Anyone been? Specifically Horizon festival, whats the skiing like? As its a big factor to me because i might go to the alps for a week instead if its poor. Thanks Callum
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
anybody?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Do a search. There should be some old threads knocking around.
First two years skiing there. Had great fun, had a really nice teacher who taught me and g/f a really solid set of basics (though from talking to others, your experience may vary...).
Was v. cheap and good value for us, but been to the Alps every year since. Having now been further afield, I would go back out of interest, but not for my main holiday.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Where else would you go? If it's Verbier, Zermatt, 3 Valleys, Val D'Isere then you might get a shock....
After all it is free
After all it is free
Wasn't there a Snowheads thread a few years back that showed a mountain hut in Bankso with a toilet that had a special sewage method? There was a photo as well. And someone who experienced the waste from said toilet.
Anyone remember?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
@Dougie, Borovets IIRC and hope the OP is searching for Bansko not Bankso
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
I went to Bansko about 20 years ago and found it interesting. It was an old world walled Balkan village with a nice hotel, but we stayed in a guest house. I still remember the coal stove in the corner and the chimney that snaked around the room extracting the maximum heat from the fire. And the horses and carts trotting around the town. Until then I didn't really understand what hobbling a horse actually meant. To get up to the ski area you got an ex military truck up to the base area where you could hire skis and boots. If you were lucky they matched. Though the skiing was poorer that Borovets I actually really liked the primitiveness of it.
Oddly I was speaking to an old Serbian friend just before Christmas and he also remembered the trip with great fondness.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Have you been their recently?
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
@treeslayer, I've been a number of times recently. @Levi215,s write up is a fair description. There are definitely no dodgy mountain hut toilets as described above. The lift infrastructure is modern and efficient and the resort is cheap. I think there are around 75km of pistes, so small compared to major alpine resorts. I was there during last years horizon festival went to a couple of the on mountain parties at the secret hotel and another on the ski road but we didn't go to my of the nightclub parties. the festival itself if a series of events at various places throughout the week. We found it hard to find any information beforehand. It's certainly a different experience to France/Austria.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
thanks joydivision, really struggling to find any info about the festival at all, was it busy? and still cheap during the festival or do they hike the prices up for the festival
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@treeslayer, Yes the night life was definitely busier than normal that week, but the slopes didn't seem any busier I guess because everyone was still in bed with hangovers. I think the Horizon events tended to be held at the more pricey places in town but I don't think they bumped their prices up. A beer still worked out cheaper than back in the UK. Generally you'll pay the most for a beer in the resort owned mountain huts and the bars closet to the Gondola (i think about 5 Lev??/£2). The further you explore, the cheaper the beer and you can certainly get one for under £1.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Never been for the festival, but usually try to go once a year for a cheap weekend, I'd describe it as a break with skiing rather than a skiing break. runs are generally easy, beer is cheap and it's quite fun to have a couple of days blasting around. If you are looking for a week or more, and for challenging terrain, it's probably not the right choice to keep you occupied. But if you want a cheap short break that's fun and won't destroy your wallet, then you can't really go wrong!
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
You can find the stick Toilet on youtube .
Georges bar borovets Bulgaria it was also screened on Rubetube ... it is funny .
Never been for Horizon but went to Bansko for 5 days last year because we have a friend who's got an apartment out there and was pleasantly surprised. Yes, the amount of pistes is fairly limited but there is some good tree skiing to be found too which bumps up (no pun intended) the available terrain. Thought the quality of the skiing available was actually pretty good. I think there are three blacks (including one used for a Women's World Cup event while we were there) and the reds are generally proper reds.
Tend to agree with @mikeholmes25 that you should treat it as a holiday with some skiing rather than as a main ski holiday although that depends on your level and how far you like to ski. As others have already said, food and drink is great value compared with resorts in the Alps etc but stay clear of the restaurants around the gondola station and at the other lifts which serve up bland, dull food and look for the smaller huts off the sides of the pistes in the woods where you can great value local dishes (and beer). It can be a bit of an adventure getting to these but worth the effort. There is some pretty good apres to be had in the bars immediately at the bottom of the ski road and we found that Amigos with its live bands was a blast in the evenings.
Lessons in Bansko are really good value too - we used Method (an English run school) which covers ski and snowboard for some private lessons.
It's all a bit rough around the edges but that's part of its appeal to me. We definitely enjoyed it enough to be going back this year (although we are lucky enough to be able to fit in three ski trips a year). So if you aren't looking to do high mileage or for massively challenging skiing then Bansko is totally worth a look given how cheap it can be.
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