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PAMPOROVO the "Gem of the Rhodopes" currently looks rather tarnished, with some of its hotels showing their age, while others are undergoing renovation as establishments change hands. That said, it's a stunning location, and is still a user-friendly ski resort where mild weather and good snow-cover make skiing conditions near perfect from mid-December to mid-April, with a range of classes and pistes to suit everyone from absolute beginners to the pros - and remarkably cheap, for those on package holidays. Over summer it is marketed as a mountains-and-lakes resort, with a number of organized walking and cycling tours on offer - though hikers would do better elsewhere - but in May and from September until the start of the skiing season Pamporovo is pretty folorn, with only a few hotels and facilities open. Buses drop you at the junction of the Plovdiv to Smolyan road and the slip road to the main complex of hotels. The beginners' slopes are just below the outlying Malina chalet complex, reached by bus or a thirty-minute walk from the centre of the resort. Equipment can be rented there, at the bus depot, or at the Studenets way-station (accesible by chair lift from Malina or the bus station). Chair lifts also run from Ardashlar (just below Malina ) and from Studenets to the 1926-metre-high summit of Mount Snezhanka, starting-point of many of the ski runs . Advanced skiers can take a drag lift from Studenets up the side of "The Wall", the most difficult and demanding run at Pamporovo. The TV Tower on Mount Snezhanka (daily 9am-4.30pm) has a cafe and an observation gallery giving a marvellous view of the Rhodope Mountains and, on clear days, parts of the Pirin and Rila, too - and makes a useful landmark for hikers. Twenty minutes' walk from here, the Orpheus Rocks ( Orfeevi Skali ) overlook a superb panorama of the mountains surrounding the Smolyan Valley.
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