Experience the best of Borovets

Borovets is a resort in the Rila Mountains of western Bulgaria, set among pine forest at about 1,300 metres. It began life as a royal hunting estate and has been a mountain retreat since the late nineteenth century. Hotels, chalets and restaurants gather around a small centre, and the road down leads through the old town of Samokov.

A gondola carries skiers up towards the Markudjik and Yastrebets areas in winter, and in summer the same trails lead hikers towards Musala, which at 2,925 metres is the highest peak in Bulgaria and the Balkans. The Rila Monastery, with its striped arches and painted frescoes, lies to the south-west, and the Seven Rila Lakes, a chain of glacial lakes, are in the same range.

Mountain taverns serve bean soup, grilled sausages, cheese pies, stewed lamb and thick yoghurt, and mulled wine warms the evenings after skiing. Snow usually covers the slopes from December into March, and the resort turns quiet and green in late spring before hikers return in summer.