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THE TIMES (London)
March 12, 2005
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 apr�s-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 caf�, 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 Caf� 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 apr�s-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.
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