16 December 2008 | Winter resorts in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Ukraine are quickly building more accommodation and winter sports facilities in efforts to attract British holiday-makers who are seeking to cut costs amidst the looming recession.

Unprecedented construction is underway on the hills and slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkan and the Rila-Rodopi range, according to a recent publication in the British Independent newspaper. Chairlifts and hotels are being raised at breakneck speed in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Ukraine which are trying to sell themselves on cheap accommodation and cheap price après-ski.

These low-cost alternatives are becoming more and more appealing to British holidaymakers as the pound falls against the dollar and the euro and – according to statistics cited by the publication – about 75 per cent of skiers and snowboarders looking to cut costs.

In a comparison made in the publication, a week's half-board in a four-star hotel in Bulgaria's most popular winter resort Bansko is a third cheaper than three-star accommodation in the French retreat of La Clusaz. A three-course meal in Bansko costs £6 (around 6.70 euro) per person while a bottle of beer costs 80p (around 0.90 euro). At La Clusaz the same dinner and a beer would cost £20 (around 22 euro).

These Eastern European winter resorts seem set to not only on offer cheaper accommodation, but also seemingly a lot of it – as testified by the recent years’ extensive development, which has been a source of serious concern among environmentalists. According to a report by WWF cited in the Independent, the Romanian government is planning to build or expand 30 resorts across the Carpathian Mountains, including projects in eight national parks.

In Bulgaria, roads and slopes are being cut into the mountainsides of the Rila National Park. In Bansko, a new five-star Kempinski Grand Hotel has just been completed at the lift base and the notoriously slow and breakdown-prone lifts have been transformed to match standards found in the Alps.

There is concern – according to the Independent, that much of the new development in the region, funded by national governments and the EU, could be redundant as early as 2030 as global warming renders the relatively low mountains – some as little as 1,500m above sea level – snow-free for much of the winter.

Read more about Bansko in the Special Package on the winter resort by BalkanTravellers.com
Read more about Bulgaria and Romania on BalkanTravellers.com
Use BalkanTravellers.com's tips to organize your trip to Bulgaria and Romania