Vihren Palace Ski & Spa Resort — Hotel in Bansko

We were at the Vihren Palace for our first ski holiday as a young family of three. The hotel in general was handy and good value for money for a first family ski trip. Location of hotel was perfect. It was so close to the gondola and very near good ski hire shops/good restaurants.||||The Aldo supermarket is only just down the street which was super handy for us and our 5 year old daughter! It also has a really late opening time for after dinner treats/last minute bits at the end of the day!||||On the other hand, the hotel is was very out-dated and could do with some modernisation!||||Besides the huge selection of breakfast options, the food quality was very poor. Waffles were like cardboard, cereal tasted like basic cheap cereal you buy in a poundland back home, etc. I’m general, we found the food in Bulgaria not great (not just the hotel) compared to back home so maybe it’s down to what we are used to. The coffee machines were terrible. I pressed for a latte and it was just luke warm milk that came out with no coffee in it whatsoever. I tried the other options but in the end, resorted to buying cold starbuck coffee bottles from Aldo every morning to get my coffee kick! ||||Not food related but some of the female dining staff had sneakers and ripped skinny jeans on which would be unheard of in a UK hotel. I know it’s 2023 but it’s just unprofessional and doesn’t give the hotel a good image.||||Hotel needs updating/modernising of rooms. The bathroom did not feel like a hotel bathroom at all. It was very basic, bath was poorly fitted and leaking. Shower was temperamental with the heating setting. ||||Room has a kitchenette but there is no cups, plates, cutlery or even washing up liquid for the sink to wash cutlery. So why even have a kitchenette taking up the space if you can’t use it? The shelves were also dusty, which isn’t very reassuring about the hotel cleaning service.||||The spa area was very disappointing as this was one of the main reasons for booking Vihren Palace, for the pool and hot tub after a long days skiing! Hot tub wasn’t worth getting excited about…wasn’t very hot and could be larger/updated as the jets aren’t good and it’s quite old. The swimming pool was too cold. The area between the swimming pool and hot tub/sauna was never mopped or drained properly so it was a massive slip hazard.. even with the slippers provided on. This just made it slippier and I near keeled over countless times from walking across (even for an ex-gymnast! Ha). ||||The streets could do with tidying up and bigger industrial bins provided as all we could see was bags of half-sealed rubbish being left on the street (nothing to do with the hotel but it just brings everything down).||||The hotel has a lot of potential if they can make improvements to what I have stated above. Nonetheless, we had a comfortable stay and were super close to the gondola to beat the ques and get up the mountain...

We were at the Vihren Palace for our first ski holiday as a young family of three. The hotel in general was handy and good value for money for a first family ski trip. Location of hotel was perfect. It was so close to the gondola and very near good ski hire shops/good restaurants.||||The Aldo supermarket is only just down the street which was super handy for us and our 5 year old daughter! It also has a really late opening time for after dinner treats/last minute bits at the end of the day!||||On the other hand, the hotel is was very out-dated and could do with some modernisation!||||Besides the huge selection of breakfast options, the food quality was very poor. Waffles were like cardboard, cereal tasted like basic cheap cereal you buy in a poundland back home, etc. I’m general, we found the food in Bulgaria not great (not just the hotel) compared to back home so maybe it’s down to what we are used to. The coffee machines were terrible. I pressed for a latte and it was just luke warm milk that came out with no coffee in it whatsoever. I tried the other options but in the end, resorted to buying cold starbuck coffee bottles from Aldo every morning to get my coffee kick! ||||Not food related but some of the female dining staff had sneakers and ripped skinny jeans on which would be unheard of in a UK hotel. I know it’s 2023 but it’s just unprofessional and doesn’t give the hotel a good image.||||Hotel needs updating/modernising of rooms. The bathroom did not feel like a hotel bathroom at all. It was very basic, bath was poorly fitted and leaking. Shower was temperamental with the heating setting. ||||Room has a kitchenette but there is no cups, plates, cutlery or even washing up liquid for the sink to wash cutlery. So why even have a kitchenette taking up the space if you can’t use it? The shelves were also dusty, which isn’t very reassuring about the hotel cleaning service.||||The spa area was very disappointing as this was one of the main reasons for booking Vihren Palace, for the pool and hot tub after a long days skiing! Hot tub wasn’t worth getting excited about…wasn’t very hot and could be larger/updated as the jets aren’t good and it’s quite old. The swimming pool was too cold. The area between the swimming pool and hot tub/sauna was never mopped or drained properly so it was a massive slip hazard.. even with the slippers provided on. This just made it slippier and I near keeled over countless times from walking across (even for an ex-gymnast! Ha). ||||The streets could do with tidying up and bigger industrial bins provided as all we could see was bags of half-sealed rubbish being left on the street (nothing to do with the hotel but it just brings everything down).||||The hotel has a lot of potential if they can make improvements to what I have stated above. Nonetheless, we had a comfortable stay and were super close to the gondola to beat the ques and get up the mountain...

It is hard to say whether this hotel is good or bad so let me just list all facts below.

The food for breakfast and dinner was good. The stuff in the dining room was helpful.

The tea and coffee during the dinner cost additional price.

It is pretty clean in the corridors and in the rooms.

The SPA consists of dry sauna, small jacuzzi (for 2-3 people) that sometimes has no water and the pool with deck chairs around. They give you a free towel and a free locker. The sauna is good, for 5-8 people. There are two showers with broken hoses so most of the water in them is lost through the holes in the hoses. The pool was freezing in one day and pretty cool all other days - still it was possible to swim and there's some cold jacuzzi inside the pool with good hydromassage. If you are not too tender and can survive in winter in water of about 22-24 C - it can be useful.

The hotel consists of two buildings that have a common wall. The main building contains the lobby, SPA and the dining room. The second building is not connected to the main one except of the small porch between them. So if you live in the second building and need to go to SPA - you have to exit the second building in your bathrobe and enter the main building walking through the connecting porch. All the way can take several minutes.

The room interior is good, the view to the mountains was also good.

There's a hot water boiler inside the bathroom and it drops the hot water right on the electric radiator under it and on the person who wash his hands in the sink.

The card that serves as a room key was problematic and we brought it to reception to fix 6-7 timed during our week stay.

The bed is not that comfortable.

The sound isolation doesn't exist, I could clearly hear what people in the next room are talking about like they were in my room. So the walls between the rooms work more as a curtain since I don't see my neighbours but can...