The Skyline Festival’s week-long decadence is a fresh reason to visit skiing Bansko in the winter. A newcomer to European electronic music, Horizon makes the most of Bansko’s terrain with parties in remote mountain hotels.
Extremely affordable ski and festival packages are available and Horizon even arranges money transfers from Sofia, Plovdiv and Thessaloniki. Bansko also offers great warm weather activities including hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, horseback riding and rafting.
Intermediate skiers and beginners and boarders will find an excellent network of piste in the mountains. That’s served by a mixture of uncovered chairs and pulls. Overall, advanced terrain is a bit scarce, but beginners and middlemen can explore many blue and red runways.
On clear days, with fine snow underfoot, it’s hard to overcome Bansko’s combination of long, wide and varied runs. A skiing campaign to open a second gondola is underway. But may not overcome the restrictions placed on it for further development in the national park.
Canny skiers who try to avoid delays of up to one hour have tended to join the row of gondola when opening. But the word has spread and now early morning queues could be the worst thing of the day. An alternative, in the form of free buses for people with lifts passing, only partially relieves the pressure.
Unshielded seats can also have problems during high winds. Because the most exposed elevator closes recreate the experience of the gondola. Basically, when the resort is full and winds up, wait.
And the sooner you adjust to the Bulgarian queue. If there is a patch of white snow in front of you, move forward and the demon will rise, the sooner you will run away.
Pamporovo Located in the Rodopi mountain range, Pamporovo is lower than Bansko and offers a similar blend of beginner. Prices are similar too, while slightly smaller networks and lighter terms are more common.