Zara Hotel

A couple of hours’ drive from Sofia in the very picturesque town of Bansko, the hotel has ample parking space and is vary easy to get to.  Staff, more specifically reception, restaurant and servicing are very courteous and kind. Having mentioned the restaur, the variety and quality of the served food items are well within and possibly exceeding its category. Well done!

My impressions were good at first until I arrived, then I start the day there without hygiene, without shampoo, without many necessary items that every cheaper hotel has, for 2 days the room was not cleaned, the children played continuously and at the end they want to bill us for a part which according to them the children smeared, which we cleaned ourselves with water, then the responsible staff accused us that we took the towels, I do not recommend this hotel at all, the food is not good at all 0000 !!!

An amazing holiday for the price, loved all the facilities, the barman was very helpful and would stay open until we were finished. great place to go for an affordable ski holiday. The staff were very smiling and friendly. The rooms are very nice, very clean. Our room was big, with mountain view. The Spa facilities are clean and there is everything which you can enjoy. Free shuttlebus to gondola several times per day.

When me and 3 of my friends arrived here, the room looked great, I asked for 3 beds but they gave us 2, lied on the phone that there are 3, the soap and shampoo in the bathroom stinked, made me wanna throw up on the idea of paying for 30 leva and having a spa day like they offered when we arrived, I asked for a bottle of water and it came with a price tag of 15 leva!!!! mind u it’s a small tiny unhealthy micro plastic filled, plastic bottle. The breakfast compared to that is 20 leva!! ridiculous prices, how can you even put a price on a low quality bottle of water, they didn’t care I seemed hungover, all I wanted was water, forcing me to pay 15 leva for a basic human water bottle is sick!!! They told me on the phone there is a ,safe in our room, in the wardrobe, nothing is there, just a stinky bathrobe that honestly smells like fecal matter., smoking was at least allowed and we had a balcony, the view of the mountains was ok but the constraints sites in between ruined the beauty. they also have a peeping tom hole in the wall, next to the tv, I got so paranoid. I had to block it with some paper, hopefully these thieves don’t lie again.🤮

We booked this hotel pretty last minute. It was our first time to Bulgaria and we turned up knowing that it was cheaper than holidays in The Alps but had a really good week and liked visiting a new country. We were told by our rep that we were one of the first to stay at Hotel Zara with Crystal Ski. This made sense as when we tried to research reviews before booking, there seemed to be a lack of reviews from the UK. So main points, hotel lovely on arrival, great location with a very regular shuttle bus to the gondola. I would ask for a room on the back of the hotel due to noise from the road in our room. I would also have upgraded to an apartment or slightly larger room with hindsight but the room was clean enough, warm, comfy beds, hot shower, robes in the wardrobe. Feedback for the hotel would be to add spa slippers to walk down in - pack flip flops as a tip for future travellers. The TV only had one channel in English, so we had MTV on in the background when in the room. The pool, jacuzzi, sauna and steam room are great after a day on the slopes. If I was being picky then the steam room floor could be a little cleaner. We went half board and only saw to add the half board option onto b&b last minute. I think it worked out at about £45 pp for all dinners to be added on for the week! Would definitely recommend. I’m not going to lie, I had low ish expectations for the food based on what other friends had said about their trips to Bulgaria skiing (everything being covered in dill) but there was so much choice at breakfast and dinner that we were very happy eating there all week. Breakfast had loads of Continental options, yoghurts, cereals, fruit, an egg station, omelettes, bacon etc. Dinner had loads of soup, pasta, chicken dishes, pork etc. Something for everyone. Traveller trip for me would be bring a reusable water bottle and coffee flask to fill up. We liked Bansko, thought the resort had plenty of bars and restaurants. The ski area was fun and I liked the ski road down in the sun at the end of each day. We booked a trip to spend our last day in Sofia. Would also recommend this. It just made sense to us as we like to see cities and would have felt like we were waiting around for our evening flight on our last day anyway.