from Jerusalem, Israel, 05 March 2008, 11:44

Comment: We stayed at the St. George Hotel, which is slightly off the beaten path, but Borovets is a small place so that walking to the lifts or the gondola was no big deal.
The St. George is a small hotel of 29 rooms and 6 "suites" which are actually seperate houses. Each suite has 3 BR and 2 baths, a LR with fireplace and seems nice. We stayed in the regular hotel rooms and had half board. The rooms were a good size and had king beds and a minibar and shower. Everything was very clean and comfortable. They even had wireless internet for free.
Breakfast buffet was adequate, but they have not heard of a warming table so that the scrambled eggs got cold very quickly. The coffee was from a one cup machine and I did not have a hot cup of coffee all week. Dinners, as opposed to what I had heard at other hotels in the town, were individually prepared and there was even a small selection of main dishes including chicken, fish, pork and even a veal steak to choose from on some nights..
One word of warning, the hotel advertises a jacuzzi and a sauna (both wonderful additions after a day on the slopes) There is an extra charge to use these services! For the jacuzzi the charge was 60 Lev or about $US 50 for an hour! Needless to say, we did not use it. All in all, the hotel is basic and recommended.
The skiing is Borovets was OK but nothing special. As other reviews have stated, the lift lines are exhorbinately long. On the second and third day, there was a heat wave (20 degrees C in town) so that EVERYONE went up the gondola to the top, including all the beginners classes. The wait when the gondola openned was over an hour and the trip is another 30 minutes. At the top there are mainly long button lifts, which would be chair lifts in any other European resort. That increased the difficulty of skiing as the ride up was tiring (from squeezing the button between your legs). Also, the restaurants on the mountain were of poor quality and over priced. The ham and cheese toast that I order was barely warm and the cheese not melted. It is recommended to go back to town to eat, but the trade off is an hour down and back plus waiting times.
The prices in Borovets used to be much cheaper and the rise is not commensurate with the rather poor infrastructure. The packages are quoted in Euro although the local Lev is still the currency.
In summary, we had a nice week and the skiing was adequate, despite the warm weather. All reviews