11 March - Lucked Out

[nick'n'kim]

Dobar Dan
We are a group of 4 adults and 5 kids travelling out in March and staying at the Konaci apartments which we're pleased about since our initial booking was for the Putnik which is a bit out of town. Usually I go to Buigaria so the food won't be a problem as I will eat almost anything as well. Just a few questions

What are the Konaci apartments like?
Is there anything I should take apart from the usual stuff?
Will the noise from the bars keep my kids awake?

Hope all of you who are waiting to go get extra snow and have a great time! anyway, I've got to hit the phrasebook. By the way what is the Serbian word for Scottish?

Nick (half of Nick'n'Kim, my SO )

Dovidjenja

[PatMan]

Hi Nick,

I am off to Konaci on Sunday - and have been to Bulgaria before! Will give you a report on my return.
Hopefully some of the '21st Club' will have returned and should be able to answer your questions as well

:cug:

[prettydia011]

Hi Nick
The Serbian word for Scottish can be "skotski" pronounced as sh-kot-ski (for wisky). If you are talking about a person from Scotland then it is "shkot-landjanin" etc, the grammar is comlicated as we have seven cases and other stuff.

In my experience noise from the bars in Konaci circle can be pretty loud but I am not sure if you can actualy hear it inside the apartments. Konaci are nice enough accomodation (I have been inside), you should like it.

Hope you have fun! And enough snow! :ok:

[liz thompson]

Hi Nick , apartments are nice,didnt stay there,my group stayed at Club A,but other people we met said they were omfortable and clean.When you check in ask to stay opposite side of the club called Cafe Royal as this club has the bass up loud on its music system.The kids will love the square in the middle as you can have a drink whilst watching them have fun in the snow !

[underwr]

hi Nick
Stayed at the Konaci for new Year, the appts are quite small but comfortable and towels etc all supplied. We did have a problem with the noise because we were put in the 'Ras' block which has the aforementioned cafe royal beneath them and their Disco bass is unbearable. After complaining (can't ski without sleep!) we were moved to the other side 'Majik' block which was much quieter. The appts on this side have not been refurbished(due this summer) so shower etc not so fancy but they were clean and quiet.
i'm sure you will have a great time.
:sm018:

[nick'n'kim]

I suppose we need to make sure the kids are completely knackered if we're above that but I can't see it spoiling this trip, Kop looks fantastic. I made a powerpoint slide show using SteveS photos 2005/2006 and I'm really getting in the mood. I feel like a kid just before christmas! Going for a day trip to the Cairngorms on Sunday now that we've got some snow in Scotland. 11 March C'mon!

[SpongeBob]

Hey Nick, :dziveli:

Do you have any good ski resorts in Scotland? :ski:

[nick'n'kim]

For all you guys out there who don't know skiing in Scotland, just google skiscotland or winterhighland. I'm not sure that we can rival what you lucky serbians have though, and I'll have a great time in Kop (unless I break something!).

[nick'n'kim]

The snow seems to be improving CLJ, I've been in March for the last 2 years ( to Bulgaria) and the snow was always better later in th season. I just feel sorry for all the guys who went out at Xmas and earlier in the year

Thanks for all the previos posts giving info about the Konaci and I look forward to reading the reports on your return Patman

For anyone looking for a good free site for Serbian words and phrases, just google BYKI (before you know it) - really useful site with sounds

[F&G]

Dobar dan nick'n'kim
Two of us are also going to Kop on 11/3, but flying from Gatwick and staying in Grand.
BTW good luck with your Serbian!

[OutsideEdge]

My girlfriend and I are going on the 11th! I can hardy wait! I have been skiing once and that was about 8 years ago! My GF has never skied before!

We are both going to the ski school, so hopefully there will be a few of the people from this forum in the ski school!

I just hope that there is still plenty of the white stuff left by the time we get there!!

See you all on slopes soon! (though i may be the one on my arse sliding down the piste!)

[Thornleya]

My girlfriend and I are going on the 11th! I can hardy wait! I have been skiing once and that was about 8 years ago! My GF has never skied before!

We are both going to the ski school, so hopefully there will be a few of the people from this forum in the ski school!

I just hope that there is still plenty of the white stuff left by the time we get there!!

See you all on slopes soon! (though i may be the one on my arse sliding down the piste!)

Hi OutsideEdge - we're also going on the 11th! You're the only person (other than us of course) on this forum who've said they are going then - which I'm surprised at, as it's half term so I'd have expected loads of families to be going...

We'll be at the ski school too. This will be my 5th time going, but I'm not that good still! Went for the first time when I was 19, then a couple of times in my late 20's - but then last year we went to Slovenia, around 8 years after my last skiing, so I was a bit rusty. I'm not particularly fit, so I'm a bit worried about my stamina and keeping up in the group. My husband James has been 2 or 3 times more than me. Ben (aged 7.5) really enjoyed it last year in Slovenia (although he couldn't grasp how to stop!), so he is keen to do it again.

We're staying in the Konaci apartments, with the half board option.

Snow forecasts look quite good - there's a 90% probability the day after tomorrow, so hopefully will be good - there's a lot more snow there than people had who went in early January. There seems to be quite a lot of fog though which could make finding our way around a bit tricky.

Will probably bump into you at ski school, if not before!

[nick'n'kim]

there seems to be a few of us going out on the 11th! are we all on the 6.45 flight? we'll be the knackered ones as we're driving down through the night from Scotland!

[no_snow_in_swindon]

there seems to be a few of us going out on the 11th! are we all on the 6.45 flight?

There is only one flight per week, so yes, you will all be on the same flight.

Wish i was going back out for another week.

[treble]

The only other flight is a Saturday one from Heathrow into Belgrade (which is then a FIVE hr coach transfer!). This is the one Balkan Holidays use.

[no_snow_in_swindon]

Helen,
I'm confused (it's not difficult!), you mention half term, are you going out on the 11th Feb or the 11th March?
We're going out on the 11th March and staying at the Grand. One of the party will be in the beginners class at ski school. The rest of us are intermediates and are still trying to decide whether to go to ski school or whether to book private lessons.
Does anyone have any experience of the intermediate classes in the ski school at Kop?


We were there two weeks ago and two of our friends went into the intermediatte classes and thouroughly enjoyed it.

The enjoyed if from the point of view that the instructor not only improved thier ski technique, but also showed them slopes they may not have ventured to, aswell as passing on stories of serbian life and giving geography lessons on the surrounding area.

Also, if you are hiring equipment, when pre-booking together with ski school you get your lift pass free. So it only works out about an extra tenner for ski school.

[no_snow_in_swindon]

Thanks no_snow, that's really useful! I've had mixed experiences with ski lessons over the past few years, the best ones were like you describe where the instructor took us to places we'd never have discovered (or never dared to attempt!)

4 weeks 6 days and counting!


No probs.

As they prebooked the equipment and ski school for £133(ish) and got the lift pass free (v's £125 for a complete learnt to ski package) they felt that they would do the first day off ski school and see how it went. As they enjoyed it that much, they did stay on for the whole six days.

[no_snow_in_swindon]

Was that with Crystal?
Sadly I have my own equipment but the rest of the party will be able to benefit from the free lift pass.

Yes.


FREE lift pass when Skis or Snowboard, boots and tuition are all individually pre-booked.

I think Thomson have the same deal.

[treble]

You mentioned private lessons - these are also very reasonable and easily bookable in the resort. I had them as 4 hours tuition per day would have been too much for me and I was even able to discuss with my instructor after each lesson what I would book for the following day! The cost was 21 Euros an hour for one person and 30 Euros an hour for 3 people.

[F&G]

Thanks Treble
We are thinking of taking private lessons. 4 hours a day just seems too long. I will try to contact Dragisa from skikop.com, somebody recomended him on this site. Can you remember which ski school did you use?

[treble]

Mine were booked through the Thomson rep (Mirianah(?)) and were with the main ski school Elite. The instructor was Sara who was terrific. She used to compete internationally, but retired due to an injury and finances, though says she now kind of regrets that and wishes she were still doing it really. She has really good English, oodles of patience, a good sense of humour and is easy to get on with, listening to what you want as well as making suggestions too.

I don't know if it is the norm, but one person told me their 4 hour group lesson on the 1st day had no rest break in it and I sure couldn't have done that! For my 1st lesson I booked a 2 hour slot and Sara could see I was tiring so we stopped for a drink after an hour!

[F&G]

I made a few phone calls, ski school in Grand and Dragisa @ Skikop. Dragisa was really helpful. We will decide when we get to Kop but I think we will go for private lessons.
BTW no offers on equipment, tuition and lift pass with Thomson at the moment, therefore ski + boots + school = £137 and lift pass £58. Learn to ski package is £125 with lift pass.

[treble]

The only pre-bookable tuition as far as I am aware with Thomson etc is group lessons - I booked only my boots/skis and lift pass before going in order to leave myself the choice of what to go for when I had sussed out the situation! Your welcome pack when you get on the coach contains a comprehensive list of tuition possibilities, including private, all priced in euros, so make sure you know the exchange rates! Payment for these is to the Thomson rep and you can use sterling, euros, Dinars or plastic.

[PatMan]

We had lessons last week. Four hours is about maximum, and that included 30 mins rest in a slope-side cafe!
We started at 9, which meant the first hour was very quiet! I am sure if you speak to your instructor, he/she will arrange to meet you at same time and place each morning if you dont fancy the full four hours ski lessons. The only problem would be that if you gave up after 2 hours, and were a long way from a slope that led easily to bottom of mountain it could be difficult!