Home The Apartment Grand Monastery Contact & Prices Rhodope Mountains Links & Info

Pamporovo & the Rhodope Mountains
click images for links to websites and larger images

Pamporovo and surrounding areas
The ski resort of Pamporovo is dominated by the magestic Snezhanka Tower which is accessed via the chair lift from the mid-station ski area just minutes from the Grand Monastery complex. From here you can also arrange skiing lessons and hire ski equipment, ski-doos and book husky sledge rides. There are many good restaurants & shops in Pamporovo Town which is only a short drive from the Grand Monastery.

Summer Activities for the whole family to enjoy. These activiites and excursions include nature activity and rambles, trekking, paintballing, horse riding, Hot springs spa therapy, Trigrad and the Devil’s Cave, trips to the Observatory, The Seven Wonderful Bridges and many more. To see the list of activities and excursions and for contact details click here

The resort is an approximate 1.5hr drive from the airport of Plovdiv (which is currently only open for package holidays during the ski-ing season) and approx.3 hrs drive from Sofia and is widely regarded as the most 'upmarket' of all the Bulgarian resorts.

Pamporovo has an exclusive climate, featuring a mild winter with about 120 sunny days during the skiing period. The skiing season starts from mid December and lasts until mid April. The average air temperature is -3 ° C. The gentle profile of the mountain with its rounded slopes and summits makes Pamporovo particularly suitable for beginners. But there are also difficult ski runs like the Giant Slalom run which offers a challenge even for the expert skier. The ski runs are maintained to a high standard and there are more than 100 highly qualified ski instructors, fluent in different languages to teach both beginners and intermediate skiers and snowboarders alike.

The Rhodopes
""The impressive Project “Perelik” is the new modern face of Bulgarian tourism. This is proved by the use of the best contemporary architectural and construction practices as well by the combination of the authentic Rhodope architectural style and the most up-to-date and environment-friendly technologies. The resort will be the greenest on the Balkans.

The Rhodope mountain range is located in the south-eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula; its highest summit is Mount Perelik (2192 m). Over 83% of the mountain stands on bulgarian territory and the rest is in Greece. The Rhodopes are among the earliest formed mountain ranges on the Balkans.

The border between the Rhodopes, Rila and the Pirin mountains is carved out by the Yadenitsa River valley, the Yundola Saddle, Avramov’s Saddle, the Dreshenets River and the Mesta River valley. The northern slopes of the Rhodopes are significantly steeper than the southern where the mountain gently settles itself down onto the plains of Aegean Thrace. Due to certain geographical peculiarities, the Rhodopes have been divided into two parts – Western (high), and Eastern (low). The division between these two parts is drawn by the rivers Kayaliyka and Borovitsa. The average annual temperature in the Eastern Rhodopes is 12-13°?, the maximum of rainfall is in December, and the minimum is in August. The Western Rhodopes cover a territory of 8732 sq. km., and the average annual temperatures reach between 5°? and 9°?.

The nice climate coupled with other factors is favourable for the development of tourism. The microclimate thus established enables a thick snow cover to be preserved for a long period of time – a veritable paradise for skiers."" (quoted from the Perelik Project website)

During out-of-ski seasons Pamporovo and the surrounding area are ideal for walking and treking and off-road trips, horse riding, nature trips and photographic opportunities and places of interest up in the mountains can be arranged through the Manager at the Grand Monastery.

"" In ’The mountains of Orpheus’, as some call the Rhodopes, at the feet of Snezhanka peak, lies one of the oldest Bulgarian resorts – Pamporovo, founded in 1933. Its name derives from the Old Bulgarian word “pampor”, which means “caravan”. According to legend, the trade caravans from the White Sea to south-western Thrace passed through Pamporovo. A local landlord, who built winter shelters for the caravans, was called Pampor, and his lands Pamporov’s. So, to this day, the name of the area remained Pamporovo.

This is the only resort where the lifts work during the summer. All year round tourists can choose between rural tourism and sports activities: bowling, tennis, archery, mountain-biking.

It is easy to reach the nearby holiday resorts, Progled, Momchilovtsi, Gela and Stoykite, and the ethnographic complex, Shiroka Laka. Another attraction is the Bachkovo monastery, the second largest and most significant after the Rila monastery, and Narechenski Bani, with its mineral and medicinal springs. One of the places of interest in the ‘Mountains of Orpheus’, as some call the Rhodopes, are the lakes of Smolyan. There used to be about twenty, but now there are only seven left, dispersed in picturesque locations over the whole valley, from the Orpheus cliffs to Smolyan itself. The most familiar are the lakes Trevistoto (The Grassy), Bistroto (The Limpid) and Matnoto (The Turbid).

The most interesting place for tourists is the panoramic bar of the Snezhanka tower, at 2,030 m above sea level. When the weather is clear, you can view plainly the whole resort and all the ski-trails from there. To the south is the Smolyan terrace, and in the distance is the outline of the Greek part of the Rhodopes. To the west the Golyam Perelik peak and the village houses of Gela and Stoykite can be seen, and a panoramic view to the Rila and Pirin mountains opens out. To the north is the ridge of the Stara Planina mountains, and to the east the Rozhen Plateau, the dome of the National astronomical observatory and the hills of the Eastern Rhodopes.

Of course, Pamporovo is associated mainly with the magic of winter. There are more than 150 winter days, and the mantle of white is often more than two metres thick. You can ski and snowboard from the end of November until the end of April. The ski-pistes with the highest level of difficulty are at Snezhanka peak (Studenets), Snezhanka 3 and Snezhanka 4. Several ski-runs and mini-drag-lifts are available for novice skiers. Some ski-runs around Snezhanka peak and the shooting range in the Yazovira area are built for lovers of the ski-run and the biathlon. ""(extract from bulgariaproperties website)