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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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 .
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.