Well where do I start. I must say some of these reviews are harsh to say the least. What I will say is that if you are going expecting a 4 * hotel you are going to be bitterley dissapointed. Having said that if you are going on a Ski holiday to ski and not lounge around int he hotel then it is more than adequate. The hotel itself is dated and more like a british 2*. My wife and I found it incredibly amusing actually with the decor being some what 80's. It really is like stepping back 20 years. Despite that the rooms and hotel were warm and clean. In reality apart from sleeping we were only in the rooms for a couple of hours a day. They were cleaned every day with clean bedding twice a week. I must note the bedding consisted of a sheet and woolen blanket but as stated the hotel was very warm. The facilities at the hotel are also very dated the pool was freezing and the bowling alley had seen better days. Again as long as you are going for the skiing then this is a minor point.

In relation to the resort we found it reasonable in terms of pricing. You could eat out at the Titanic bar (main course and drinks) for around £10 a head. This is far cheaper than you will find in any other ski resort I can assure you. As a warning you will find that in your first 2 days there are guys outside each bar offering free drinks. They are nothing more than a minor nuisance and did not pose any sort of threat. Drink prices varied between around £1.50 for a coke in the town to £2.20 on the slopes.

The skiing wasn't the best but that was down to a week of boiling heat and the last snow being over 2 weeks before our arrival. The ski instructor (Angel) was excellent and his english was great. I would recommend trying to be in his group. Also the snowboard instructor (Martin) was good too also having excellent english. The Gondola queues were bad but this again was due to the fact that the snow on the lower slope was very poor so pretty much everyone had to go to the upper slopes.

Overall we had an enjoyable experience and as long as there is good snow it is a great resort which s still a lot cheaper than many european resorts. As long as you can take the accomodation with a pinch of salt then its a great place to go.

Hi

I thought I would write a review as I read some of these before I left and they made me unnecessarily nervous.

I have stayed in a lot of hotels around the world and the Samokov is not really a 4 star hotel, but it is far better than I was expecting and to be fair it is in Bulgaria not Andorra. The hotel was warm and comfortable and the facilities were really good. I didn't use the pool, but one of the girls in my group did say it was a bit cold.

The bathroom was ok: the bath wasn't sealed around the edges, but it's not like it is your own house so you don't need to worry! The shower was lovely: very powerful and lots of hot water. The room itself was big with a good view. We were on the 5th floor and I didn't hear the nightclub or any of the bars.

The reception staff weren't exactly leaping over themselves to help, but they did what was needed.

The food seemed to get a lot of stick on some of the review; it wasn't great, but I'm not sure what people were expecting from half board, in my experience it is always a bit borderline. Having said that; there was a range of food so you could always find something to eat. We ate out one night at the Chinese next to the hotel (Red Dragon); the food was ok, but the portions are MASSIVE. We are both big eaters and we could easily have shared one dish. Another friend in my group went to the mexican (Mamacitas) and said the food was really nice, but they were fully booked one night so it might be worth booking. If you are going self catering, I wouldn't expect to be eating in much as the supermarkets don't really have anything you could use to make a meal.

The resort wasn't as cheap as it probably was a few years ago. it was about 5 Lev for a beer and between 7 and 10 Lev for a cocktail. Soft drinks were about 3 Lev for an orange juice and 5 for a water. The meals we had during the day came to about 35 lev for 2 of us for a burger/pizza type meal.

All in all I had a wonderful hotel and I had nothing to worry about after I had read some of the reviews. I would most definately return to the same resort, however I would prob go self catering.

Hope this helps.
Vikki

There are things that the hotel cannot be blamed for - delayed outbound flights, missing suitcases, poor snow conditions, 2 hour queues for the gondola, huge groups of rowdy lads who used to shout and holler all night long, broken legs, delayed inbound flights and very expensive resort prices but a good hotel would have softened the blow somewhat. The Samokov Hotel was one of the first in Borovets, and it's not been touched since it was built.

It looked shabby from the outside, the whole hotel was unbearably hot. The beds were comfy but very low down and the bed linen was made of straw, or so it seemed. The bathroom smelt damp and musty and the tiny separate toilet smelled like a urinal. The food was okay, better than the brochure and previous reviews suggested but not exactly brilliant.

Our 'cleaners' made the beds every day but did not dust or even rinse out glasses. A glass used on day 2 for some disolvable asprin was still dirty when we left to come home. The doors did not lock properly and we had 2 items go missing from our room (a box of contact lenses and a bottle of vodka).

The in-house GP was called upon for one of our party and he was excellent - very thorough and could not do enough to help.

The pool area was nice but you had to pay extra to use the sauna, steam room etc, these have been included when we have stayed in other Bulgarian ski hotels.

Thankfully we were in a group of 8 so we were able to have a good time despite all the downs but if I was asked whether I would recommend this hotel I would advise people to go to another Bulgarian resort, possibly Bankso where we had a fantastic hotel or another country entirely !!!

On a plus side, they gave us 4 adjacent rooms, there was always a table for all 8 of us at breakfast, the gondola was just over the road and they ordered us a birthday cake for a birthday while we were there. Sadly though, not enough to say that we cam home totally disappointed.

First let me say that I stay in hotels all over Europe everyday I am at work, so can speak with some authority as to what makes for a good hotel.

There is no way the Samokov Hotel is a 4 star hotel.

On first arrival at our room I could not open the door. Clearly the lock was not functioning properly and the door had evidently been forced open and repaired before. Housekeeping came along and after much messing about managed to unlock the door. I tried but still couldn't unlock it. Housekeeping were content to open it again and then left us to sort out how to open it the next time we got back to the room, at which time, of course, the problem recurred. The 'technician' was called, and he demonstrated that it could be opened provided that I insert the key, and then align the knob on the inside of the door so that I could fully insert the key and unlock the door. I asked for it to be properly repaired or my room changed. Both requests fell on deaf ears. So we spent the week fiddling with the door lock each time we left or returned to the room.

The room is basic. No safe (that's another 28 Lev at reception for a strongbox), no pad or pen to jot notes on, the mini-bar was empty, and the TV was a 14" screen, and featured 2 English language channels (National Geographic and Euronews). Surprising, given that at least 50% or more of the guests are British.

The bathroom floods everytime the bath/shower is run, or the sink is used because there is no seal between the outlets and the drain hole in the floor. The bath is not sealed around the wall, so when you are brushing your teeth with the wife taking a shower you'll get wet feet. (No bath mat is provided as clearly it would be soaked in seconds) Apart from 2 bars of soap and 2 sachets of shampoo and a hairdrier there is nothing else provided, such as tissues (toilet paper has to suffice). And on one occasion when the floor flooded and we needed to dry it so we could get at the sink, I found excrement on the bottom of the door which was subsequently smeared across the floor before noticed it!!

The bedsheets weren't big enough for the two single beds we had in our room, and could not be tucked in down the sides of the matress, so the bed linen came unravelled every night.

We had a room at the back of the hotel were dogs barked inceasently every night from about 2:00 a.m. until 4:00 a.m.

Food was mediocre, and tea and coffee was not included with dinner , and had to be paid for.

The staff were charmless, and the reception staff were perhaps the most unfriendly and most unhelpful I have ever come across.

We rented ski boots and skis from the Samokov Ski School. Again the staff were dreadful. If you didn't accept the the first pair of boots they gave you to try on you would think, from the way they looked at you , that you had just said something rude about their mothers. The skis were not properly adjusted and no matter how many times I asked them to adjust them properly, I just got looked at like I had insulted them.

The Samokov is in need of a major overhaul. It may suit those on a budget, but for those expecting a 4 Star hotel at 4 Star prices then you are going to be mightly dissapointed. I have to say the hotel spoilt our holiday experience.