Отличный отдых в гостеприимной Болгарии Excellent holiday in hospitable Bulgaria

We have just returned from a vacation, which we decided to spend this winter in the ski capital of Bulgaria, the city of Bansko. I'll start with the fact that I had not rested in Bulgaria before, and to be honest, I had some concerns about this resort. We traveled a lot around Europe, skiing with my husband before that only once in Zakopane and I fell in love with this type of vacation from the first time, as soon as the legs on the skis touched the snow (well, the truth was not without bruises and pleasant muscle pain, but this already "production costs"))).
So, with a vacation in Bulgaria, I only associated my grandmother's stories about her youth with exciting memories of how everyone told her during her vacation in Bulgaria how she looked like some of their famous singer. Therefore, the parallel “vacation in Bulgaria is the dream of every inhabitant of the Soviet Union” was deposited in my head and I was afraid that little had changed since that time. But the crisis and the jump in currency prices made itself felt, so instead of the originally planned trip to Austria, after much persuasion from the travel agent, they still booked a week in Bulgaria. First of all, I bribed the cost of the tour and reviews that ski passes, meals and other services would be at a very reasonable price.
It is worth saying a few words about how we got there. Initially, we looked at several options, but decided to fly through Greece. More precisely, we flew to Thessaloniki, where we were met by the tour operator Mouzenidis (it turns out that they are not only involved in Greece, they used to fly with them to Corfu), and three and a half hours later we were in Bansko. We passed the border quickly - we drank coffee for half an hour and drove on. We also looked at other options - to fly to Plovdiv or Sofia, but there the transfer takes about five hours and the roads, judging by the reviews, are serpentine, and in Sofia you can get into terrible traffic jams ((And on the way back for the night we stayed in Thessaloniki, at the Grand Hotel, Overnight at the airport.

I will also write a couple of lines about Bansko itself, since the issue of apr? s-ski was also very relevant for us. Still, as much as I didn’t like to ride, I want to do something else. The town is cute, with cobbled streets, small of course, but everything you need is there: bowling, a water park, a skating rink, billiards, discos, a bunch of mehans - local cuisine establishments with huge delicious dishes (a huge plate of meat was taken for 7 euros, translated from lion), a spa in almost every hotel (there are outdoor and indoor pools with mineral springs). Bansko is divided by the river Glazke into 2 parts - old and new. And hotels, respectively, are in the local ethnic style, and there are typical modern ones, no worse than in other popular resorts. The main street where our Kaphouse Hotel 3*+ was located is called Pirin. The location of the hotel is generally ideal, as it takes 5-7 minutes to walk to the center and 3 to the gondola lift! The most important thing in the hotel is the homely cozy atmosphere created by the hostess Elena, who treats each guest as if she were her own. Elena, if you are reading these lines, thank you so much and hope to see you again!
The hotel has a room for ski equipment, but by the way, you can store it for free in the gondola lift chalet (at least for the clients of our tour operator for sure). A big plus is Wi-Fi throughout the territory, but its quality pleased us intermittently. More precisely, it’s normal to sit in social networks, or check your mail, but it’s already harder to download a movie.
Regarding food, we took only breakfast, quite standard, we did not remain hungry, but without any special frills. We talked with different hotel neighbors - the reviews for dinner are different, some people like it very much, some every other time. The rooms are normal, everything worked, and most importantly, it's warm in the room. Cleaned well, linen changed a couple of times. Another shortcoming, suddenly it is important for someone - it is difficult to call it a fitness room, for example, several simulators. We went to the sauna to warm up the muscles - I liked it)
We didn’t go on excursions, but after a very emotional story from one neighbor who went on an excursion to the village where Vanga lived, I really wanted to go there)))
Another pleasant moment was that at the beginning of the season there was a 50% discount on the ski pass! In short: we do not regret that we went, and the mountains are gorgeous, and the people are hospitable.