Hello friends. Last fall, we visited Bansko. This city is located in the mountains at an altitude of 936 meters. The nearest airport is in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, 170 kilometers away. We traveled from Sofia and the journey took about two hours. Alternatively, you can fly to Plovdiv, which is 190 kilometers away. By the way we rented a car and the weekly rental fee was 200 Euros.
Bansko is an ancient city, with a history dating back to the Roman Empire. As soon as we set foot in the city, we felt this history. The old houses are still heated with wood, traditional restaurants serve with live national music and the streets are cobblestone. And we came across wells with ice-cold water.
We started our journey from the central square in the old part of Bansko. Here, you can find the Holy Trinity Church, built in 1835 and restaurants serving national cuisine.
The center of Bansko is small enough to explore within half an hour. There are a few cultural centers here, for example, the house of Neofit Rilski has been converted into a museum. From the Holy Trinity Church, we walked towards the main street located near the national park where Bansko was founded. The street is incredibly atmospheric, like little dollhouses. While exploring Bansko, we constantly looked at the mountains. It's not too crowded at the moment, but you still get a holiday vibe.
Bansko is often compared to the Alps in France, Switzerland and Italy, but we found it quite unique. The first thing that stands out here is the incredibly cute houses. Almost all of them have been restored, creating a clean and tidy environment. You can walk around the streets radiating from the square, discovering various tourist spots, museums, fountains and even sculptures. If you enter the narrow streets, you will reach the old town part. Most of these houses are now establishments, emitting wonderful aromas.
The most interesting part, of course, is related to food. According to our plan, we intended to go to a nicely decorated place with live music. However, things didn't go as planned and while wandering the streets, we passed a narrow road where a lady greeted us, took the menu from our hands and said, "You will eat this and you will eat that." As a result, we got to taste traditional dishes. The grape juice was also from their own vineyards.
The food was homemade and delicious, with large portions. The people at this place were very friendly and sincere and they even hugged us goodbye.
One of Bansko's biggest advantages is its location next to the Pirin Mountains. The national park offers stunning and enchanting scenery. With century-old pine trees, mountain streams, large rocks and a magical forest atmosphere, Bansko is truly a place worth discovering for its natural beauty and friendly atmosphere.
Bansko is a very popular place with many routes you can explore year-round. We walked one of the routes offered by the national park and all the paths were marked with special color codes. The paths are arranged as both regular trails and asphalt roads that can be easily navigated with a stroller. In other words, everything is designed for the comfort of vacationers.
The atmosphere here is wonderful. You can take a short half-hour walk or choose a longer 3-4 hour hiking route. There are also vehicle roads leading to mountain huts like Vihren or Banderitsa, from which you can start more serious hiking trails that last several hours. If you love nature walks, this place is perfect for you.
During our stay in Bansko, we tried three different types of accommodation, so we almost consider ourselves experts. First, we stayed at a mid-range hotel called Grand Royal. This hotel had a SPA center, which was important for us. There were also breakfast included options, as well as half-board and full-board options.
Grand Royal is located in the inner parts of Bansko. If you have a car, you can reach the lifts in about 5 minutes. If you don't have a car, it's not a problem because the hotel provides a free shuttle to the lifts during the season. We stayed here for about 32 euros per night, including breakfast. After that, we moved to a more luxurious hotel, Kempinski, which cost around 99 euros per night and also had a free SPA service and breakfast.
We were now sitting in a place where we almost felt at home because we rented an apartment for a week. We had three main criteria: a mountain view, a fireplace and a coffee machine. We found an apartment that met these criteria. Even though we didn't constantly look outside, seeing a mountain view was refreshing. Fireplaces are quite common in Bansko and we had one in our apartment. Lastly, we said we couldn't do without a coffee machine and we found that too. We rented this apartment through Airbnb and the nightly rate was 25 euros, totaling 28 euros with additional fees.
The apartment is located across from Kempinski. Grand Royal is a bit further in, but looking at the map, we see that it's on the same parallel as Kempinski. So all of them are quite convenient in terms of location and since the city is small, it's easy to get anywhere.
We were satisfied with all three accommodation options we tried in Bansko. Each one offers different advantages depending on your goals and expectations. Are you thinking about visiting Bansko too? Perhaps you are planning to come here during the ski season. We are really looking forward to visiting again in the winter.
