Rila hotel is in Borovets which is best known as a ski resort, but you can get a bargain summer week there. We took RyanAir to Sofia, and the bus from the South bus station to Borovets. In June at the Rila hotel we were paying all in about 80 Euros including dinner and breakfast for a double room occupied by two but that was a group of 24, negotiated by our walking group leader who had visited the area to suss it out the year before.
Looking at Tripadvisor for today, you can get other hotels in Borovets at under 100 euros for bed and breakfast but they sell out fast. Hotel Rila was full with a conference until last Saturday - according to those of our group who arrived a day early, but empty on Sunday and another four days we were there.
Rila hotel is vast and we paid extra to be upgraded to a wonderful room, 855 with a fine view of the green slope, a ski slope in winter, but we were there in summer for walking. The upgrade was 10 leva a day. (The previous room was 858, next door to the services room and beyond that an exit.)
What did I like most about the hotel? Food: The scrambled eggs on the breakfast buffet, the slices of grapefuit and orange. Cinnamon pasty at breakfast. Honey at breakfast. Hot cocoa from the serve yourself coffee machien in the dining room.
Prosecco was served by the glass in the downstairs bar, but not in the restaurant.
Bedrooms? The colourful carpet with red and orange strip patterns highlighting the grey. In the bathroom I like the extra shower attachment by the toilet.
Make sure to try the hot Jacuzzi, maybe the cool indoor swimming pool first because I tried the jacuzzi first and the pool was too cold for me, but if you are short of time, be sure to lie on one of the two heated porcelain loungers in the relaxation area. In summer the spa is open 9-8 pm. it is free to guests but if you are at another hotel you can use it for a guest fee.
If you want to opt for one of the paid extras, various massages are offered including Bulgarian rose, or chocolate - chocolate massage for children, too! The hotel also has a nail bar.
I asked the spa manager what distinguished the hotel where he worked from its neighbours. He said that Rila hotel had been recently renovated. One of the guests told me he had stayed at another local hotel and switched to the Rila because it was so clean.
Aound the corner from Rila hotel in the same huge pyramid shape is another modern hotel, the Samokova, named after the nearby town. With a pool and so on.
Other nice hotels in the area are quite different. The Festa Winter Palace, for example, is smaller and older with a small lobby and a domed ceiling in the dining room like a small chapel. The hotel has an indoor pool.
We made friends with an Israeli group who were staying at the Festa Winter Palace, eating a DIY kosher picnic with kosher wine on a hotel public table, in the lobby, undisturbed by the staff. I asked the group, "How did you manage that?" A buxom lady grinned, "Chutzpah!" (A Yiddish word which translates as astonishing boldness or brazen cheek.) Their tour group leader was Bulgarian.
In one of the shops on the short walk down to the Gondola, I saw and bought
expanding walking sticks with rounded or t shape handles which were 10 leva, about 7 Euros (June 2019 exchange rate). Neither shop could manage a receipt.
The gondola up to the mountain top and back cost 15 leva per person.
Useful Websites For Travellers
ryanair.com
Hotel Rila
www.rilaborovets.com
Festa Winter Palace ski and spa
www.festahotels.com
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and foreign languages to businesses and colleges.
Looking at Tripadvisor for today, you can get other hotels in Borovets at under 100 euros for bed and breakfast but they sell out fast. Hotel Rila was full with a conference until last Saturday - according to those of our group who arrived a day early, but empty on Sunday and another four days we were there.
Rila hotel is vast and we paid extra to be upgraded to a wonderful room, 855 with a fine view of the green slope, a ski slope in winter, but we were there in summer for walking. The upgrade was 10 leva a day. (The previous room was 858, next door to the services room and beyond that an exit.)
What did I like most about the hotel? Food: The scrambled eggs on the breakfast buffet, the slices of grapefuit and orange. Cinnamon pasty at breakfast. Honey at breakfast. Hot cocoa from the serve yourself coffee machien in the dining room.
Prosecco was served by the glass in the downstairs bar, but not in the restaurant.
Bedrooms? The colourful carpet with red and orange strip patterns highlighting the grey. In the bathroom I like the extra shower attachment by the toilet.
Make sure to try the hot Jacuzzi, maybe the cool indoor swimming pool first because I tried the jacuzzi first and the pool was too cold for me, but if you are short of time, be sure to lie on one of the two heated porcelain loungers in the relaxation area. In summer the spa is open 9-8 pm. it is free to guests but if you are at another hotel you can use it for a guest fee.
If you want to opt for one of the paid extras, various massages are offered including Bulgarian rose, or chocolate - chocolate massage for children, too! The hotel also has a nail bar.
I asked the spa manager what distinguished the hotel where he worked from its neighbours. He said that Rila hotel had been recently renovated. One of the guests told me he had stayed at another local hotel and switched to the Rila because it was so clean.
Aound the corner from Rila hotel in the same huge pyramid shape is another modern hotel, the Samokova, named after the nearby town. With a pool and so on.
Other nice hotels in the area are quite different. The Festa Winter Palace, for example, is smaller and older with a small lobby and a domed ceiling in the dining room like a small chapel. The hotel has an indoor pool.
We made friends with an Israeli group who were staying at the Festa Winter Palace, eating a DIY kosher picnic with kosher wine on a hotel public table, in the lobby, undisturbed by the staff. I asked the group, "How did you manage that?" A buxom lady grinned, "Chutzpah!" (A Yiddish word which translates as astonishing boldness or brazen cheek.) Their tour group leader was Bulgarian.
In one of the shops on the short walk down to the Gondola, I saw and bought
expanding walking sticks with rounded or t shape handles which were 10 leva, about 7 Euros (June 2019 exchange rate). Neither shop could manage a receipt.
The gondola up to the mountain top and back cost 15 leva per person.
Useful Websites For Travellers
ryanair.com
Hotel Rila
www.rilaborovets.com
Festa Winter Palace ski and spa
www.festahotels.com
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and foreign languages to businesses and colleges.
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