off to bulgaria on friday with the missus for 6 weeks of sunshine, biking and beer at 50p a pint! quality. can anyone beat that?

heading over for a family holiday for 2 weeks next month and have managed to organise 2 days biking 🙂

where part are you going too and what company are you using?

[pi$$ on bonfire]

Packing in work, travelling around Europe in a camper with bird and bikes, until we come back.

[/pi$$ on bonfire]

But I'm sure you'll have fun on your little trip too 🙂

6 week holiday? surely work related? although im not sure what works out there apart from bar work 🙂

Having been to Bulgaria a few times, my missus worked out there for a year, I can safely say I'm really not that jealous!

Some of the scenery and some of the women are decent to look at, but on the whole it's a bit of sh!t hole.

its nice for a week away and cheap beer, the flights out there are usually full of the scummiest/chavviest/dirty families you will meet this side of blackpool 🙂

not that im a snob or anything 😉

seriously once your there its like any other beach holiday, but cheaper!

what parts of Bulgaria have you been to poisonspider?

ive only seen sunny beach, and on route to sunny beach – its a bit like beiruit up to sunny beach…

sunny beach itself has a lovely beach (the name gives it away) and going to the right bars at night its ok…just like any other beach holiday, though you get alot more for your money!

Varna, Stara Zagora, Sofia (which was OK to be fair), Haskovo (hell hole), Plovdiv, Dimitrovgrad (one horse town) and Borovets (mountain resort in the summer, urgh!)

do you think Borovets would be any good in the Winter time as a cheap skiing holiday?

i'm an hour inland from varna,(dragoevo) been several times. got a number of my own routes. not massive mountains, but like wales(without the rain)
As for travelling around europe in a camper van; i'll be coming back to my pool and ice cold beer every day, not sharing with sweaty sox! p%$ on that IHN
Dont go to sunny beach et al; minging places at rip off prices.

apparently borovets ok for beginner/ intermediate ski'ers at great price, but if you are any good you will get bored.

We toured through Bulgaria on the way to Turkey a few years ago. I quite liked it. We particularly liked Veliko Tarnovo where we had a rest day. The roads were worse than any we saw this side of Sudan, though. I don't remember things being that cheap, though.

I went skiing to Borovets this winter and had a great time. There aren't that many runs but it's obvious your not going to get an Alpine resort for that kind of money. It's a good place to go to learn but anyone used to years of blasting down alpine reds and blacks and would be dissapointed.

veliko tarnovo is really nice, roads are shocking. when they repair them they patch the potholes rather than sections; thus some roads are like the moons surface. no money for the places not visited by foreigners. as for prices; anywhere not a tourist place is ridiculously cheap. can eat out at a decent restaurant, drinks, coffees etc for about £6 each

Don't know much about Borovets for skiing, although as mentioned by someone earlier, the fact that it is (perceived to be) cheap means you get alot of neg-ends going there for a bargain holiday.

Oh and by the way, watch out for the Gypsies and the mafia!

Before anyone gets all high and mighty about being racist etc. I've seen it with my own eyes!! Gypsies (proper Romany ones) are treated as the lowest of the low, consequently they have no choice but to revert to pick-pocketing, begging and theft to survive.

As for the mafia, I've never seen as many big, blacked out, BMW's as I did in Bulgaria. A friend of my missus was car-jacked and then asked/told to 'insure' it with a local crim if she wanted to get it back. Nice place!

would echo poisonspider about gypsies, treated really badly. as for mafia, certainly around but i've been going to bg for a few years, spending considerable time there and been ok. once had to get money out of the boot of a blacked out merc when the cashpoint was broken. it was ok cos we were surrounded by blokes with machine guns…and we got a receipt!

to be fair though I've been to Bulgaria and it's sh!t, even if the beer was free I'm not sure I'd go back, think I'd rather go to Belguim.

Sure you'll have a blast 😀

Remember that nodding your head means no and shaking your head means yes. So if some mafia bod says :

"Don't say a word, can I have your bike and do you want to die?" get it right

as for the biking. if you are a proper mtb'er, ie can find your way around(not like trail centre junkies) there are some great trails; old paths, goat tracks etc that add up to some top biking.

I jest of course 🙂 Bulgaria is loverly and I'm jealous.

Belguim is sh!t though

does'nt belgium make some great beers though?

and chips and lace and Audrey Hepburn

Doesn't redeeem it though

Hercule Poirot?

fair enough, audrey hepburn? what a bizarre fact.

wow, i sounds amazing. how much are u planing to waste?

even with about £350 total fuel costs it will still work out cheaper for me & the missus than living at home for 6 weeks. On top of the fuel we will spend about another £150ish i reckon

So far, been to Picos de Europa, Sierra de Gredos, Some random places in Extramadura, now have 4 weeks in Andalucia checking out the Alpujarras, Sierra de Malaga/Nieves etc, then i'll be moving back up North via Sierra Epspuma and the Pyrenees for a few weeks.

One week of this……….. 😛 Only a week to go now, Verbier here we come !

mackem,i think you beat me!. biking hols are ace ain't they. we are all winners; just think of those poor souls grafting whilst we are leaving tyre marks under blue skies