4 days of electric mountain biking in Borovets, Bulgaria in early August.
For the first time, we decided to go on a bike ride on EMTB. We have chosen an amazing location which is a ski resort in winter and a mountain biker’s paradise in summer which is a little over an hour drive from Sofia. Borovets is a national park with mountainous alpine landscapes and endless forests, like on a postcard.
We are a group of 6 people and booked through Kosta Bike a package that includes EMTB rental including guide for 4 days of riding, hotel Festa Winter Palace with full board for 4 nights, transport from the airport and back. We booked the flight to Sofia separately.
The bikes we received were very good: CUBE STEREO HYBRID HPC-SLX-750, 2023 year’s model.
My recommendation if you have the opportunity to take a hotel with breakfast only. Because it is better to have lunch and dinner every time in different restaurants of the town. For example, we really liked the Happy Duck restaurant.
The level and difficulty of riding depends on the group, so different groups will not necessarily make the same routes. Every day we rode 40 to 50 km, about 1000 meters of climb, mostly XC and AM slopes in different areas of Borovets and even not far from Sofia, we started riding at 9:00 and finished around 14:00.
1 Day:
We landed in Sofia at 12:15 and were already at the hotel around 14:00. On this day we did not ride, just walked around the town. That week there was an international jazz festival every night in Borovets.
Day 2:
We started riding right from our hotel Festa Winter Palace, by the way, a great hotel, one of the best in Borovets. We climbed the paths of the ski resort and continued along the cycling routes in the forest to the beautiful viewpoint Black Rock, from there along the Maritsa stream through the village of Raduil, to the village of Maritsa and back to the hotel. On this day we rode about 40 km with a climb of 1400 meters.
Day 3:
It rained heavily at night, but by morning it stopped and the sun came out. So we were lucky to ride in the forest with the smell of freshness after the rain. This time the minibus took us and the bikes to the beginning of the route east of the town of Govedartsi, and from there we rode through the forests, crossed streams and waterfalls to the town of Beli Iskar and back to Borovets. On this day we rode almost 50 km with a climb of 1086 meters.
Day 4:
This time, a minibus took us with bicycles to the foot of Vitosha Mountain in the village of Zheleznitsa near Sofia, about 40 minutes away from the hotel. We climbed the mountain to a height of 1126 meters, on the way we stopped in a beautiful place called Golden Bridges, which is a river of huge stones descending from the mountain, and at the end of the ascent we stopped for a beer in a hotel with a beautiful viewpoint over the city of Sofia. Entrance to the observation deck cost 5 leva. From the lookout we went down rather steep single paths to the suburbs of Sofia. On this day we rode about 46 km with a climb of 1200 meters.
Day 5:
On the last day, it also rained at night, and in the morning there was heavy fog in the mountains. We started riding from the hotel, went up to the ski resort and went down to the town of Samokov and back to the hotel. On this day we rode 35 km with a climb of 950 m. After riding, we returned to the hotel to the spa and pool, and in the afternoon around 16:00 the shuttle took us to the airport.
