Ski holidays in Andorra - Grandvalira ski area

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Guest writer: Magdalena

In winter, many people long to get out on the slopes and go skiing. Imagine that I have become one of them! When I was growing up I didn't go on skiing holidays, I only started when I had children. It has been important to me that my children should learn to ski and therefore we have gone on many skiing trips during their childhood.

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We've skied in Sweden, Austria and Italy and over the years, surprisingly, I've come to love going on skiing holidays. This time the choice was made to travel to Andorrawhich is one of the smallest countries in the world. Andorra is a principality located in the Pyrenees, on the border between Spain and France.

Andorra la Vella is the country's capital and a centre for shopping and cultural activities. There are many shops, restaurants and museums, historic buildings, the Royal House and the Andorran Parliament. Andorra also has traditional mountain villages where you can experience the local culture and architecture. Ordino, Canillo and Sant Julià de Lòria are some of the picturesque villages with charming cobbled streets and traditional buildings.

Caldea Spa is one of the largest thermal spa facilities in Europe and is a popular destination in Andorra. It is probably a relaxing place to spend a day with hot springs, steam baths, saunas and other spa treatments. Unfortunately, since I was busy skiing, I didn't have time to visit Caldea Spa, any of the above mentioned villages or the capital on my trip to Andorra.

Andorra has two main ski areas, Grandvalira and Vallnord. We chose to travel to Grandvalira which has 210 kilometres of pistes and skiing to suit everyone, from beginners to advanced skiers. It was the perfect choice for us as the skiing suited everyone in our travelling party of two families.

Although Andorra is a popular destination for winter sports lovers, it seems that we Swedes still mainly travel to the Alps to ski. The reason we chose to go to Andorra was partly because we thought it was fun to travel to a new destination, and partly because it is much cheaper to go on a ski trip to Andorra than to the Alps. It is also a sun-safe destination. Snow, sun and skiing are wonderful, so it felt like a bonus when we chose the destination.

The easiest way to travel to Andorra is to fly to Toulouse or Barcelona and then go to Andorra by bus or car. We travelled with the tour operator Sunweb. Their packages include a flight to Barcelona, a bus to the destination in Andorra, a hotel and a six-day ski pass. Our bus journey, with a coffee break, took 3.5 hours. If you drive yourself, you can save an hour.

Pas de la Casa

We stayed in Pas de la Casa which is located at 2200 metres and is the largest village in Grandvalira. The village is a great destination for a winter holiday. In addition to skiing and snowboarding, you can go dog sledding, snowmobiling, go to the spa, take a snowshoeing excursion and more. There are also many restaurants and pubs. Unfortunately, the village has no old buildings and I missed the cosy village feeling that I got both in Italy and Austria and which is probably found in other villages in Andorra.

After skiing is an important part of skiing holidays, I think. Here everyone sings, dances and toasts with each other regardless of age. Love it. We found a couple of good après-ski places on the slopes. Coll Blanc was our favourite.

The first day we were there, we missed the fact that some slopes closed at 17.00. When we went down to the village, we could only go down one, for some of us, very steep slope. Our teenage girls chose to ride on their bottoms down the hill. It took a long time to get home that day, but we had fun. The rest of the week we kept a close eye on when the slopes closed.

One evening when we went sledding on the slopes, we heard shouting and hooting in the village and we were, of course, curious. Once we arrived at the big crowd, we realised that the locals were having a snowball fight. We were invited to join in - so much fun!

Hotel Grand Pas                                              

There is a wide range of accommodation in Pas de la Casa to choose from, from hotels and apartments to cottages and hostels. We chose to stay at Hotel Grand Pas because that hotel has a ski in/ski out location. It is so easy to avoid carrying your skis to and from your accommodation. We have done that many times but now we are done with it 😊.

Hotel Grand Pas is a four-star hotel. We were lucky and got the biggest and nicest room with a balcony.

The hotel also has a small spa area with pool, jacuzzi and sauna.

Much was good about the hotel. There was really only one thing that was a disaster and that was the food. I can recommend staying at Hotel Grand Pas but by all means do not take half board as we did. We ended up eating in other restaurants every night but two. We all agreed that the food was not edible. Not like us to complain about food, but here we did.

Overall, Pas de la Casa is a great destination for a ski holiday in Andorra. With its excellent location, wide range of ski slopes, restaurants and pubs. The prices are good. It is much cheaper to go here than to go on a skiing holiday in Sweden and the Alps. Unfortunately, cheaper doesn't mean cheap. Skiing holidays are expensive but absolutely wonderful.

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Magdalena and Pernilla

Magdalena Hjortzberg and Pernilla Ekholm run Travelsis.se and live in southern Skåne. Both are social workers whose main leisure interest is travelling with their family, but they also enjoy making things and travelling with friends and parents. They want to share the things they do that enrich their lives to inspire others.

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