No country in the world has been transformed by winter sports quite as much as Andorra.
Looked back at fondly, as a no-frills, top-value party destination that helped make skiing affordable for hundreds of thousands of Brits in the 1970s and 1980s, few realise that before a few pioneers began building simple ski areas here 50 years ago, Andorra was a rather quiet, mostly agricultural principality where farmers fought to make a living in an unforgiving, mountainous environment.
But the discovery that the snow that plagued farming efforts was, in fact, white gold for tourism changed all that. What’s perhaps most surprised skiers who visited the little nation in the latter decades of the last century is that the transformation didn’t end with that successful budget-destination business model but that Andorra has kept transforming and gone from low-rent to luxurious.
The country is so small and demand so high that land prices have sky-rocketed (good news for those farmers … ) and money earned has been ploughed back in. What were once half a dozen small, basic ski areas have, since the turn of the millennium, been transformed into two large ski resort conglomerations, with most of the areas now interlinked by pistes and lifts. Resort villages have been upgraded and have more of a Swiss feel in places, with lots of local stone and wood.
On the slopes, the bargain-basement feel is long gone; fast modern chairlifts and gondolas whisk us up the slopes, World Cup races are staged here and Winter Olympics bid for (in partnership with neighbouring nations). There’s all you could wish for in the way of terrain parks, and family fun ski areas have been created.
Why So Popular?
We Brits have had a long-standing love affair with Andorran skiing. The reasons are many, but apart from the essential high-value factor, there several other key ingredients to the relationship.
First and most important, Andorra is a friendly, welcoming nation, and you normally feel happy to be there. There’s a sunny, relaxed Mediterranean feel to the place that most skiers and boarders love. On the slopes, the children’s nurseries and ski schools have high numbers of English-speaking instructors (Brits, Kiwis and Aussies mostly), who also make learning fun and relaxed. Most of the ski villages have developed for skiing so they are designed for convenience for the slopes. The lift infrastructure and other facilities, as mentioned already, are very modern, fast and efficient. And there is the infamous duty-free après-ski scene which helps make Andorra an affordable place for a night out in a way that so many resorts in the Alps are not for most people. This can of course lead to excess, and there are plenty of infamous bars, but equally there are mostly small, relaxed, family-run and family-friendly cafés and restaurants where you can dine out each night without breaking the bank.
No Longer A Bargain?
In the 1990s, Andorra saw the writing was on the wall somewhat for their low-cost reputation; Eastern European resorts were being privatised, receiving EC grants to build new lifts and moving into Andorra’s traditional marketplace. In any case, the ski areas had a history of upgrading year in, year out anyway, and Andorra was moving up on the world stage of ski destinations regardless.
The amalgamation of two of the big ski areas around Soldeu and Pas de la Casa to form Grandvalira was a tipping point. The new area boasted more high-speed six-seater chairlifts at the time than any other on the planet and quickly grew to offer more than 200km of piste – the largest in the Pyrenees, which is home to more than 50 areas, including some venerable names on the French and Spanish sides of the border who may have been taken by surprise a little by the success of this upstart principality! Andorra’s remaining ski areas – Arinsal, Pal and Arcalis – merged to form a second ski area conglomeration, Vallnord.
But as Grandvalira became a world-class resort and could seemingly do no wrong, its lift ticket prices did rise rapidly to go from one of the cheapest in Europe to one of the most expensive. Andorra’s market share, in the UK in particular, fell away from the heady days when more Brits were heading to Andorra than all of Switzerland’s hundreds of ski areas combined.
But since the economic crash, Andorra has been regaining lost ground. It never lost some of the key aspects of its financial attractiveness – affordable accommodation and duty-free après ski, which brought the overall holiday cost in far more cheaply than the big destinations in the Alps. The rise in lift ticket prices was stabilised, more discounted tickets were offered, and with the boom in interest in Eastern European skiing itself now past its peak, once again Andorra is back in renaissance.
Where To Ski?
As mentioned, Andorra has two main “resorts” now, but they are made up of individual resort villages which most British tour operators still refer to them as, more than 10 years after they merged their operations.
In Grandvalira, the highest resort of Pas de la Casa (2100m), up on the French border, is one of the key British party towns. Soldeu could perhaps be described as the principality’s most upmarket, with 4 and 5 ★ hotels. Between the two is the small modern development of Grau Roig (2000m); El Tarter is a smaller (but growing development) a kilometre or so down the road from Soldeu, with good connections into the area. It’s also possible to stay in the village of Canillo, which is home to a municipal leisure complex and closest to the capital, Andorra la Vella, with its vast range of shops. A final option is Encamp, 800 vertical metres below Pas de la Casa and linked by two cable cars into the circuit.
Andorra’s other ski resort, Vallnord, contains another popular British destination, the vibrant village of Arinsal, which is home to a great selection of shops, bars and restaurants and is lift-linked to the neighbouring ski area of Pal and to the resort of La Massana, the closest of the circuit to Andorra la Vella. A third ski area, which has a reputation for, typically, the most snow in Andorra and has something of a reputation as a freeride Mecca, is Arcalis.
But wherever you choose to stay, Andorra is so compact it’s easier to get anywhere else in the country.
