Borovets: the back story

About Borovets: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Ski Resorts Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Borovets began as Chamkoria, a pine-forest retreat in the Rila where Bulgaria’s monarch built a summer residence and hunting lodges in 1896. More than a century later it is a four-season resort with a gondola, floodlit night skiing and a place on the international racing calendar.

The pine forest

The resort’s first name, Chamkoria, comes from the Turkish for pine forest, and in 1942 it was translated into Bulgarian as Borovets. Its story begins in 1896, when the country’s monarch built a summer residence and hunting lodges here, and the elite of Sofia followed with chalets of their own. The royal lodge of Tsarska Bistritsa, built between 1898 and 1906 in the traditional Bulgarian Revival style with European touches, still stands in the forest.

A racing resort

The first downhill race at Borovets was held in 1930, and the resort joined the FIS alpine calendar in 1974. In the 1960s and 70s it grew into the largest winter sports centre in the Balkans, with new lifts, wider pistes and alpine-style hotels modelled on Les Arcs in Savoie. It has since hosted two World Cups and twelve European Cups, most recently a women’s giant slalom in 2016.

A royal hunting forest that became the first mountain resort in the Balkans.

The mountain

Above the resort rises Rila, the highest range in Bulgaria and on the whole Balkan peninsula, crowned by Musala at 2,925 metres. The name Rila is probably Thracian, meaning “the water mountain”, for its 200 or so glacial lakes and springs, among them the Seven Rila Lakes. In winter the gondola and the Yastrebets Express climb into the high forest, the six-seat Martinovi Baraki Express serves the forest runs, and ten slopes are lit for night skiing from Wednesday to Saturday.

Every budget

Borovets is one of Europe’s best-value ski holidays. An adult day pass cost €54 in 2025/26, and the resort’s Epic packages bundle pass, hire and lessons from €52 a day. Hotels run from a five-room guest house at the foot of the Popangelov run to five-star spa hotels in the pines.

Our advice: book an Epic package before 30 November to lock in last winter’s prices, stay at Hotel Rila or nearby if you want to ski from the door, and keep an evening for the floodlit runs. Beginners’ groups start only on Sundays, so plan your arrival around them.

Borovets in brief

From the resort’s official site, borovets-bg.com (October 2026).

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Borovets: the back story before you go.