What do you do when you have a couple of days off and nothing to do? You check if there’s still snow at the closest ski resort, right? No, just me? OK.
A couple of weeks ago that was my situation so the closest ski resort that still had snow was Bukovel, in Ukraine. By close I mean I didn’t have to take a plane there, just drive for 10 hours. If you ever plan on skiing your way through Europe, this is one of the most popular spots in Eastern Europe.
Most people I know who are good skiers recommend this resort, at least for people in this part of the world. At first I wasn’t very pleased with how the snow was evened out, it was really hard to ski, especially on the first day and I was frustrated. However that must’ve been because of the weather. It was spring and there has already been a warm period so the snow was all over the place (ice-y, watery, soft, hard…).
There are a lot of slopes spread out over a couple of mountains, which is amazing. You don’t get bored when you ski from one mountain to another. There are a lot of options for beginners as well. They don’t really have green slopes but some of their blue ones are pretty “green”. There are 16 lifts at this moment. They also have a ski school.
There are 16 lifts at this moment. Prices for the lifts vary a lot. Just because they have a lot of different ticket options. They have day passes, evening passes, night passes, half a day, etc. If you buy 2 days or more at once, that includes day and evening, so from 8:30am to 7:30pm. If you only buy one day it’s from 8:30am to 4:30pm.
I think it’s a shame though that the pass is active from the moment you buy it so you cannot buy the night before because you’ll waste one day. For prices click here.
There are a few options here. I’ve noticed that most places have different prices depending on how new you want them to be. The newest ones are more expensive than the older ones. I went with option B, the middle one. They only rent full sets, with helmet and all, no glasses though. Some hotels have their own rental place which can be pretty nice, and at our hotel you could rent glasses for extra. Renting is available at the base of the mountain and prices are the same at any renting place there. Hotels may have cheaper options, like our hotel. However the quality was worse so you have to decide for yourself. If your hotel is not on the slopes it doesn’t really matter where you rent because you have to pay if you want to leave your equipment near the slopes over night anyway. More about that here.
There was a restaurant in the “centre” of the resort, next to 3 or 4 lifts which is a great spot. The food is always ready, it’s a push-the-tray kind of place, where you pay per 100g no matter what food. I should say that I ate there twice and I had a very bad stomach ache for 2 days straight, on the second day I thought I wouldn’t be able to ski at all. I can’t be entirely sure that this food was the reason but I didn’t want to risk it again. After one day of not eating there it stopped. It is called Vulyk and it’s near lift 7.
We also ate at our hotel one evening which was really really good. The food was well prepared and it wasn’t too expensive. That meal was one of the best we’ve had there.
We ate up on the mountain once at a place called Filvarok and the food was incredible as well.
We ate at a pizza place called Aston one evening, which was pretty good too. We had cream soups that were really yummy and it was great after a full day of skiing. And they had pizza and other main courses that looked absolutely amazing. The mains are freshly cooked for sure, but it’s worth the wait.
There are a few hotels on the slopes, like Radisson, of course those are quite expensive. We staid at Zaporizʹka Sich which is supposed to be at 400m from the slopes which is probably a little exaggerated. On Booking.com it is in the “ski-to-door” category, which is really misleading. There’s no way to ski to the door, NO WAY! I mean, you have to go down some stairs and then walk down to the road and then cross the road and walk again to the nearest slope. If you are a skier you know it’s really difficult to walk in ski boots. It’s a 15 minute walk at least. I was really disappointed.
The view from our room though was pretty darn great. The hotel was very clean. It’s quite big but it doesn’t feel like it,it’s cosy. Breakfast is pretty good, and it changes every day, which I really like and it means the food is fresh (I hope).
The problem here is that there are a lot of constructions going on which makes everything a little messy. My main complaint is that there aren’t side-walks everywhere. None at all from our hotel to the slopes. Hopefully they will change that soon, although the roads are quite narrow so I don’t know if they have enough space. Fingers crossed though.
Winter activities: zip lining, bike zip, sledding (they even have slopes for slays only), skating, snowmobile tours, spa centres etc.
Summer activities: biking, hiking, zip-lining, water sports on the lake and many more.
For more info on activities, restaurants, hotels, etc., visit the official website for Bukovel: https://bukovel.com/en/
I hope this helps, if you plan on going there. I’m always happy to answer questions.
If you’ve ever been there and have more tips comment bellow!
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2-day #skitrip to #Bukovel, Ukraine. Everything you need to know. #travelling #wanderlust What do you do when you have a couple of days off and nothing to do? You check if there’s still snow at the closest ski resort, right?
