Travelers who visit Serbia are mostly impressed by its beautiful nature. When winter rolls around, daytime shortens and the weather conditions are often difficult. It’s obvious that you can’t fully experience and enjoy the beauty of nature during those winter months. Chances to find winter fairy tale landscapes are much bigger in rural areas, especially in the mountains. Serbia has several ski resorts, but there is only one worth visiting and that one is Kopaonik.
In the past 10 years, this ski resort is highly developed into the biggest and definitely the most beautiful ski centre in Serbia, it offers around 62 km of slopes and ski runs arranged for alpine and cross-country skiing. The artificial snowing system covers almost entire resort and make the skiing season last longer. Skiers can be sure that they will be able to enjoy the season on excellently prepared runs. Ski lifts are new and signalization of ski slopes is excellent. Due to its configuration Kopaonik is without a doubt an excellent ski destination for those who are about to make their first turns on snow, as well as for those experienced skiers. On top of all that, you can find an amazing snowboard park, which hosts numerous domestic and international competitions.
Accommodation capacities are increasing with every new season and you can find varied quality of accommodation: from modestly furnished rooms in mountain homes to luxury rooms and suites in hotels with swimming pools and spa centers. There are possibilities for everyone, depending on how much you’re willing to pay. As for location, there are basically three different options.
You could find accommodation in the very centre of the ski resort, the largest hotels such as Hotel Grand and Hotel Angella are located there, and as you could expect those are the most expensive ones. In return, you will find yourself in the centre of events, where all the fun happens all day and (almost) all of the night. This means when ski resort closes for a day, nightlife and entertainment continues here.
The second option is to stay in so-called cottage village, where you can find various apartments (Jolly Kop, Vila Mujen Lux, Kraljevi čardaci), private cottages and houses, all that just 3-6 km away from the centre. Prices are affordable, and the owners of apartment complexes are trying to come up with some compelling content for after ski entertainment. The village is connected with the ski resort by ski bus service.
The third possibility is to stay in the village Brzeće, situated about 18 km away from the centre of the ski resort. Brzeće is connected to the ski resort by ski lift and by minibus, departing every 60 minutes. Although the accommodation price in this variant is the most favorable, until the gondola doesn’t replace the old and slow ski lift, we believe that this settlement could be an option only if you arrive there by your own car. It happens often that the slope connecting village with the resort is closed due to lack of snow or strong wind; in both cases ski lift is not in operation.
While staying on Kopaonik you definitely shouldn’t miss the blueberry pie in ski buffet Skituljko, located on the mid section of the slope Mali Karaman (number 8). The crowd at the buffet is probably the best confirmation of how good this pie is, and you will definitely have trouble finding free seats there between 11 and three o’clock in the afternoon.
You can expect large crowd on Kopaonik during New Year holidays, public holidays and school holidays. This school year 2015/2016 has winter break on February 1st till 12th and public holiday is on February 15th and 16th so we strongly recommend that you skip the first half of February.
We assure you that Kopaonik could compete with far more famous ski resorts in Europe when it comes to quality of slopes, accommodation, ski services, and all of that for less money. Now it’s just up to you to visit this beautiful mountain and let us know if your expectations are fulfilled. 🙂