and 6 seats which take you from 1300m to 1650m (5-10m ride) or 1850m (10-15m ride).

Tickets office, rental shops, ski school, Lots of warmup ski T bars at the slopes entry to kill off some steam before taking on the big slopes.

And 3 T/button lifts which are about 200 m long. These are great fun for beginners and also for warming up.

2. The second ski area is reachable by taking the gondola in front of Samokov hotel. This gondola is for 6 person. Ride takes 25m for about 5 km of cable ride until 2450m with a vertical difference of 1054m.

In the lower part of the ski venue there are more than a few snow guns which help add a layer of safe snow to help kickstart the season.

This year the resort opened for ski season late in December, just before the Christmas holidays. Season is predicted to end in late March.

The ski passes are split into three parts of the day AM (8:30AM – 12:30PM), PM (12:00 PM- 16:30 PM) and Night skiing (06:00 PM – 09:30 PM). Skiing at night should be great, with plenty of light on the night time slopes.

Webcams

There are also a few webcams, actually 9 of them, to check on the actual weather consitiona and snow coverage if you feel like you need to see the slopes before going out for a ski.

Bulgaria Ski website – Link here

Traventuria ski and board Borovets website – Link here

Stay

Most of the resort is concentrated near the slopes and fit all big hotels in a 500 to 800m radius. There are some hotels outside this radius, and you actually should consider them as they have good offers due to the distance from the slopes providing same or better quality rooms and food as in the center.

Parking

Parking is paid in all areas in the resort centre; even on the main road sides around the resort – unclamping is 30 lev(15 Eur). Full day of parking is 10lev (5Eur). 1h – 1.5 lev – 75cents.

Consider taking the hotel shuttle if you are staying at one of the hotels farther away or taking a walk if you don’t have equipment to carry and you are using some rentals.

Taking the car can actually be worse off. You should consider in advance if you need it. During the weekends (Sa-Su), the good (closest) parking lots are full.

Food

At the base of the slopes you will find apres ski areas with various choice of snacks and sandwiches, pizza, grill, sweets. Everything feels fresh and prepared on the spot. We tried the pizza place near the Gondola service and it was good. In all the days we stayed we only ate out once or twice from the pizza place near the gondola and it was quite ok – kids also enjoyed it. The fact of the matter is that the hotel restaurant was open during the day and you could order in.

Ski School

Ski rentals are at every step. We enjoyed the service of Chamokria rental and ski school for the kids and Musala Diamond rentals.

Ski school is available from all the ski rentals. For busier periods like kids school vacation times you should book in advance with a few days if you can. If not, you may be able to find somthing on the spot, but you might have to go to more than one place for available trainers.

Sledge

For nonskiers there are options to rent a sledge and enjoy a few fun rides.

Skating

Near the Rila hotel exit there was a skate rink open. Open hours: 9.00AM to 9.00PM; 15 Lev for 1 hour skating with skates included.

Ski slopes

Slopes/pistes are wide enough for beginner and experienced riders, either ski or snowboard.

They feel well secured with flexible fences for adequate scurity in the tricky, more dangerous bits. Parts of the pistes which were closed were marked with big signs.

Ski lift prices

Ski Passes are starting from a couple of hours to full season. They have also passes for non-consecutive days.

For non skiers you can also get pleasure rides for one ride up-down starting from 25 lev.

Lift passes prices for all lift facilities

Lift pass	Price for adult age group 23 – 64	Price for youth and 65+ age group 14 – 22 and 65+	Price for children age group 7 – 13
1/2 day AM (8:30AM – 12:30PM)	48 BGN	35 BGN	28 BGN
1/2 day (12:00 PM- 16:30 PM)	40 BGN	28 BGN	23 BGN
1 day AM + PM	62 BGN	45 BGN	36 BGN
Night skiing (06:00 PM – 09:30 PM)	25 BGN	25 BGN	15 BGN
Two-way ticket for “Yastrebets” Gondola lift or quad chairlift “Sitnyakovo Express”	25 BGN	25 BGN	15 BGN

MORE PRICES AT: https://www.borovets-bg.com/en/page/info/lifts-trails/prices/lift-passes-prices

Feeling for stay and return

Borovets becomes a lively place during the weekends when locals from the surroundings come to the mountains for a bit of fun in the snow.

The resort is a close drive from Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital city, just 72km away. 1h 30m of driving on a one lane road which is quite twisty in parts.

Weekends can get crowded. Still, it’s way much better than in other resorts because there are at least 3 ski lifts with capacity to handle bigger queues.

There is a middle station for quicker rides to the top, still you have to wait more, as there is more traffic going up than going down up-to the latest moment when the last gondola returns at 16.30.

There are different slopes suited for many types of visitors: sleigh, ski and snowboard. There are more than 10 beginner slopes.

A lot of T bars, ski lifts and gondolas to take you over to all ski areas. This ski in and ski out resort is very well organized with all the big hotels in the center, right near the slopes.

Gondola lift can become quickly quite a large and long time queue as they hold up to 6 people and intervals between gondolas .Even if it’s quite long, the gondola ride is still actually enjoyable because of the spectacular view. You have 360 visibility over the whole plateau, the nearby villages and the surrounding mountains.

Accomodation

We chose to stay at Radina’s way because it was reasonably priced 4* hotel with the pool open and half board. It is 1.5 km from the slopes. Shuttle bus available at all times during the day – just a call away to the reception desk. They have also regular service hours. Pickup and dropoff station for all hotels’ shuttles is right near Samokov hotel on the road leading to the slopes and Rila hotel.

We found the room very clean, with wide windows (they have black blinds).

There is a pool, massage and sauna area at -1 level accessible from the lobby or from one of the lifts.

Hotel food is good at both breakfast and dinner with a nice variety. Restaurant is open also during the day for a la carte lunch.

Come Breakfast time, you have a do it yourself pancake machine. At least 3 types of eggs, meat, vegetables, cheese and desert like croissant, panini, muffins, cream). Apple and Orange juice, water and coffee and tea.

Dinner time comes with selection of meat and vegetables. Chicken, pork, potatoes fried and baked, rice are regulars. Vegetables like onions, tomatoes, cucumber.

We found great reviews about Rila hotel and we would like to hunt for good deals on stays at that hotel for our next visit. It holds the best placement in the center resort, near the two main ski lifts and gondola with great access to food and ski rental and shops. The pool there looks amazing from the outside.

Short trip to Samokov

Samokov is 10 km away from Samokov on the road from Sofia. The small mountain town city center looks a bit similar to other ski restort in Rila mountains like Bansko, because it is standing on two sides of a mountain river. The old town is formed by a big park with all the main attractions:

war guns reminding of the country’s past involvement in the war,
a mosque which currently looks as not open, but the graphics and colors on it are absolutely amazing and make quite a difference from the grey city apartment blocks which surround the central park area.