Горные лыжи в Боровце Alpine skiing in Borovets

When it turned out that there was nowhere else to go to Bulgaria for skiing for the New Year, they began to study reviews about this country, about resorts and hotels. Information was not enough, and the available reviews were often diametrically opposed. I will try to contribute to the expansion of the information field.

The main topical issue of the beginning of winter 2006-2007 was the presence of snow. The travel agency assured us that regardless of cataclysms, they guarantee snow. To what extent their guarantees were justified - judge for yourself.

As the day of departure approached, we increasingly looked at weather sites and webcams. With snow it was deaf. Moreover, in Bansko, there seemed to be some kind of snow in spots, and in Borovets, the grass is turning green, the sun is shining.
Upon landing in Plovdiv, we found the temperature overboard +10. But the meeting agents calmed down - there is snow in Borovets, though little and only the upper slopes work. Well, thanks for that.

Delicately extinguished conflicts, which, as usually happens, were provoked by a group of compatriots who got drunk to a bestial state while still on the plane (if not in Domodedovo), and now yelling obscenely at the whole bus, demanding to "stop pissing" every five minutes, etc. It was especially unpleasant when, in the presence of the Bulgarians, they loudly sneered at the poorness of Bulgaria (from which Russia, except for Moscow, actually did not go far, and would hardly have left at all if it were not for oil prices).

Representatives of the travel agency actively impose in advance to order ski rental and instructors from them. Do not hurry. The resort itself has more choices. Find an instructor yourself, if necessary, and bargain. Also with skis - skis offered by Solvex - from the rental of the Samokov hotel. You yourself will take them there. We booked a rental from Moscow for 6 days at once, in the end we rode three. They could take it on the spot and not pay for unused days.
With ski passes, everything is not so simple - for a smaller number of days they are more expensive. Here it is necessary to immediately estimate with the weather and opportunities.

If you have children of a "transitional" age - I mean 12-13 years old, that is, when they are still children, and they demand payment as for adults - do not order anything in Moscow. Present the child on the spot, say - "I need children's skis" and that's it. Documents will not be asked. The same with skipass.

Returning to the instructors - if you are trying skiing for the first time - do not succumb to the guides' provocations. It was funny to me, by God, how they turned teapots: "the first time, take an instructor for six days for a full day. Next year, take another three days and it's fine. " I saw how these instructors teach there. Group of 15 people; the track - there is nowhere greener to go, you still have to push off with sticks. And there, for three days, people learn what it means to stand like a plow. If you teach like that, there are no questions, you will get up on skis in five years.

If you need to get up on skis - two days is enough for you, but you need the slope to be normal, and the training is individual (well, maximum, 3-4 people). So study in Donbay, in Sheregesh, but not in Bulgaria. Or you can not learn at all - all my normally riding acquaintances (and myself) learned on their own. You just have to climb up and roll head over heels. On the second day you will move out. On the second trip, you will whistle around these "instructor students" who get in the way. Of course, your stance will be wrong. And the technique will not be correct. But you don't have to compete! It is advisable to read a book on skiing (you came across on the internet - download it) - find out in theory at what width to keep your legs, what a plow is, how to fall correctly and where to transfer weight when turning. The instructor will not give you more anyway (at least in Bulgaria), but you will give him, and not a little.

Hotels.
Chamkoria was presented to us as 4 *. They say there are two parts - one 3 *, the other - 4 *. We took two double suites 4 * - one for ourselves, one for the children.
On the spot it turned out that the hotel has 3 *, but one half was recently renovated. We got one suite in it, the children - in the next building, which was not repaired, it is connected by a transition to the first one.

Our room for 4 * by local standards, perhaps, pulled. Refurbishment and furnishings are simple, but quite fresh. The bathroom has a bath with shower, sink, toilet, bidet, heated floor. There is a TV set, a telephone (not in all rooms) that works only inside the hotel, a minibar and a hair dryer. The children's room was smaller, did not have a telephone and the renovation was not the first freshness. And their body generally resembled some kind of hospital in the impoverished depths of Russia.

The hotel itself is 3 * pulls with difficulty. Service at the hotel is extremely "not intrusive". They do not speak Russian or, with a few exceptions, plain English.
They communicated with gestures and pictures. Bulgarian guests who understand Russian or English helped. The attitude of the attendants is like in Russia in the provinces. Frankly they are not rude, but they do not express friendliness either. The girl at the reception was a frank brake (maybe brand new? ). For her, everything was a problem - to find the keys to the room that we handed over, deal with the ski bus, and so on. On the day of departure, she forgot to write out half of the people papers that confirm that you lived in a hotel (they are asked at the departure at the Bulgarian customs). For the minibar, I almost forced her to accept money (she was reluctant). They don’t remember about it at all - they don’t replenish it, and they don’t ask when checking out.


Problems with hot water are considered normal (we didn’t have them - except perhaps only during intensive analysis, and the neighbors complained), with heating. Cleaning in the room - only on special request (maybe so accepted? ).
Someone did not have enough towels, but fresh ones were brought to our room with each cleaning, and the old ones were not taken away, as a result, by the end of the stay, the room resembled a warehouse of dirty towels.

Separate song lobby bar. The bartender is very similar to a vampire - terrible black circles around the eyes on half a face (apparently health problems) and the same problems with communication. You ask him to pour some long-drink cocktail for his wife (there’s no time for fat, what he knows, let him do it), he nods, like “understood, brother” and pours 100 grams of beefeater gin. Built into the bar is a rusty, dirty sink where he rinses his measuring cups. He applies ice with his hands, wiping them with a previously dirty towel. In general, you can only take sealed bottles from him.

Restaurant. Feeding of a similar level. Omelet, a couple of varieties of sausages (delicious), sausages, a couple of varieties of cheese, yogurt. In the evening, roasted meat or kebabs can be added.
In general, the conditions are not Spartan, but close to them. If you are spoiled by the buffets of 5* and 4* hotels in civilized Europe or the Maldives, you will be shocked.
New Year. Was in a general restaurant. From animation - some dance groups. The table is garbage, except that the piglets on the spit were delicious. Well, we don’t need animation, we are animation ourselves, so we did it normally, it wasn’t enough to go to the power center. There in the hotel there is a type of night club - a room with a bar and powerful speakers - we danced there. And they drank with the hotel workers. It's funny this way: I take three identical cocktails from the bartender, he kind of shows me 13 leva on his fingers. I am his friend, 13 is not divisible by three. He consulted with the girl at the reception, she translates to me: fourteen. In general, they constantly distorted the prices, but given the fact that they are still cheap, they did not pay attention to this.

The hotel has a swimming pool, quite acceptable (although in Lyon, of course, better). Someone wrote that the water is cold - did not notice. It is free, but the sauna, Turkish steam room and jacuzzi are paid, but the price is somehow not serious - like 5 levs per hour per person. The only negative is that no one limits the number of people, so it can be full of people. At the same time, the shadows in the sauna are dead and it is normal only if you warmed up for 3-4 hours and you are the first in it. And our stupid people also splash water on the stones - after that it’s generally cold there. Turkish steam room nothing.

Currency. It is necessary to change, the stump is clear, in the bank. There are a couple of branches in the center, the euro goes there for 1.94 leva, just like in banks in Sofia. In exchangers - the rate is 1.90. In the hotel 1.80 (I changed a hundred there with a fool - in vain). When exchanging, keep certificates - without them they will not change back (suddenly there will be a lot of extra ones? ). Prices are generally low. In a hotel, let's say, a bottle of beer is 2 local leva, 4 - canvas. In the center in supermarkets a little less.
By the center, I mean the center of the resort, that is, where the hotels of Samokov and Rila are located. And so, in Sofia, for example, prices are 1.5-2 times lower. Skis of the last season (new, of course), with bindings, Tapa Head or Rossignol for 6.000 - 1.000 rubles can be found in the resort, in Sofia there was no corresponding store.

The center is full of small cozy bars and restaurants - that's where, indeed, the food is delicious, and the staff is friendly. Lunch for about 10 euros per person with beer. Evening with wine - about 12 euros. Portions are usually huge, don't order too much. In general, the center is very colorful. It smells of smoke, kobaskas are hung around, skewers over the fire with piglets and lambs, national interiors and exteriors.

So do not take HB, BB is better, and dine in restaurants. If the hotel is far from the center (it takes 25-30 minutes to walk to Chamkoria. They will say 15 - do not believe it if you run) you can take a taxi or a horse (there are a lot of them in the center.

Before Chamkoria, we first paid them 15 leva, bargaining with 20. Later it turned out that the normal price for a horse is 8-10 leva). On the territory of the resort, a taxi to any end is 10 leva. To Sofia and back by taxi - 150 leva, and we have not yet bargained, if you go by the meter - it will be 50 leva one way, but they do not like to carry the meter. So if you go to Sofia - take a taxi, for four it's cheaper than the excursions organized by Solvex (40-50 leva per person), but you don't need a guide there anyway, you can see the Alexander Nevsky Church without him. By the way, you can buy souvenirs near the temple - antiques there are 1.5-2 times cheaper than in Borovets in the center. And plates - magintiki, in my opinion, are the same everywhere, including at the airport in Plovdiv (only there is no choice there).

Finally, and most importantly: the tracks. It was not really possible to evaluate them properly, as I said, we only rode for three days, there was little snow and not all of them worked. There are two main mountains.
One, which is larger, is led by a gondola lift ("cabin lift" - in their language). There is a stop in the middle. There were no suitable trails down from it. It was possible to ride from the top stop to the middle one, and there was a fork - to the red track (the ground was visible, but you can ride) and to the black one. The latter is not very steep (albeit narrow), but all in stones. On my skis, I would not have gone there, it's a pity. Rolling all tore.

It was possible to climb a little more on foot from the top station of the gondola - and a couple of tow ropes worked there, one for a completely children's track, one for the "blue" one. But it was not interesting there - the tracks are short, there are a lot of people.

The second slide starts 100 meters to the side of the bottom station of the cabin lift (near the Rila hotel). It has snow cannons. Only a very "green" yoke worked there and we did not ride there. As it turned out, on the last day a tow bar started working in the middle of the mountain, but we didn’t know about it and missed the cool fresh wet snow.
The first three days we rode and watched with longing as the tracks melted more and more. On the first of January we overslept. The second gondola was closed due to the wind and we left for Sofia (as it turned out, at 13-00 the lift was opened and people rode, although the wind was strong). The rest of the days it snowed, but a storm raged on the big mountain and they were not allowed to go there (although the sun was shining below and there were people on the small mountain).


In general, judging by the map, there is where to go. And there are plenty of lifts - there should be no queues. What is nice - the slopes are not bare, but a forest grows. But we broke off with snow. And after 07.01, I think it was great there. Even when there is a storm, you can ride on a smaller mountain, it is covered from the wind, and if you ride from above it should be good.

Summary of hotels. As we understand, the Council of Deputies are all around. We heard complaints from guests of other hotels, full-fledged 4 *: the lack of cleaning in the rooms, the lack of blankets and pillowcases (! ).
You just need to know it, tune in to it and not demand too much. If you are ready for this - go, you will not regret it. But it's better not to take Chamkoria. Take something in the center - Rila or Samokov. We liked Eden very much (outside, we were not inside. On one side, in the center - 3 minutes to the ski lift, on the other side, a little to the side and does not go to the noisiest street). I liked Leon, but he is also far away (300 meters closer to the center than Chamkoria). In general, there are small family hotels there, they are probably more expensive, there is no pool, but it seems to me that the service there is much better and more comfortable. Only I did not come across such in Moscow in agencies. We talked with one Krasnodar resident who stayed in one of them - he liked everything, only he was only Russian there, the rest were English.
In general, the contingent there is 40% Russian, 25% local, 25% British. The Germans, the French came across once.

You can have a great rest there. We do not regret that we went.
Everything is very democratic, the prices are low, the tracks are acceptable.

By the way. I do not recommend buying anything at the kiosk at the middle station of the gondola lift - everything is disgusting there. I recommend mulled wine at the bottom right in front of the entrance to the gondola station (they call it "hot wine", and if you say "mulled wine" they strive to bring "green tea") - very tasty. On the mountain, the same mulled wine - sucks.
Good luck.