ski bansko

İn the entrance of gondola, on the right side at Ulen ski school, ask for İllian. He adores his job and very patient teacher. İ strongly recommend

In the whole week we were in Bansko there was no snow but don't fear they have snow cannons or devil cannons as I call them. Devil because after the huge mounds of snow form close to them it is very easy to sink in and fall over. I read in the reviews alot of people complaining about the gondella queue. We never had a problem as persons attending the ski school were given a fast pass for the queue. Good choice of slopes but be aware of maniacs. Keep your whits about you. There are alot if crazy people that ski far to fast putting others in danger. Someone crashed into me at high speed and I saw several nasty accidents.The food on piste is very expenive for Bulgaria. We often needed an essential drink after some hard core skiing and it cost approx £2 for a bottle of water. There is however an excellent bar/ restaurant near to the bottom of the mountain. It is just off the long blue slope that takes you from the top to the bottom gondella station. Food and drink here is exellent and very cheap. There is a sort of wooden fence where people leave skis and a very icy path down to the restaurant. Most of the seating is outside on benches. The perfect stop for a light lunch or beer. Toilets here are very basic and you will have to pay with cash.I found that by the afternoon many of the slopes became dangerous as the snow was compacted to ice.

Very good ski resort with wide slopes of different levels. If you will be as lucky as i was you can also visit some world class trophy in slalom.

As a fairly experienced skier, this was our second skiing holiday in Bansko, generally driven by the incredibly priced skiers pack (pass/equipment/tuition) for my wife, and again we had a good week skiing in what was very good conditions. Bansko offers a good sized mountain with varied terrain, hindered by an inadequate gondola. Bottom line if you don't get there early you may end up with a long queue! The mountain itself has a modern infrastructure with little queuing for lifts and if you carefully in choosing your pistes can find them not too crowded. That said there is questionable grading of some of the blue runs, more like red, and the properly graded blues are far too busy and at time dangerous with the speed of some skiers. From personal experience I was taken out and injured by a clearly experienced skier, so some of the slope etiquette is certainly questionable. That said Bansko does offer a good weeks skiing at bargain prices!Good-decent size mountain, varied terrain, nice tree lined slopes. modern infrastructure, ski road back to bansko, excellent value.Bad-Gondola, long queues at gondola, questionable grading of some blue slopes, very busy and at times dangerous blue slopes, expensive mountain restaurants (at Bulgarian levels).

The site is good for beginners since it is relatively cheap, but the quality of the instructors are low.End of March could be the end of the season.

The Bansko ski resort is something not expected in Bulgaria, but easily found in Austria! Excellent organization, well treated slopes, perfectly equiped. Numerous slopes and lifts, don't permit long quees except for the starting gondola. Even though we had an extremely bad weather, we could see the very good conditions of the resort. Moreover, there are hundreds of Hotels and appartments for every taste and for any budget. Strongly recommended

This ski resort is so affected by having only one way up to the slopes by means of a gondolas (unless you have a car there which most people don't) that your morning hinges on how long you will have to wait till you get the ski area. After waiting in a long line between 35 minutes on a good day to over an hour in others there is still a 25 minutes ride on the gondola itself. This daily ritual is just too much. And then there are the ski renting arrangements in the main shed (in our case #4) where you store the skis but not the ski shoes with which you have to stumble your way back to your hotel or accommodation. And not every one stays at the Kempinski...To all those going on a" package"- avoid the inclusion of equipment hire in it (get the discount instead) and rent it on your own. Not only you will get a much better quality of skis, but you will also avoid the chaotic scenes on the day of new arrivals where hordes of people are trying to get their equipment at the same time and ending up by loosing half a day of skiing. God only can explain why people on buses arriving in the afternoon can't get their skis the same day and not only the next morning. A simple extension of working hours for the benefit of tourists from whom they make a living could do wonders. And another thing- why for getting a ski pass, for which you have already paid you need a deposit for same ski pass refunded at the day you leave. Small amount but process irritating.I could go on and on , especially with the mess during formation of ski groups for instruction but guess by now you get the picture. Have been in many ski resorts all over the world, but this place needs a serious easing of bureaucracy overhauland simply better management.

We have been a few times to Bansko and like the resort - it seems as it gets more popular the Gondola queues get longer which cuts short your ski time. One up the top the queuing is better .Some great hotels and eateries . Ski hire and lessons are cheap .If Bansko is to continue as a good resort a second lift is needed to quell the queues at the base station.Good resort for beginners .

Having paid only £120 for the lift pass for 6 days, I will consider this excellent value for money. There are 3 nursery slopes which are excellent for beginners, having being skiing 2 times before I would class myself as a competent blue-red slope level.I found some of the blues were actually reds in places, and a few of the reds (piste 4) were actually black in places - however being thrown in at the deep end can be an excellent confident boost, although a bit hairy at times.My one critisism is that every morning between 8.30am-10.30am there is at least a 35 minute queue for the gondola. There is currently a petition to get a second gondola, which is most definitely needed. On the way back down, queues are not a problem as there is a nice steady blue run (7km) to the bottom of the mountain. There are plenty of chair lifts and t-bar lifts within the resort, and did not have to queue for more than 5 minutes when on the mountain. Everything in the resort was reasonably priced - 6 lev (£2) for hot chocolate, 16 lev (£6) for pizza, 2 lev for tea/coffee (80p). There are no shops in the resort/mountain, however lots of cafes and restaurants. Absolutely stunning views from the top of the mountain - as expected.We hired skis, poles and boots which were all in good condition, broken and lost items must be paid for.

I am not an expert of skiing but for beginers th slopes are long enough, the lifts are good and the prices are reasonable.

Part of the town closer to the gondola looks like one big hotel, while the other part has oriental Balkan touch. I guess that it looks nicer when it is covered with snow because very often you can find unfinished, ruined hotels or mud fields all over the town. The ski area can be reached only by one gondola, so if you plan to ski during the peak of the season, you will probably wait for an hour or more to reach the ski pistes. At the end of the day, there is beautiful ski road cutting the forest which will lead you back to the beginning of the gondola, but it also can be crowded with skiers (including ones who just learned to ski and oscillate from one side of the piste to the other).Mountain is very green with lot of forest. Ski pistes are not very numerous, but they are very long. So are the rides with the chairs to the top. If you prefer to find some hidden nice track just for yourself, this is not mountain for you. Prices are lower than in e.g. France, but far from cheap.

Despite not having so much luck with the weather, we really loved the skiing with two 6 and 8 yr old kids. Huge selection of blue-to-red slopes, very well maintained slopes. Our most frequent were the Schiligarnik slopes due to the choice of variety of routes down for the kids. We as well liked to take the slower and older chairlift on Balkaniada. Tomba was unfortunately closed because of the womens down hill competetion. Shall anything improve in Bansko - that would be the second planned gondola to come.

Long slopes, not that crowded. There are no toilets on the slopes, you can get food only at 3 places at the bottom of the slope. Be aware that everyone would like to eat between 12:30 to 14:30 so the places will be full. Otherwise enjoy skiing for a reasonable price. Good snow, you can bargain when renting skis in shops on the Pirin street.

Unmaintained ski slopes. Since I have arrived in Bansko, four days ago, I have not seen any ski groomer (Ratrak) working. Due to the poor quality of ski runs is extremely dangerous to ski. So far I have not been in any ski resort with such poorly maintained slopes. What is the worst it likely to remain like that until my departure from Bansko. It seems that there is no any responsibility those in charge for the maintenance of the slopes. They should know that ski pass fee includes maintenance of the slopes.

We were a party of 3 beginners and 2 intermediate skiers. We all had a great time. The instruction was very good. Our instructor taught us well, was very aware of everyone's ability and made good judgements. There was 2 hours instruction in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. No issues with going off and doing our own thing for a session and then rejoining the group. We were there in half term and it was very busy and a bit chaotic on the Sunday morning with everyone starting ski school. Timing the gondola very important, get there at 8 or wait until 11 to avoid long queues. That was the only criticism. We had good snow, especially earlier in the week. It got very warm towards the end but still enough. The slopes were well prepared each morning. Our intermediate skiers commented that some of the blue runs may have been classed as red in some resorts. Our instructor chose the mornings for some slopes to take advantage of this preparation and to avoid ice. Food was reasonably priced, especially at the cafes In the side of the ski road into Bansko.