Bulgaria's Borovets the Booziest Ski Resort in Europe

A new report from ski tour operators Crystal Ski reveals which resorts have the most bars per sq km and although the French coined the term après ski, it is the Bulgarians that have taken the crown.

The ultimate après resort, based on Crystal's research, is Borovets in Bulgaria with approximately four bars per sq km and pints of beer costing little more than £1 during happy hour.

A representative from Borovets tourism office said: "To have quality après, you need quality avant-ski, and Borovets has that too. The ski-in/ski-out resort in the highest Balkan mountains combines perfect skiing conditions with daily visits to rich cultural and historic sites, unique local cuisine and unrivalled hospitality".

The reasonably priced and cheerful Eastern European spot came well ahead of the French Trois Vallées resorts of Méribel, with 2.2 bars per sq km, and Courchevel, with 2.1 bars, second and third place respectively.

The lively resort of Pas de la Casa in Andorra came in fourth with around 1.8 bars per sq km followed closely by the more traditional Austrian ski resort of Schladming in fifth place.

The French resort of Les Deux Alpes came sixth, Italy's Sauze d'Oulx and Livigno came seventh and eighth and a third Trois Vallées resort, Val Thorens, came ninth.

According to the search engine analytics tool Google AdWords, the term “après-ski” was searched for more than 22,500 times between December 2014 and April 2015, proving that skiers and snowboarders are not just looking for a large ski area, but also for venues where they can let their hair down at the end of the day.

Last September Crystal launched five different types of ski tours – Mile Muncher, Piste Princess, Gadget Guru, Park Rat and Après Animal, and incorporated them into the holiday search panel of the Crystal website.

Vicky Hales, customer engagement director at Crystal Ski Holidays, said: "We get that our customers all love ski holidays for different reasons, and our Après Animal Ski Explorer character has been really popular on social media. Skiers can now search our deals by which character they are – so après lovers can find the perfect holiday".

The après research was based on 25 resorts in Europe, provided by tour operator Crystal Ski Holidays. Resort sizes vary. All bars counted are within the boundaries of the specified size of the resort.

The Bulgarian resort sits at 1,300m and its slopes rise to 2,550m. The 58km of mainly intermediate pistes are served by 12 lifts. It also has two terrain parks, catering for all levels, and night skiing on eight runs. Snowmaking covers more than 60% of the slopes.

Local folklore evenings are popular with visitors as are excursions to the capital Sofia or the UNESCO World Heritage Centre Rila Monastery.