March 12, 2005
The Times
Serbia returns to the ski brochures
Louise Roddon explores Kopaonik and is pleasantly surprised to find ski lessons cost just £8 an hour in a value-for-money resort
WE awoke to thumbnail-sized flakes of snow skittering across a porridge-coloured sky. Mount Kopaonik was barely discernible — a white mass behind a blur of diminishing fir trees — and the mound outside our bedroom window had risen in the night after yet another heavy snowfall. “It’s like a scene from The Snowman,” decided my nine-year-old son Felix.
Old skiing hands will remember “Kop”, Serbia’s leading winter sports resort, as the value destination of the 1970s and 1980s. But this is its first season back in the British ski brochures (with Balkan Holidays and Thomson Holidays) since the regional wars.
Bookings are somewhat tentative, due in part to an image problem. Reactions to our holiday among our friends ranged from amusement to incomprehension — even concern, and our fellow skiers in Kop reported much the same.
“We came here purely because it’s cheap,” explained Mel, a young mother from Bridgwater in Somerset. “It’s cheaper than Andorra where we went last year — and much prettier.”
Like the East European resorts of Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia, Kopaonik represents value for money. Family ski passes are almost a quarter of the price of those in France or Austria, and après-ski prices — coffee for 60p, beer for £1, a bottle of wine for a fiver and pizzas at £3 — all add to the attraction.
But there are other advantages. Prettily built half-timbered accommodation, a lively village set beneath fir-covered foothills, and 60km (38 miles) of easy terrain, make this resort suitable for beginners and families. There are only two difficult runs, plenty of blues, and for those who want it, easy, gentle off-piste skiing.
This sounded just what we had been hoping for. Felix had an unsuccessful bash at skiing four years earlier in La Plagne where he miserably endured daily treks to the bus stop and the attentions of a hectoring, supercilious instructor. We wanted him to have another go without shelling out vast sums of money.
And despite residual tiredness — a significant downside of Kopaonik is the shatteringly long transfer time from Belgrade airport at just over five hours — he was keen to hit the slopes straight away.
Happily, with a ski-hire shop in the basement of our hotel, the Grand, sorting out passes and ski gear could not have been simpler. We were soon tagging a class of 20 or so beginners, ranging in age from 9 to 60-plus, with Rudi, our somewhat humourless Serb instructor, barking out orders in poor English.
Felix was plainly finding it hard to keep pace or understand instructions. Fearing he might give up before the week had taken off, we changed over to individual tuition — a bargain at just over £8 an hour.
For the rest of the week, he made huge progress, thanks to an Action Man lookalike called Dusan. Successful-looking snow ploughs were followed by neat parallel turns — skills that Dusan rewarded with a dazzling smile and a high five.
There were plenty of non-skiing activities for down time, many based in our hotel. The large heated indoor pool, games room, basketball, tennis courts and internet café, were regular haunts for all the children — leaving the more passive of parents free to chill out in the Grand’s cavernous bars.
The Serbs’ attitude to smoking is as zealous as their love of mobiles, and we swiftly re-christened one bar as the Café Inferno in honour of its impressive Stygian fug.
Despite this, the young skiers from Belgrade were a surprisingly healthy-looking mob — the men big-shouldered six-footers; the women slinky, unsmiling ice maidens. Bar the odd communication problem, we found the staff at the Grand charming. I grew fond of a grey-whiskered canteen server who was forever pressing me to sample some freakishly large fried fish heads that were a regular feature of the evening buffet. He was to remain a disappointed man.
Though vegetarians would find the buffet challenging, generally the food was pretty good. Midweek we ate out in the village, where Felix raved about the pizzas.
Kopaonik is renowned for its après-ski, and all action centres on the main square, where a circular arcade houses intimate late-night bars among the supermarkets and clothes shops. Prestige and Club Hardy are particularly popular for live music, but the crowd was primarily made up of snowboarding teens.
Our visits to the village were made mostly during daylight hours — once by wooden sledge, with me pulling Felix along in the snow, a feat that left me feeling as if I had just trained for K2.
I had promised we would make a snowman, and all week, envisaging some well-padded giant, Felix had been collecting water bottle caps for the eyes, nose and buttons. The resulting creature was more ET than Raymond Biggs — but Felix and I thought he was just grand.
Need to know
Getting there: Louise Roddon and family travelled to Kopaonik with Balkan Holidays (0845 1301114,
www.balkanholidays.co.uk). Seven nights staying at the Hotel Grand starts at £449 per adult and £435 per child, including flights, transfers and half board. Seven nights’ self-catering in the Konaci Apartments costs from £309pp, based on four sharing.
A six-day “learn to ski” package costs £125 per adult and £103 per child, including lift pass, ski and boot hire, and four hours’ ski school a day.
Thomson Ski (0870 6061470,
www.thomson-ski.co.uk) is sold out for this season but offers a week in Kopaonik for next season, from £329pp including return flights, transfers and seven nights’ half-board accommodation at three-star Hotel Club A. Children up to 11 are charged half price.
“Learn to ski” packages start at £115 for adults and £90 for children.
Re: Srbija medju TOP 10 turistickih destinacija za 2005!
Re: Srbija medju TOP 10 turistickih destinacija za 2005!
The Times, London: Serbia returns to the ski brochures
Re: Srbija medju TOP 10 turistickih destinacija za 2005!