Europe 2024 - 2026 / February 17, 2026

Bansko, Bulgaria

We spent 6 weeks attending the Worldschooling Bansko Hub. It was jam-packed with activities and we had tons of fun.

We stayed in a really nice hotel complex about a 15 minute drive out of Bansko town. We had a 2 bedroom apartment and the complex had a gym, sauna, steam room, pools and jacuzzi. We regularly had ‘social saunas’ and spent many hours enjoying the facilities.

Mountain Views

We had a really nice view of the mountains from our apartment and from the surrounding area.

Bankso Town

Bansko is a cute little tourist town. There is a pedestrian main street with a cute church that leads through the town to the Gondola where all the apres-ski action is.

Playing in the Snow

One of the main reasons for going to Bansko (other than to meet other traveling families) was so that the kids could experience snow. It did not disappoint! During our 6 weeks there, we got 3 big snow falls – so much so that we couldn’t drive our car a few times (our area wasn’t great at plowing the roads and it seems the use of sand/salt is non-existent). The kids enjoyed making igloos, having snowball fights, sledding and even brushing off the car!

Skiing

The seasonal ski pass was over our budget at 1,000 euros per person. So, we opted for 2 days of skiing instead. We found a cheap rental place which rented us skis, boots, poles, helmets and googles for only 15 euros per adult and 10 euros per kid per day! The daily ski pass was 60 euros for adults, and 57 for teens.

The pistes were not very well maintained or groomed so the skiing was a bit heavy and hard on the legs, but we still had a great time skiing with our new friends. There was also an easy and fun 8 km run from the top gondola down to the town which was a hit.

Thermal Hot Springs

Every Wednesday evening, we visited a thermal hot spring and soaked ourselves for several hours. One night there was a snow storm while we were soaking. It was a strange feeling to have a warm body with ice cold snow falling on your head! We also had to walk barefoot through the snow to get from one pool to the other.

Street Dogs

Each week, we spent an hour at the Bansko Street Dogs, a volunteer organisation that takes in street dogs, trains them and then re-houses them. The kids really enjoyed this activity – especially the puppies.

Dinners

We went out to dinner at least once per week with friends. We tried a few different restaurants and returned a couple of times to a favourite.

Cooking

Once per week we did some cooking with the teens, trying out different Bulgarian recipes. Unfortunately we didn’t take photos of all of them, but here are some.

Poker Nights

There were several poker nights during the hub including a more formal ‘Casino Night’.

Special One-Off Activities

We had several activities that were special and only a one off. These included horse riding (actually, K got to do this one twice), ATV ride, and a visit to Rila Monestary.

Horse riding

The kids had to actually steer their own horses and follow the leader through a path through the countryside and snow. K loved it!

ATV

I thought I was going to love this, but didn’t really enjoy it. I found the ATV to be extremely difficult to steer (I found out later that I got a dud) and I had pain shooting through my hands and arms for a couple of days afterwards! It was also very scary! Steep declines and inclines through very slippery snow and mud. Some families went a second time and one person actually flipped the ATV with her child on the back!

Rila Monestary

This was on our list to visit even before we decided to attend the Bansko hub as it is one of the top sites to see in Bulgaria. It was a 1.5 hour drive from Bansko. It was beautiful! We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the inside which is a shame as it was incredible.

The monestary dates back to the 10th century and as it has been such an important site since then, it has received funding an gifts from several countries around the world. It still houses 60 monks.

Other Games

There were two other really fun games that were family favourites. One was the Imposter. Certain people in the group were imposters and had to ‘kill’ other group members by handing them an imposter card. It turns out the C was an imposter and he had us all fooled for several days. Unfortunately K got ‘killed’ on the second day and R and I got ‘killed’ on the third day while out to dinner. (C killed R). It was a really fun game trying to figure out who the imposters were and for the imposters sneaking around trying to kill people.

On another day, we got a knock on the door and received a card just like in Squid Game (thank god we have watched the show!) saying we had to been in the conference room at a certain time. When we arrive, we were involved in a replica of the first season of Squid Game and had to complete the same games. It was a blast! C and R won the games and received a ‘gold’ bar.