Read This First

Thanks for visiting. 

If you're thinking about heading out to Bulgaria, or anywhere else for that matter, for a bit of snowboarding (or even skiing) and you're willing to troll through pages and pages of drunken rambling about nothing really, then you might pick up the odd tip here and there.

In fact, if you've never been before have a look at the page called, 'What to Expect' that should answer any questions you may have about the first morning.

I've skied and boarded all over, from a small resort just outside Las Vegas to Scotland in lashing rain, to Australia during an earthquake, and although there are arguably better resorts out there, I always seem to have a memorable time in Bulgaria, both on and off the slopes.

These are diaries written for fun, based on notes taken at the time by me or other people who were there. The notes were then put in a drawer and only found again when looking for the remainder last year's lev.

2013's report may appear one day but 2004 - 2011 are complete and if you've got a spare day and a half, they'd love it if you read them.

Introduction

My trip to Bulgaria in March 2013 was the thirteenth time I've been to the country, and the twelth time I've been there snowboarding.
My first trip was in 1989 when I was a young daft boy on an incredibly cheap trip to Albena as the then communist Bulgaria started to open its doors to visitors. It was a weird place that hadn't quite grasped the finer points of tourism ... spaghetti bolognese served from a steaming vat onto paper plates as a beach side snack springs to mind as a good example of not-quite-getting-it. There were also 'dollar-shops' where only tourists, with our hard currency of dollars or sterling, could sample the good

Old Style Lift Pass from 1999

Later, at the end of the 90's (after the fall of communism in most Eastern European countries), I worked as a supervisor on a dry ski slope and was told about this mega cheap resort called Borovets where Beer was 40p and you could ski or board for next to nothing. They were right! One day I forgot to lift my hat and gloves, and bought a hat, gloves and scarf set up in the resort for a little under £3.I then moved to London to get a proper job and forgot about winter sports for a while ... that is until early January 2004 when I got chatting to people on a website I used to write for, who were all heading off to Bulgaria. I've been there I thought! It was cheap! I could afford that, couldn't I?Turns out that I could, so every year since, sometimes twice a year, I've had my fix of snowboarding action. I actually started out on skis in my early days in Scotland, but saw the light early on, and have been boarding most of my adult life. (Although I will don the odd pair of skis, just to remind myself that yes, I can still do it, and no, I don't really like it as much.) So this is written from a boarding point of view, but there's something for everyone, two-planker or gay on tray ... as we've been know to call each other.

It's certainly not as cheap as it once was, not by a long way in fact, but the resorts, Pamporovo, Borovets and Bansko have improved and expanded by a factor that would have been unthinkable a few years back. (I know there are at least twenty other resorts in Bulgaria, but I'm focusing on the big three available to the UK market.)

So here is a collection of reports and travel guides I've posted on various websites, mainly http://www.skidvd.co.uk/ and http://www.bulgariaski.com/. As of 2005, an almost constant companion has been my very good mate Stu, who has been good enough to keep a diary to remind me what we got up to ... even on the nights we'd rather forget. I mention where it's his scribblings and not mine.

The benefit of posting the reports here means I can add photos and embed videos. You'll notice that the quality of the photos improves year by year, as camera phone technology improves; and also my boarding comes on leaps and bounds as I go from novice, to intermediate, to instructor (albeit only an ASSI at a dry slope and at Glasgow's Xscape for a while) ... and back to intermediate again.

Enjoy.