Bulgaria Found to be Best Value Ski Destination for Brits
BalkanTravellers.com
The survey by M&S Money - the Marks & Spencer Financial Services company, compared costs of items purchased on a typical ski trip at winter resorts around the world to find that the cheapest basket was in Bulgaria. At the country’s biggest resort of Bansko, the basket cost £471 (around 530 euro). At the resort of Engelberg, in Europe’s most expensive winter sport destination – Switzerland, which has been popular with Brits, the basket cost £585 (around 660 euro).
Although Bulgaria is a EU-member state, it will not replace its currency - the lev - with the euro until 2012, according to a publication by the Open Press news website. Even though the lev is pegged to the euro, visitors will still find most items cheaper than in other European countries.
An affordable destination in the euro zone was found to be Italy, where a three-course meal for two, including wine cost £56 (around 63 euro) in the resort of Courmayeaur, compared to £75 (around 85 euro) in Flaine, France. As a comparison, according to another survey on the same trend cited by BalkanTravellers.com in December, a three-course meal in Bansko costs £6 (around 6.70 euro) per person while a bottle of beer there costs 80p (around 0.90 euro).
The US was found to remain one of the most expensive ski destinations - the price of a seven-day ski lift pass for one adult there costs £252 (around 285 euro) at the resort of Breckenridge in Colorado, compared to £146 (around 165 euro) in Bulgaria.
Read more about Bansko on BalkanTravellers.com: Travelogue on Bansko and its culinary delights; Route planner, complete with information on how to get there and hotel listings; Information on ski and snowboarding facilities and lift prices; Information on Pirin Mountain and National Park.
Read more about Bulgaria on BalkanTravellers.com
Use BalkanTravellers.com's tips to organize your trip to Bulgaria
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Photogalleries
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A Perfect Shot
Koprivshtitsa Fair, Bulgara. Photographs by Neva Micheva
In Homo Urbanus Europeanus, exhibited May 9-24 in front of the National Theatre in Sofia, Jean-Marc Caracci presents his photographs of people in the urban environment of European capitals.
RED&WHITE SOFIA. On the 1st of March Bulgarians say goodbye to the winter. They buy each other red&white threads to carry around until they see a stork and spring can begin. Photography by Lode Desmet
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs
