Category: Walking

Bansko in 2026

~ Veselin ~ 6 Comments

Bansko is a winter ski resort town that’s rebranding to a summer resort.

Twenty years ago, Bansko was tiny. It had a small old town with historical buildings where people actually lived, a large museum for a person the communists really liked, and some restaurants where you could actually eat without spending a fortune. It was a place you’d visit on your way to the mountain and back, eat tarator, and drink beer.

Over the years, it gained a larger ski zone with a gondola, a million hotels, and became very busy in the winter. However, summers remained mostly empty with most hotels and restaurants closed until next winter. We would roam around between the 4-5 functioning nice restaurants. Even the nicest were still mostly okay price-wise, just a few started turning into tourist traps.

Something started changing over the last 2-3 years. The municipality started rebuilding the central streets and sidewalks. That process is pretty far ahead already, as you can see from the photos. The walking areas now stretch for many kilometers, historical buildings have been restored, the river has been cleaned, street gyms have been installed, and so on. It worked, and Bansko is now so full of people in the summer that it’s the busiest I’ve ever seen it. Restaurants that didn’t even exist last year are open, working and full of customers, with only a few still closed for the season.

Cats are everywhere

Unfortunately, I’m not sure I like this new Bansko as much as I liked the old one.

  • More foreign tourists have driven the prices up, and they are reaching levels that are not okay for locals. Prices are at least 30% up since last year.
  • The hotel we used to visit every year (Lucky Bansko) started charging us €60 extra per night for our big kid. I paid this a few times but it got under my skin and I decided that enough is enough.
  • Food quality at the central restaurants is noticeably lower. I suspect they had to hire some unskilled kitchen workers, which led to both compromises in taste and in hygiene. I can no longer recommend eating there, after decades of being a safe town where the food was generally fine everywhere.

We won’t quit going to Bansko, it’s one of the places we are connected to. But we have to alter how we use it. From 5* hotels to rented apartments, and from trying restaurants to just sticking to the few places where we know the people who run them. After all, it’s the mountain that makes that place nice, not the freshly built 100-year-old tourists traps.

We certainly like the new pedestrian areas and the cat explosion that all these people have caused.

Vihren

~ Veselin ~ 5 Comments

We managed to reach Vihren, first time all 4 of us to the top, together. Vihren is 2914 meters, and one of the more difficult peaks for rookie hikers in Bulgaria. The path we took had about 1100 meters elevation gain, which was the highest for me this year.

The little one, aged 7, successfully climbed both Musala and Vihren in a single year, an achievement I accomplished at 47. But it came at a price, the kids got way too tired. I doubt they’ll be interested in another hike this year.

This was not part of any grand plan. I just wanted to reach a peak with nobody dropping out.

I climbed Musala for a second time this year

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

One of my annual goals was to do three real hikes in 2026. A week ago, I did a semi-unplanned hike to the highest peak in Bulgaria, Musala, which is 2925 meters high. Kids couldn’t come with me because one got motion sickness, and the other didn’t want to come out of solidarity. However, they got inspired and wanted to go to the peak as well.

So this week, we attempted a retry. This time, phones were banned in the car, I drove extra carefully, nobody vomited in the car, and all four of us managed to get to about 2500 meters. Then the big kid got signs of altitude problems and had to give up.

The little one (aged 7) kept going, flying ahead of me for the most part, and we reached the top. Took us 3h, only 20-30 minutes slower compared to doing it on my own. He didn’t want to do any breaks. I’m not sure what to do now because I have one of the kids achieving this relatively difficult goal, and the other – not. Maybe we need to come for a third time this summer. We can still improve the organization because we lost 1h waiting for the gondola. The optimal hike would start with buying the tickets the day before and then going to the line at 8:15. Does it matter all that much if you start at 8:30 or 9:30 – probably not. You need to be super slow to miss the lift, which works until 18:30.

The final step count for the day was almost 30K, which is my personal best since I started tracking. I couldn’t imagine I would ever be able to do that 3-4 years ago, when I had trouble walking up to the 4th floor without a break.

I climbed Musala for the first time since 2001

~ Veselin ~ 10 Comments

Musala is the highest peak in Bulgaria, standing at 2925 meters, and also currently a major tourist hot spot. We attempted to climb it last year with the little one, who was 6 at the time. Gave up at around 2600-2650 meters. He got motion sickness this year and didn’t want to hike, the big kid didn’t want to try without the little one, and after much waiting to figure out what to do, my wife encouraged me to try on my own. Hard to repeat circumstances.

So, I started at 11:10 from Yastrebets. My recommendation would be to start much, much earlier to avoid the sunburns. See the blue sky? The UV was insane. The little triangle, close to the center, is Musala, 13000 steps away and about 500 meters above the starting point. Not much for seasoned hikers, close to my limit for me.

I got a strong headache in the area of the Musala hut and was ready to give up but didn’t and at some point it went away.

It was pretty crowded at the top.

Met a cat on the way back, at around 2500 meters altitude. I grew up meeting mountain dogs, who would just walk with you for a few kilometers and then depart. First time I see a cat living by the path. I think her name is Murry, as I saw a sign mentioning Murry on the top.

Going back was hard. I can’t imagine doing this hike with kids without sleeping in one of the huts.

There’s a 3-4km path between Yastrebets and Musala Hut that’s nearly flat but is in reality a series of small hills and you go up and down, up and down. Takes away all of your energy. The peak isn’t really that far after that but it felt exhausting.

Just like I mentioned in the post last year, any attempts to reach the top must start way earlier, when it’s colder and the sun is down. And only in good weather. The terrain can quickly become hostile if it starts raining or snowing.

The hike was around 26000 steps and took 5h. I hurried a bit too much because I started late and didn’t want to miss the gondola, which closes either at 18 or 18:20, depending on which sign you trust. Given the very high number of people walking everywhere, I suspect it won’t close until the last person is off the mountain. I could’ve spent another 2h just chilling, making long breaks, but I also didn’t have sun screen. By the time I walked down, it already hurt too much to encourage any stops.

So, a note to me. Next time, if there’s a next time at all, apply sun screen and start early.

The little hut

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

Every real construction has to start with this little building. Found one in the mountain, not quite where I expected to see it. My kids were disappointed that I didn’t take a photo of the horses on the opposite direction of this hut, and looking back into the morning, I think the horses would’ve made a better blog post 🙂