Overall a good week away, but some tips for anyone going at Easter (school holiday period). This is not all doom and gloom, just be prepared.
we travelled with Nielson on a full package.. hotel Perun (see separate review), Ski and boot hire, lessons at Ullen ski school.
After arriving at midnight and going straight to bed we were up early to get to the kit collection point. Free bus shuttle from hotel drops you at the huge warehouse-size ski depot. There was a major queue outside which also snaked around the inside and it took us 3 hours to get through it. There is no organisation here and people seem to be standing around doing nothing. Nielson rep was in and out and could do nothing to improve the situation. It was soon clear that we would miss the start of our lessons and was assured that our lessons would start when we got there.
After collecting skis and boots and putting boots on, we went outside to find ski school guys. Although there were hundreds in the Ullen ski school jackets, it took a while to find out where to report to. There was absolutely no organisation and thousands of people milling around not knowing what to do or where to go. We were eventually told to take the Gondola up to the top and ask someone else. We then realised that there was an equally large queue for the Gondola.
At about dinner time we arrived at the top gondola station and were asked to wait for an instructor to be appointed...... 20 minutes and a couple of irritated exchanges later we were assigned to an instructor to start our lessons. (Some guests in the hotel reported they waited for an instructor for 2 hours and didn%26#39;t put skis on until mid afternoon).
This was our first skiing holiday and we were all stressed and very upset by this time.
Following our lesson which was relatively good, we came down in the gondola and took our skis and boots back to the hotel so we wouldn%26#39;t have to go to the depot again. The queue for the Gondola remained huge all week.
Learning points...
Hire your skis and boots at the hotel if you can. We didn%26#39;t realise this was an option. If you can%26#39;t, then be early and make sure you have the right paperwork.
Be prepared for chaos...take a bottle of water and snacks for the queue.
There is only one Gondola up the mountain - if the weather is bad (windy) nobody skis. A Taxi is possible, but is costly - still might be worth investigation if you need to.
There is always a queue unless you are up very early to be at the Gondola station by 8:00am - to do this we had to miss breakfast every day.
If you don%26#39;t have a morning lesson, you should sleep in, get breakfast, go for a swim, then go to gondola after 11:00 and ski all afternoon. No queues an experience that is something more like a holiday. somethin
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Caz or is it Baz? I really do sympathise with this first introduction to skiing it really is not like this in most places and Neilson should be not advertising this place as good for beginners, it clearly is not and we had a torrid time here a few years ago.
Just got back last night from Niederau in Austria, stayed in a hotel 30 yds from the lifts...we also avoided the ski and boot faff by emailing the hotel our requirements and the ski hire shop (part of the same hotel) opening up a bit earlier through a secret door for residents.
Ski school one of the best in Europe starts at 10 and by half past everyone was in a group.
Great breakfasts and meals, had a fabulous weeks skiing, 23 degrees on the mountain. A great fun, stress free environment in which to improve the skiing.......give Austria a go next time, Bansko might be cheap but for everything else you can keep it........
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In talking to other more experienced skiiers, they all thought the skiing in Bansko was very good and returned each year despite it%26#39;s problems. The morale of the story is don%26#39;t go at half term. I am sure the experience would be completely different without the queues. As stated here before, the infrastructure in Bansko does not yet support the many thousands of people now flocking there at busy periods. Without another Gondola I can%26#39;t see this getting any better any time soon.
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Hi Caznbaz, we were also there last week. We ski 3/4 weeks a year mainly in Italy sometimes France. Your/our expriences in Bansko are unacceptable. The queues are appalling and only likely to get worse. The apartment blocks are being built with no regulation and control. If new development stopped today and those being built completed, there would be 30,000 beds in Bansko with one Gondola. The Ulen Ski School instructors were strikingly average skiers themselves. I%26#39;d imagine the ownership of a blue/yellow jacket was the only qualification required. The pistes were very crowded as there is only 70k%26#39;s. Food prices on the mountain were more expensive than Italy, in fact nothing was cheap. The town is fuelled by greed. It%26#39;s a dirty, ugly building site. Try the Dolomites next time, you%26#39;ll love it.
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Hi Caznbaz, we were also there last week. We ski 3/4 weeks a year mainly in Italy sometimes France. Your/our expriences in Bansko are unacceptable. The queues are appalling and only likely to get worse. The apartment blocks are being built with no regulation and control. If new development stopped today and those being built completed, there would be 30,000 beds in Bansko with one Gondola. The Ulen Ski School instructors were strikingly average skiers themselves. I%26#39;d imagine the ownership of a blue/yellow jacket was the only qualification required. The pistes were very crowded as there is only 70k%26#39;s. Food prices on the mountain were more expensive than Italy, in fact nothing was cheap. The town is fuelled by greed. It%26#39;s a dirty, ugly building site. Try the Dolomites next time, you%26#39;ll love it.
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it really surprises me when people go skiing at half-term in an underdeveloped resort and then get upset when it doesn%26#39;t stack up to established European resorts.
This is why it is cheap (unles syou go through one of the rip-off package tours).
It is not organised - it%26#39;s Bulgaria. Customer service and organisation has not arrived yet.
I agree that if you are a beginner, then you will struggle - it is not the place for a first-time ski holiday.
If you are an experienced skiier (or border) self-sufficient and not wanting lessons each day, then it is great. If you have your own skis, or are not tied to a particular hire shop, then you can avoid the chaos at the Gondola hire shop or the Warehouse. Avoid the gondola between 09:00 and 10:00 and avoid the beginner area at Bunderisha Polyana and you will be fine.
New year, Half term and Easter are going to be busy times for any ski resort - unfortunately Bansko is not very good at ramping up to meet the demand.
There are plans for a second Gondola on the other side of the river - so this will alleviate the problems somewhat.
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With the greatest respect we cant all just up and go when we feel like it and have several weeks skiing. I am tied to school holidays as a teacher, and after all if you take out xmas, new year, half term and easter there are actually very few weeks left.
I mentioned earlier that the advertisers should avoid selling this as a beginners holiday. If this had been my first ski holiday here I would not have gone again...thank goodness it wasnt.
Im sure they will plan on setting up a new Gondola but they need to pay the millions back they borrowed to be able to afford this one first.
For me actually although the skiing wasnt good the main things I disliked about Bansko were the food, uuuuuugh, the rudeness or simply not caring attitude of a lot of the locals.
This place clearly does have its market....young men like yourself who dont care too much about the food, the services or getting up on the mountain in time for ski school, who just enjoy a bit of nightlife where your pound goes further and you dont have to drag kids along. We are not all in this position however, I would think this place wholly unsuitable for children.....and as for 40 something middle aged housewives with a bit of life left in them, well I just like a bit of comfort....LOL
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I know that not everyone is able to choose their holidays, particularly those who work in schools, but as a result, wherever you go is always going to be busier than usual. Bansko, due to the general disorganisation of the staff and the apparent %26quot;don%26#39;t care%26quot; attiude suffers more so than more established resorts when a whole lot of people descend on the place - like at new year, half term and easter.
In these periods it is always going to be a nightmare. Bansko is what it is, and that is a developing resort in a developing country. It could become a great ski resort, it could become a huge disaster, we will not know for a number of years - but certainly at the moment we agree that it is not a beginners resort for a first time skiing holiday - particularly if you are tied in to a ski package at the rental places in or right next to the gondola, where they seem the most disorganised/disinterested. There are other shops nearby that are better.
Really you need to be either self-sufficient in knowing what you want and how to arrange it in terms of private lessons and own skis etc (or hire elsewhere)
As for a new gondola, my understanding is that it is a couple of years away, rather than a future plan. Also - in relation to the comment above about the unregulated building work - by Bulgarian standards it is pretty well controlled - maximum height to buildings, attractive alpine designs only and no more new applications for a few years until the infrastructure catches up. If you want to see uncontrolled building work, look at Sunny Beach!
I%26#39;m surprised that you didn%26#39;t like the food - what in particular was bad? - I tried a few local mehinas, as well as the English places and thought it was quite nice (and I am fussy about food).
Contary to what you might think, I do care about what I eat, and where I stay and the levels of comfort - and to be honest, on the food and hotel stakes, I have been quite happy, the building site side of things aside, the hotels I have stayed in have been well built, clean, and comfortable. Oh, and most days, even after a late start, I was still up the mountain before the ski schools started.
My frustration with a lot of people who slate Bansko is that they go there without doing any research on the place i.e what to expect, other than what a travel agent has told them (whilst trying to sell them a holiday - hmmm). I%26#39;m not saying you are like this, but a number of the people I met on the sloppes and in the town certainly were, and then they were moaning because it was not like Val D%26#39;isere.
OK, it might not be the best resort for Children and families, in which case you will likely be better spending a bit more money and going somewhere else next time, but i did see a number of Children on the slopes when I was there, couples and families too. They all seemed fine. But then again, it was not the half term holidays, and I am sorry if this is the only time you can go, but it is not the best time to go, and to be honest, aren%26#39;t most places much busier at half term? Although the effect and problems are magnified in Bansko due to the problems mentioned above.
PS - It%26#39;s nice to still be considered young!
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We have an apartment in Bansko (it%26#39;s a long story why)and see very few merits in Bansko as a ski resort. Essentially, it is not cheap. This is fundemental to the whole Balkan skiing experience. It%26#39;s a long, tiring journey to get there, the transfer was worrying at times. The town is a huge, dirty building site. The skiing infrastructure is struggling to cope at present. This will get much, much worse as the 30,000 bedrooms currently under construction complete. The second Gondola WILL NOT arrive for years. The Bulgarians promise the earth, but deliver little. There are only 70k%26#39;s of skiing, another Gonadola will only move the problem further up the mountain. Food/ drink is now as expensive, or more so, than Italy and parts of France. The Bulgrians can be blunt and obtuse. There is definitely a %26#39;rip-off%26#39; culture which, I was told (by a Bulgarian)is a throw-back to the communist regime.
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Heldfordway - I have seen your posts on a number of other forums - consistantly negative. Fine, that is your experience, and perhaps purchasing in Predela 1 was a mistake for you.
You are entitled to your opinions, and you evidently don%26#39;t like Bansko. Again, this is your choice. I disagree with you, based on my experiences - I have now been there 5 times, and have also skied all over Europe, and I think that bansko as a budget ski resort is fine. Prices are definately NOT as expensive as other resorts, and as I said above, this is an Eastern European country that is undergoing massive development, they need to catch up so I bear this in mind when reviewing things.
If it is still the same in 5 years, then I will probarbly think differently - but as it stands at the moment, it is looking and getting better every time I go there - so I am optimistic for the place.
If you have had such a bad experience as your forum posts indicate, then the best thing you can do is sell up and get out - you may think that you are helping, but looking at your other posts, you just seem to be annoying people. Make your point and leave it at that. On that basis, why don%26#39;t you tell us the details of why you hate Bansko, concisely and clearly with examples so that we can draw our own conclusions from them?
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Macummi seems to be talking sense here.
I have not skied for 25 years but am travelling with my family at Easter. The trip was arranged by the local ski club which has strong links to the primary school one of children go to. Frankly I was looking forward to it but after reading all the negative posts I have changed my mind. To be fair to the organisers we were told it would be basic and the food wasn%26#39;t good. The only thing I am worried about is long queues at the gondola. Anything more than 1 hour will be depressing.
The rest I will just keep an open mind about. After all we went to Eurodisney a few years ago and had to wait two hours at least for most rides and they were rubbish!
