Thirty kilometres southwest of Samokov, Malyovitsa is everything that Borovets isn't: a tiny, secluded hiking base with limited - but rewarding - skiing in the winter, no package tourists, and a single, rather frugal, hotel. It's reached by a minor road which heads out of Samokov along the banks of the Cherni Iskâr, a burbling rivulet whose banks used to be packed with people camping wild before 1990, when the happy-go-lucky tourism of the Communist era speedily went out of fashion. A private minibus shuttles between Samokov and Malyovitsa twice daily in the summer and winter seasons: otherwise you're on your own.

You can also get to Malyovitsa via a little-frequented mountain road that leaves Borovets near the Bistritsa palace: this joins the Samokov-Malyovitsa route just short of GOVEDARTSI , a sleepy village worth mentioning as the location of the Kalina   hotel , just off the main road (tel 07125/2643, or bookable through Odysseia-in in Sofia; US$9-18), a family-run B&B which serves as a good base for touring in the area if you've got your own transport. Continuing westwards you'll pass Camping Bor (tel 071252/304), 2km beyond Govedartsi, a secluded spot in the forest with simply furnished bungalows (US$9-18).

A couple of kilometres west of the campsite, a branch road snakes up through the forest for 8km to MALYOVITSA itself, 1750m above sea level. There's not much here apart from the Malyovitsa   hotel (tel 07125/2222; US$9-18), a gloomy place which will appeal to those with a taste for solitude and very few frills. There's a new slalom track and chair lift a short walk from the hotel, and plenty of huts renting out ski gear in season. However the place comes into its own as a base-camp for summer hikes, with a well-trodden trail leading south up a narrow valley which is overlooked by several peaks, most imperious of which is the 2729-metre Mt Malyovitsa .

The one-hour ascent to the Malyovitsa hut at the head of the valley constitutes the first leg of several hikes: from here it's seven hours' walk to the beautiful Seven Lakes ( Sedemte ezera ) cabin, or six hours to the Ivan Vazov lodge. Blasted crags surround another lake, Strashnoto ezero , which lies to the east of the Malyovitsa hut. Refuges there, and to the north of the Dry Lake ( Suhoto ezero ), serve as way-stations along the route to the hut beside the Fish Lakes : nine hours' hike in all. The most popular trail leads south to Mt Malyovitsa and Rila Monastery . Climbing the mountain takes about three hours, an easier ascent than by the steeper southern face. Afterwards, follow the path west along the ridge before taking the trail branching left, which leads to the monastery in the thickly wooded valley below (a further 3-4hr).