The hotel is well located close to the main access points for the town, so easy to find, but in walking distance of the heart of the old town for sight-seeing and restaurants. Staff speak reasonable english and are very helpful. Our room was spacious and very comfortable, with a balcony and lovely views over the hills. A little tired and in need of refurbishment, but well looked after and very clean. At the time of our stay there were no other guests in the hotel, and it must have 60 rooms. This was not a problem except that it was eerilie quiet and they didn't bother putting out a breakfast buffet but just asked us what we wanted (which led to some strange breakfasts as a result of linguistic or cultural misunderstandings). We were told during our stay that they had problems with their credit card systems and we would have to pay by cash, suggesting they might be in financial difficulty - which wouldn't be surprising with all the new hotel and appartment developments on the other side of town. But while it is still there I would recommend Hotel Orphey as a very good place to stay and excellent value.

Situated in quiet part of old-town Bansko.. I had a spacious, comfortably furnished room with mountain view. Large bathroom spotlessly clean. Plenty of hot water.
Management, Reception, Dining room & Bar staff very friendly and helpful (most of whom spoke good English and responded well at my attempts to speak Bulgarian!). Nice indoor pool area (I didn't use the spa or sauna facilities which were available). Excellent shuttle-bus service to Gondola station - necessary as its quite a distance to walk. Small on-site ski rental/storage facility.
Late afternoon tea/cake served very welcome after returning from day on the slopes. Half board breakfast and dinner tasty and adequate though not a lot of variety. Went to weekly Gala dinner with folk dancing in Ethno Restaurant - good meal and entertainment.
Luggage storage facility if waiting for airport transfer after check-out.

Stayed at the Hotel Orphey at the end of Feb., really enjoyed!
HOTEL :
**Rooms were clean, and modern (although probably more a 3* than 4*)
**Breakfast and lunch was fairly basic but was well cooked.
**The bar was open all night, it was v well stocked and reasonably priced.
**Steam room and jacuzzi were ideal after a long day on the slopes
**Excellent transport to the gondela station - runs v regularly (every 20 mins)

SLOPES:
**Had to queue for the gondela (prob about 20mins but when on the mountain this was not an issue)
**Ideal for skiiers with varied runs (interconnecting run to the village is a little flat for boarders; have to carry plenty of speed otherwise you'll be walking!)
**Snow conditions were OK apart from near the cafes and lifts (were slushy but what do you expect in high temperatures nearing the end of season?)

The Hotel: Rooms are clean (so long as you don't peek under the bed!!) and quite modern. The bathroom has shower and bath although after 5pm the water for a bath was tepid to say the least and the bath also leaked! The swimming pool and Jaccuzi were good after a long day on the slopes although i dread to think the last time it was cleaned! The bar was very well stocked and quite reasonably priced for a hotel with a glass of wine around £1 and beer at £1.50. However..........the food........we came to know it fondly by the end of the holiday as slop! Bland, fatty and the same thing night after night. Breakfast was a choice of cereal, toast (although the toaster was broke for our last day) cold scrambled eggs and cold hot dogs - hardly inspiring. The evening meal was worse pork stew slop, chicken in slop and awful cold water fish with a choice of cucumber, tomato and mayonnaise purple slop! And it was the same night after night. (the last few eveings we got takeout chicken kebabs just to fill us up!) Having said this we came to discover that our Hotel was not in the minority but that this is the general standard of food in Bulgaria.
The Resort: we were left disappointed for 2 days of our trip due to lifts being closed to the top of the mountain due to the mens downhill (although they did try to tell us it was high winds - hmm coincidence?!) We only had to queue one day for the gondola and that was on the weekend as locals flock upon the area. Interlinking slopes were very poor and everyday we had to take our baords off and walk to get to the last slope to take you back to the gondola - it seems little thought has gone into the needs of boarders. The conditions around the cafes on the lower slopes were very poor, slushy and muddy due to the hot weather conditions but the atmosphere was good.
So we tried it.....and would advise anybody to pay the extra and go to the Alps were they know what they are doing!