First time boarding in Andorra

Advantages: Cheap, excellent snowboard school
Disadvantages: Transport

...After planning to go snowboarding with my best friend for 4 years, we got our act together and booked to go this January. It had to be cheap, and we were absolute beginner boarders. Both competent skiers mind. Getting there. We home at 3 in the morning to get a 7.30 flight out of gatwick to toulouse, followed by a 3 hour bus journey up to the tiny village of soldeu in Andorra - El tarter is the next village over on Andorras only road. We arrived at our hotel at around 2 in the afternoon, unpacked, and then reached the first and only major problem of the holiday. The only public transport is buses, and they are infrequent, and manned by drivers with little English. Still, we eventually found one and got down to the kit shop in the village (two kilometers away) to hire our boots and boards. The next 5 days passed in no time...

robachamings1 28.01.2005 · Read review
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Review of Soldeu El Tartar (Andorra)

Get the most from ski-ing Andorra.

Advantages: cheap everything, great nightlife.
Disadvantages: not such good snow or terrain as the Alps.

...to reach the ski resorts. And with 5 resorts to chose from instead of two, you have suddely got a chamonix-sized area to explore. You can drive East to Soldeu or further on to Pas de la Casa, or head west for Arinsal, Pal and the otherwise inaccessible (and therefore uncrowded) Arcalis. You can pick up hitchhikers and get them to show you the off-piste or tell you about the restaurants in Andorra la Vella. Plus, you can shop at leisure in the capitals duty free boutiques, and eat in peace at its restaurants. Alternatively, you have the freedom to head out of Andorra altogether, and explore a little of France or Spain. It is not a hard drive down to Barcelona, Motorways all the way once you negotiate the pass out of Andorra, and there is plenty of entertainment here whatever the weather. I guess there are also good places to go in France...

jimh1 07.07.2005 · Read review
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Review of Andorra: General

Andorra heaven or hell

Advantages: cheap good mountains
Disadvantages: too many people shopping

...Andorra is a small principality of 180.6 sq miles in the Pyrenees between Spain and France. We chose to go there for the day as it was between where we were staying in Spain and where we were going to in France, and we thought we would pick up some cheap booze. Andorra has a different tax system that is what makes wine cigarettes and luxury items so cheap Andorra is a long thin country with one main road going the length of it with a few miner roads into mountains, mountain villages and ski stations .T he country side is beautiful majestic mountains sparsely covered in grass a few fir trees and an occasional flower with mountain streams tumbling and trickling down the mountainside. Rocky contours with bare rock peaks rising into the blue cloudless sky it is a sunny day the sunlight picking out the snow on the permanent snow fields...

mumsymary 01.06.2003 · Read review
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Review of General: Andorra

TAKE A TOURA OF ANDORRA

Advantages: Scenery, perfect for a winter holiday
Disadvantages: Longevity is low due to small size of country and lack of alternative activities

...--- INTRODUCTION --- Andorra is one of the smallest countries in the world with only 181sq. miles of territory in which 60,000 people live. It is a landlocked country 'sandwiched' in the Pyrenees between France and Spain. It has recently taken on democratic methods of rule, but its heads of state are the French President and the Bishop of Urgel in Spain. It has adopted the Euro, but is not a fully fledged member of the EU, the mainstay of the economy is tourism. Andorra is currently going through a building boom with most of the buildings in Andorra not over 25 years old (as only 30 years ago it was a relatively poor country by European standards). This happened by taking advantage of the money injected into it by tourists of which it receives 12million a year. Most of the small communities along the main trunk roads are having...

Puma1000 11.03.2005 · Read review
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Review of General: Andorra

Andorra - not just Pas de la Casa

Advantages: cheaper and quieter than the Alps
Disadvantages: long transfer

...Andorra has always been a great resort to learn to ski and board due to both the fantastic ski schools and cheap prices. This has given it a reputation for being a bit cheap and cheerful but over the past couple of years it has been trying to shake this image and go more upmarket. We have visited Andorra 4 times in the winter and once in the summer, and over the past year or two we have seen so much work going on, they are pouring in what seems like unlimited funds it's unbelievable. Which is all good! Andorra la Vella is a shoppers paradise but it is sooo busy traffic wise. Pas de la Casa is the most popular resort but also in my opinion the ugliest (but hey you're not skiing in the town - it has fab pistes!), whereas some of the other resorts are prettier with old stone buildings etc. Arcalis/Pal An undiscovered couple of gems...

girlscanboard 30.11.2007 · Read review
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Review of General: Andorra

Andorra, Paradize Lost

Advantages: Nature and sport activities
Disadvantages: crowds and heavy traffic in the town centre (I don't recommend you stay there)

...find best prices... Let’s get away from them and their shopping bags full of cheap licor, cheap cigarettes and other nice staff that doesn’t particularly interest us at time being. We didn’t come here to get stressed. We came to relax, walk and enjoy what we can. If it’s winter you most certainly will go skiing. Skiing, snowboarding, toboganning and all kinds of possible winter sports are available at the five ski resorts. I’ve been to three of them, Pas de la Casa – Grau Roig, Soldeu El Tarter and Pal. I certainly prefer Pas de La Casa – Grau Roig, especially when you get to the slopes by Funicamp, the telepheric which provides excellent views and saves time. While looking for information about Andorra for this opinion (I can’t remember all the names and routes correctly so I had to...

happy_hamster 24.03.2001 (21.05.2001) · Read review
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Review of General: Andorra

Andorra - High Altitude, Low Cost

Advantages: Cheap, friendly plenty of huge shops
Disadvantages: Traffic pollution hangs over the place like a blanket during the summer

...My mother-in-law lives in the south of France, roughly 90 km North of Andorra, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. You may think how lucky it is that my “mother-in-law” lives so far away (knowing all the mother-in-law jokes), but she is actually very cool and I get on with her like a house on fire. So the only lucky side to the distance, is what an outstandingly beautiful part of the world she lives in and that I get to visit whenever I like (pennies permitting of course!) Andorra is a very small country. It’s more of a principality really. It’s nestled neatly between France and Spain, very high up, in the Pyrenees. In fact it’s so small that you’d be forgiven for thinking it was merely a city when you look down at it from the top of the mountains you have to get over from France to get there...

joannavos 07.06.2001 · Read review
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Review of General: Andorra

Sport Hotel - Soldeu

Advantages: Cheap shopping. A cheap way of skiing.
Disadvantages: Coach transfer to resort took ages, and not nice if you're scared of mountain roads!

...I went as part of a group of people. You fly into France and take a coach to the resort which is 3 hours away - no fun at all! A cheap alternative to France or Austria, with excellent shopping because no VAT in Andorra. Ski equipment is very cheap, as is virtually everything else shopping wise. We bought gallons of booze back in our suitcases because it was so so cheap. Skiing was OK but not brilliant. The lift system is OK too. Having been to Austria before I didn't think it was as good but hey, it's better than not going! Nightlife - OK. As a group we tended to make our own entertainment and we gatecrashed a tour group's party. There was a bar in the bottom of the hotel which was handy! Food at the Sport hotel wasn't brilliant but it wasn't awful. The facilities there were ok....

Angelama 26.07.2000 · Read review
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Review of Soldeu - El Tarter

  For Whom the Bear Talks

Advantages: Accomplished, vital and original
Disadvantages: Lyrics are not a strong point

...Andorra by Caribou Point Me at the Sky? You can generally rely on Canada to come up with some good modern music, from old stalwarts of the business like Leonard Cohen and Neil Young to newer acts like Arcade Fire and Rufus Wainwright and his sister, Martha. Unless you happen to live in Canada, however, finding something nearer the cutting edge may prove to be a little more problematic. One place you could begin the search is the Polaris Music Prize, an annual award (currently $20,000) given to "the best Canadian album of the year". Our nearest equivalent in the UK is probably the Mercury Prize, although the Polaris is more likely to throw up some oddities and surprises as it is not restricted to any particular musical genre. The sure-fire, dead cert winner of the 2007 Polaris was Arcade Fire's brilliant "Neon Bible". Nobody...

Mitsudan 08.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Andorra - Caribou

Skii, swim, eat, chill, sleep... Perfect

Advantages: Slope access / Swimming Pool / Buffett / Perfect
Disadvantages: I don't live there

...-------------------- When / Why? I visit the Sport Hotel Village once a year, and have done so since 2001. (Previous to this, we used to stay in the Sport Hotel across the road) I stay here during the half term break in March, for 1 week. The reason, the resort is perfect, with a wide range of runs, from green to black. -------------------- Location The hotel is located in Soldeu, Andorra, to the foot of the Grandvalira slopes. With easy access to the hotel from the main road, and the slopes. The bottom of the piste runs directly into the lifts on the ground floor. Andorra is located on the borer between France and Spain, on the eastern Pyrenees. Of course, this hotel is available all year round. For the winter, the ski resort offers excellent skiing and snowboarding with the best and biggest slopes in the Pyranees. During...

cj1985 08.01.2008 · Read review
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Review of Sport Hotel Village, Soldeu