ANDORRA
FEATURE
GRANDVALIRA
Pas de la Casa and Soldeu – now joined at
the hip as Grandvalira (grandvalira.com) –
are the showpiece resorts of 21st-century
Andorra. Together they offer a serious
alternative to many mid-sized alpine
destinations; the area’s 192km of runs eclipse
many of its more illustrious rivals.
Set on the busy main road from Andorra la
Vella to the French border, sprawling Soldeu is
no chocolate box mountain village, but what it
lacks in charm it makes up for in convenience.
The main gondola leaves pretty much from the
boot room of the resort’s best hotel, the Sport
Village (sporthotels.ad), and the home run
ends up at the back door. For something more
low-key, the cosy, lodge-style Hotel Bruxelles
Soldeu (hotelbruxelles.ad) is a short stroll from
the gondola and is a fine budget choice. For
dinner and drinks, Fat Albert’s (+376 851 765)
is a legendary après ski spot in a 300-year-old
barn; the hugely popular restaurant dishes
up steaks, ribs and pizzas among the original
mangers, while the upstairs bar is packed till
the early hours and hosts twice-weekly gigs.
Once you’re on the pistes, most of the skiing
takes place across three open, north-facing
bowls above the treeline. Sitting at a snow-sure
2,250
m, Es Piolets is the main mountain base
with ski schools, a big nursery area and several
restaurants dotted around the slopes. There
are three Fun Food restaurants serving up
sandwiches, burgers and salads – and, if you
time it right, the chance to watch the waitresses
doing a dance routine on the tables as the
music is pumped up to the max. For something
more refined, Roc de les Bruixes (+376 890
704)
is a gastronomic mountain hut perched at
2,000
m. Come for lunch or, even better, head
up on a Saturday night; after-dark access is
via gondola from the linked village of Canillo,
“
If you time
it right, you
can watch the
waitresses
do a dance
routine on
the tables”
followed by a stroll along a torchlit track.
In Canillo itself, the delightful Borda del
Rector (+376 852 606, bordarector.com) serves
up suckling pig and wild boar in an atmospheric
old wood and stone cowshed, with lavishly
decorated lounge areas and roaring log fires.
The village is also home to a sporting treat,
the Palau de Gel (palaudegel.ad), with an
Olympic-sized ice rink, sauna and gym.
At the other end of the Grandvalira ski
area is the loud, brash party resort of Pas
de la Casa, which first cranked into action in
1957.
Straddling the border, it has something
of a frontier town feel with droves of French
skiers and duty-free shoppers heading up for
a weekend in the white stuff. Pas may not
be as convenient as Soldeu for exploring the
whole area, but it has steep reds above the
village, accessed by a series of fast chairlifts.
Two minutes from the slopes, the Petit Hotel
(
petithotelpas.com) is a great-value place to
lay your head, with 12 comfy en-suite rooms.
If you’d prefer to escape the partying, book
into luxurious four-star Grau Roig Hotel
(
hotelgrauroig.com), which sits in peaceful
seclusion at 2,000m in the neighbouring valley
and offers excellent spa facilities alongside
ski-in, ski-out accommodation.
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2012
WIZZ MAGAZINE
57
SUPERSTOCK
THIS PAGE:
SKI FIRST,
PARTY LATER AT PAS DE
LA CASA
