The Lodge Hotel

We stayed here year before last, so knew what to expect. The position is fab, literally 50 yards from the gondola, and a 5/10 min walk to the other lifts. Breakfast better than last year, good coffee, hot and cold offerings. Doesn’t start till 8am, which we found a bit late. However, we managed. Lovely open fire in the main lounge area where the bar is. Excellent pool, sauna, steam room, jacuzzi, which we all used after a day on the slopes. I used the gym a few times too. They provide all toiletries, hairdryer, robe, slippers (we used these every day to/from the pool, as they didn’t appear to provide pool towels), kettle, mini bar fridge, in-room safe. We used Rilski ski and snowboard school for our ski and board hire, and for lessons and private mini bus from/to airport too (takes about 1 hour 15 mins). They were excellent. Would highly recommend. They are literally 30 yards from the hotel, and you walk past them to get to the gondola. They were 100% better than the company we used last time. We ate at many of the local restaurants. Didn’t have one bad meal. Really liked Hunters, and also the Mexican, Mamacitas. They have live music and the two nights we went, music was very good. You must try White Magic which is owned by a former Bulgarian Downhill Olympic skier, Christo. What a character. He is front of house and his wife does all the cooking. Best meal for me was there. Do remember a lot of the restaurants are family run, with not a lot of workers, so you might have to wait a bit for your food, and it might not come out all at once. We usually ordered for the kids first, and then put our order in after. We tried Vicky’s Pizza and Bobby’s Bar too. Please note, do NOT use the yellow/blue cash machines. Their exchange rates are diabolical!! Use the one in the bank if you have to. We took Lev, and then some Sterling too, and changed that up in the bureau de change shops there. Better rate than we got in the UK. Also, a lot of the smaller restaurants don’t take cards. We tried to booked The Lodge for next half term whilst we were there, but already fully booked! That says it all really. We will just have to come back another time.

The boutique hotel was exactly as we read on previous reviews. Very cozy and clean rooms. Right next to the gondola, The best part was the restaurant with great bulgarian and european food and the best service. The staff was very friendly and attending. We felt like we were family. The New Years Eve was very nice. We will come again!

Excellent hotel. Close to the slopes, next door to gondola to get really high & close to some great apres. Has spa/steam/pool/jacuzzi which is modern and not tired. Attentive staff, all of them. Thank you!

Every year since 2017 i visit The Lodge and it was amazing. BUT this year was the last time i visit the hotel. There is a new manager I believe, and she is very unprofessional. While she was accomodating us she was smoking in the hotel. I think her name was Malina. We were waiting like 3 hours at Sofia Airport till our bus from the hotel arrive. The water in the pool was cold like the Black Sea in December. Terrible manager at all. We had to pay to leave our ski equippment in the ski wardrobe, never done that before in any hotel. Also we were taxed for leaving our bags in the room. Never again!

Stayed between Xmas over new year. Excellent location close to the gondola and handy ski depot downstairs (hunters). Clean functional rooms with a nice big bathroom and friendly staff that remembered your drink order every night! Pool was nice and had a lovely massage as well, would definitely recommend. New year's Eve night was included in restaurant, food was outstanding and traditional Bulgarian dancers and DJ laid on. Ate in restaurant on another occasion was very good food and well priced. Overall would stay here over the rila (where we've always stayed in the past) any day.