Worldwide Ski Resorts • Bulgaria • Borovets
Overview
The town of Borovets consists of modern shops and apartment buildings built among a charming woodland setting. The resort is well served by bars and restaurants and has plenty of basic grade accommodation to cater for the huge influx of tourists who arrive each year attracted by the cheap ‘learn to ski’ packages in which Bulgaria tends to specialise and the cheap prices to be found in the shops and bars.
The town reflects the ski and snowboarding scene common throughout the country, where while the people are welcoming and generally very friendly, the ski areas are inclined to be small and poorly groomed, lift equipment primitive, the resort food is rarely appetising and levels of comfort in the hotels less than ideal. Borovets was until recently the favourite Bulgarian winter sport destination for tourists. It has now been usurped by the emergence of Bansko, although it does seem to be fighting back by installing new equipment or upgrading and modernising the local facilities.
Profile
The town stands at 1307m and does not have a particularly good snow record. The local slopes are ideal for intermediate skiers of the better standard as some of the runs can be technically difficult. Expert skiers and boarders will find little to interest them for any length of time.
Although the ski and snowboard schools regularly receive the highest praise, facilities for novice skiers are very limited with small nursery slopes of insufficient capacity and nothing other than one blue run, on which to progress. There is a ski kindergarten at the resort and a ‘non-ski’ nursery in one of the hotels that is open to non-residents. The resort does get very crowded and long queues for the gondola that runs to the top of the main slopes, are common. Skiers should be aware that the pistes are often poorly signed and getting lost is a fairly regular occurrence.
Mountain Information
The resort has around 52 km of pisted runs, most of which are quite tough reds. The ski area is split into 3 distinct sectors. The first two — Markoudjika and Yastrebets are the largest and are accessed via the gondola from the town. They are connected by a lift and a path. Of the two sectors, the Markudjika slopes are the easier. The third sector is known as Baraki and is accessible by a number of lifts. The runs in this sector are quite short.
Borovets — a woodland setting creates a beautiful area for this resort where the hotels are modern and large. There is more on offer for the intermediates here with high easy slopes and steeper longer pistes. Not too much of a challenge for the experts and the nursery slopes can be busy as newcomers prefer the terrain. At night it is buzzing with live music some catering for the 18-30s group. There are folklore evenings and even some pub crawls.
Apres Ski
The nightlife scene in the resort is very lively with a number of discos and clubs providing live music and karaoke. Alcohol is cheap and there are frequent evening fun events organised in the resort that always seem to be very popular. For those bored with skiing there are a number of sightseeing trips available.
Resort Information • Borovets
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Resort Height | 1323m |
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Top Station | 2430m |
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Bottom Station | 1323m |
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Vertical Descent | 1107m |
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Drag Lifts | 10 |
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Chair Lifts | 3 |
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High Capacity | 2 |
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Opening Dates | Nov - April |
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Rating Expert | 4 |
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Rating Intermediate | 7 |
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Rating Beginner | 7 |
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Apres Ski Rating | 7 |
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Snow Reliability | 6 |
