Borovets: Bulgaria's Oldest Ski Resort, 70 km from Sofia

Borovets is Bulgaria's oldest ski resort and the closest big one to Sofia: a cluster of hotels in the pine forest at 1,350 metres, 70 km from the city, with a gondola up to 2,363 metres. It's where I go when I want a ski day without a long drive. Below is how I get there, what the 2026/27 lift passes cost, which slopes suit whom and what I do up there once the snow has gone.

Is Borovets worth the trip from Sofia?

Yes, for a ski day or a ski weekend. Borovets sits on the northern slopes of the Rila Mountains, 10 km above the town of Samokov, and of all my day trips from Sofia it's the one where the skis go in the boot.

It began in 1896 as Chamkoria, a hunting ground for Bulgaria's rulers, which makes it the oldest winter resort in the country. It took the name Borovets, from bor, the Bulgarian for pine, in the middle of the 20th century. Alpine Ski World Cup races came here in 1981 and 1984, and the Biathlon World Championships in 1993.

Beginners and improvers get the most out of it, because the nursery slopes start right by the hotels. Families do well too. Children under 7 ride the lifts free with a paying adult, and a family card takes 20% off for up to 2 adults with up to 3 children aged 7 to 13. In summer the Yastrebets gondola puts hikers on the path to Musala.

It's the wrong pick for strong skiers wanting a week of steep terrain, with only a handful of black runs.

How to get from Sofia to Borovets

A car is the easy way. Without one, you change in Samokov, the town at the foot of the road up to the resort.

Sofia to Borovets by car

I drive. Road 82 leaves Sofia to the south-east, runs to Samokov and climbs the last 10 km through the pines to the resort, 70 km in all. Bulgaria's roads outside towns need the e-vignette, the electronic road toll, and hire cars normally come with one.

In winter I hire a car with winter tyres and leave Sofia early, so I'm on the gondola by mid-morning. The climb from Samokov is the stretch where snow sits on the road.

Sofia to Borovets by bus via Samokov

Buses to Samokov leave from Sofia's South Bus Station, Avtogara Yug (Автогара Юг), and with skis I get there by taxi from a proper rank. They run as often as every half hour and take about an hour. A few letters of the Cyrillic alphabet help you find the right bay: Samokov is Самоков.

From Samokov Bus Station a shuttle runs up to Borovets at least once an hour between 8am and 6pm. It takes about 20 minutes and stops in front of Hotel Samokov, in the centre of the resort.

Sofia Airport to Borovets

Sofia Airport is the closest airport to Borovets. In winter easyJet and TUI add seasonal flights from Gatwick and Manchester, and most Borovets hotels arrange a transfer when you book. If you'd rather have a night in the city first, the metro from the airport leaves from Terminal 2.

Borovets lift pass prices for 2026/27

The resort publishes its 2026/27 prices on its lift pass price list, in Bulgarian only. Adults are 23 to 64, youth 14 to 22, children 7 to 13, and the youth price also covers anyone 65 and over.

The 6-day pass is the bargain. At 20% off it costs €8 less than 5 days, and you can spread the 6 days across the season. The return ticket is still at its 2025/26 price. Every day pass comes on a reloadable card worth €2.60, already in the price, and a night pass loaded onto a card you own is 5% cheaper.

The slopes at Borovets: Yastrebets, Markudjik and Sitnyakovo

Borovets has 58 km of marked pistes, mostly facing north, that run as high as 2,560 metres. The resort counts 12 lifts and 31 pistes, 13 of them graded red and 4 black, in two areas: the high runs reached by gondola, and the lower runs that come straight down into the village.

Yastrebets and Markudjik, the high runs

The Yastrebets gondola, six seats to a cabin, runs 4,827 metres from the resort up to Yastrebets peak, at 2,363 metres, in about 20 minutes. Up top, the Yastrebets runs are all reds, and Yastrebets 1 comes down in two sections either side of a mid-station. Markudjik has a blue, two reds and Markudjik 2-A, one of the resort's blacks.

A 200-metre carpet lift links Markudjik with the gondola's top station. Markudjik 2, a 950-metre quad chair, and three drag lifts serve the highest slopes. The gentlest way home is the longest run in the resort, 12 km down the maintenance road back to the village.

Sitnyakovo and Martinovi Baraki, the runs above the village

The lower area has the nursery slopes, a blue and two reds each at Sitnyakovo and Martinovi Baraki, and a few short blacks, all ending in the resort. Two chairlifts and several drag tows serve it: the Sitnyakovo Express, a quad chair 1,786 metres long, and the six-seat Martinovi Baraki Express. The Sitnyakovo road, a 6 km green, is the one I send nervous friends down on their second day.

Ski hire and ski school in Borovets

The resort sells hire and lessons as packages with the lift pass, for 2 to 6 days. Group ski lessons last 4 hours, group snowboard lessons 2 hours, and they run from Sunday to Friday. On Saturdays you can only book private lessons, and beginner groups only start on a Sunday or a Monday.

For a first week on skis I'd book the all-in package, €474 for 6 days of lift pass, hire and group lessons, about €79 a day, and arrive in time for a Sunday start.

The best time to ski in Borovets

My pick is late January to early March, when the snow has settled and the Christmas and New Year crowds have gone home. I avoid the February half-term, when UK families arrive on package weeks.

The early booking window opened on 1 November, and in early November the resort's lift and piste status page showed none of its 12 lifts running and 0 cm of snow. I check that page before I drive up early in the season.

On a winter break in Sofia I keep one day for Borovets and spend the rest in the city. Vitosha's ski runs at Aleko suit an afternoon above Sofia, but for a full day on skis I drive to Borovets.

Borovets in summer: hiking Musala

The lifts run a summer season too, and the Yastrebets gondola is the shortest way up Musala. At 2,925 metres it's the highest peak in Bulgaria and on the Balkan Peninsula, with a weather station on top.

From the gondola's top station a path climbs past Musala Hut and the Everest shelter to the summit, about 4 hours up. Walk up from Borovets on the old Musalenska trail instead and you add about 3 hours. It's the hardest of my day hikes near Sofia, and the one I save for a long, clear July day.

For lakes without a summit, the Seven Rila Lakes loop in north-west Rila runs about 8.5 km from the top of a chairlift above Sapareva Banya.

Samokov and Tsarska Bistritsa near Borovets

Tsarska Bistritsa stands in the forest just above the resort, and Samokov is on the road home, so both fit into one rest day off the slopes.

Tsarska Bistritsa, the tsar's hunting palace

Tsar Ferdinand built Tsarska Bistritsa between 1898 and 1914 as his hunting palace, and his son Boris III used it after him. In 2020 the courts handed it back to Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Boris's son and the last tsar, and his sister.

It opens to visitors from Thursday to Sunday, 9am to 5pm. A ticket costs about €3 for adults and €2 for children and pensioners. An hour inside covers it.

Samokov, the town below the resort

Samokov is where the bus and the shuttle meet. I give it an hour on the way home. It was a town of icon painters, and Zahari Zograf, born here, painted frescoes at Rila Monastery.

The Bayrakli Mosque stands just north of the little park in front of the bus station and is now an exhibition hall; you ask at the History Museum to get in. The museum opens from Tuesday to Saturday, 8.30am to 12 noon and 1pm to 5.30pm. One site costs about €3 for adults, and a day ticket to all the town's museum sites about €4.

On the drive back to Sofia the road passes the Iskar Reservoir, about 15 km north of Samokov and the largest artificial lake in Bulgaria, where people fish and take boats out.

Where to stay and eat in Borovets

Borovets is small, and its hotels cluster around the gondola and the bottom of the lower slopes. On a ski weekend I pick by location.

Restaurants on the pistes charge more than the ones down in the village. I eat my big meal at night. For lunch up top I walk to the Yastrebets hut, about 50 metres from the gondola's top station and down a long flight of stairs, which serves local food and has rooms.

Borovets vs Bansko

Bansko is the other big ski resort within reach of Sofia, in the Pirin Mountains to the south.

I treat them as two different trips. Borovets is close enough for a day from Sofia, and Bansko has the old town I want around me for a week.

Is Borovets expensive?

Two adults on a 3-day weekend pay €289.20 for their lift passes, and the 6-day pass, at its 20% discount, works out at €37.60 a day.

The other costs are the hotel, food on the mountain and getting there. A family of 2 adults and 2 children under 7 pays for only 2 lift passes. Bulgaria has used the euro since 1 January 2026, so the resort's prices are what you pay, with no leva to convert.