I am glad I did not write a review of our hotel on the first night because by day two my impressions of the hotel had completely changed.
Borovets is a ski resort south of Sofia, Bulgaria's capital. From the city you can see the mountains, the Balkans, the Rila mountains. Borovets means pine (tree forest) in Bulgarian. The hotel is the Rila hotel.
Both the Rila hotel, named after the mountain it backs onto, and its neighbour, the Samokovo hotel, named after the nearby town, were built in the same era, the 1980s, according to the friendly and helpful man, Antonio, in the Rila hotel spa.
My first impression of the hotel was not brilliant. The lifts were out of sight of the reception. At the end of the corridor.
Lifts?
To get from reception to the restaurant you climb a spiral staircase. This is a ski resport. Heaven help you if you brought granny to babysit (there is a childrens playroom so they expect kids. Or a skier could have a sports injury and want to go upstairs without hobbling back and forward from the lifts to reception and the restaurant. When we checking out, I discovered they have lifts in the hall but these were being renovated. If I had seen a sign explaining that the lifts were being refurbished, I would have understood and been understanding.
Views?
I did not like the room beside the noisy service room nor the small bacony and view over the car park, so I popped across to the room opposite and phoned down to ask reception if I could switch rooms. They said the charged another 10 leva (Bulgarian coins) a day for the better view.
We gladly paid to switch to the better view. The big balcony had two chairs - one of which we used so that both of us could sit at the desk typing on the internet.
After switching rooms, we were a lot happier. The room was too hot, and unaccountably the air con did not work because we were told the whole hotel oeprates the air con which is turned off if they deem fit. However, the balcony room door when opened cooled down the room.
Once settled in to a better room with a good view, I was in a better mood to appreciate the colourful red carpet and the knee high shower attachment beside the toilet which turns the toilet into a bidet, the same style as in Singapore and Malaysia.
Downstairs, we met up with our group. Another member of the group had also changed rooms to get away from a room next to the noisy service room.
No - Not Nuggets!
Supper the first evening was a buffet which included only rice, no potatoes, except dried up fries. The meat was dried up beef and dry chicken nuggets.
However, on night two the buffet included super saute potatoes and moist chicken in gravy.
Borovets is a ski resort south of Sofia, Bulgaria's capital. From the city you can see the mountains, the Balkans, the Rila mountains. Borovets means pine (tree forest) in Bulgarian. The hotel is the Rila hotel.
Both the Rila hotel, named after the mountain it backs onto, and its neighbour, the Samokovo hotel, named after the nearby town, were built in the same era, the 1980s, according to the friendly and helpful man, Antonio, in the Rila hotel spa.
My first impression of the hotel was not brilliant. The lifts were out of sight of the reception. At the end of the corridor.
Lifts?
To get from reception to the restaurant you climb a spiral staircase. This is a ski resport. Heaven help you if you brought granny to babysit (there is a childrens playroom so they expect kids. Or a skier could have a sports injury and want to go upstairs without hobbling back and forward from the lifts to reception and the restaurant. When we checking out, I discovered they have lifts in the hall but these were being renovated. If I had seen a sign explaining that the lifts were being refurbished, I would have understood and been understanding.
Views?
I did not like the room beside the noisy service room nor the small bacony and view over the car park, so I popped across to the room opposite and phoned down to ask reception if I could switch rooms. They said the charged another 10 leva (Bulgarian coins) a day for the better view.
We gladly paid to switch to the better view. The big balcony had two chairs - one of which we used so that both of us could sit at the desk typing on the internet.
After switching rooms, we were a lot happier. The room was too hot, and unaccountably the air con did not work because we were told the whole hotel oeprates the air con which is turned off if they deem fit. However, the balcony room door when opened cooled down the room.
Once settled in to a better room with a good view, I was in a better mood to appreciate the colourful red carpet and the knee high shower attachment beside the toilet which turns the toilet into a bidet, the same style as in Singapore and Malaysia.
Downstairs, we met up with our group. Another member of the group had also changed rooms to get away from a room next to the noisy service room.
No - Not Nuggets!
Supper the first evening was a buffet which included only rice, no potatoes, except dried up fries. The meat was dried up beef and dry chicken nuggets.
However, on night two the buffet included super saute potatoes and moist chicken in gravy.
