Welcome to our skiing blog, with updates and news for winter holidaymakers and snowsports lovers!
Brand new for 2023, you can now enjoy snow tubing in Pas de la Casa with Snowtubbing by Dots! This exciting new activity is the longest snow tubing circuit in Europe at 350 metres in length, and you can reach speeds of up to 60km/h!
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If you’ve been on a ski holiday before, you’ll know that apres-ski is a huge part of the ski-resort culture and is often one of the most memorable parts of your trip, that is – if you can still remember it the next morning! Apres-ski literally means ‘after-ski’ and is used to describe the time spent socialising in bars and restaurants after a fun day on the mountain. Essentially, it’s a great way to keep the good times rolling even after you’ve finished up on the slopes. Read on to find out where’s good and what’s on in Grandvalira!
As there are so many activities to enjoy in Andorra when you are not on the slopes, we’ve compiled a list of five new après ski activities for you to enjoy while on holiday in Andorra.
When you think of your typical ski holiday, you don’t tend to think that you can stay in an igloo sculpted from ice… but in Grau Roig in the Grandvalira ski area you can do exactly that! Towards the end of last winter Sofia and Ella from the Andorra Resorts team were lucky enough to experience this for themselves with a visit to the Iglu Hotel. (more…)
Today we had a team outing to go dog sledding in El Tarter, one of the fantastic apres ski activities you can enjoy when you visit Grandvalira. After arriving at the top of the Tarter Gondola we could already hear the barking of the dogs in the distance, with a five minute walk across the snow we could see the excitable dogs getting ready to whisk their next customers off around their track. (more…)
This list was compiled in 2013 (checked March 2017), for our list of ‘Five New Après Ski Activities in Andorra’, just click here.
When you visit Andorra for your ski holiday it’s definitely not just about the skiing or snowboarding! Après ski is fantastic here so we’ve compiled a list of our top ten off-the-slopes activities we think you should try.
1. Caldea Spa, Andorra la Vella
A magnificent eye-catching building in the heart of the capital holds the recently enlarged Caldea spa which is the highest natural spa in Europe. The various spa pools and treatments on offer provide some much needed recovery after a hard day on the slopes! (more…)
The resort of Arinsal is in the Vallnord ski area of Andorra offering 63km of linked runs and 93km of runs in total on the lift pass. We’re been working in Arinsal since 2005 and it’s the resort we call home, so we thought it only right it was our first resort featured in our blog!
To help you get to know a bit more about the resort here’s our guide to the most important bits.
Geography
There is one main street running through the village although it is split into three areas. You have the top of the village which is by a chairlift with access to the piste, and here there are a couple of hotels, a couple of ski hire shops and a couple of bars and restaurants. There is a little area higher than this but it is predominantly residential. Heading down the hill you’ll come to the village centre where you will find the majority of bars, restaurants and hotels as well as the gondola providing the main access to the slopes. There are two small supermarkets as well as several ski shops. Further down the hill you have the lower area around the Hotel St Gothard. There are a few apartments here as well as a tapas bar and hotel bars. To get to the slopes from here you can either walk up the hill around 10 minutes to the gondola or there is a free bus.
Ski Area
Arinsal has a great reputation for beginners partly to do with the great nursery area and partly to do with the outstanding ski school with a good number of British instructors to help you learn. But don’t worry if you’re not a beginner because as you head up the mountain you find more challenging slopes as well as a cable car linking the neighbouring Pal ski area which offers some fantastic un-pisted runs, off piste areas and tree-lined slopes.
The third area covered on the Vallnord lift pass is Arcalis, which is smaller at 30km of slopes but it is arguably the best skiing in Andorra. To get to Arcalis there is a free bus departing from the bottom of Arinsal twice each morning.
Apres Ski
A ski holiday isn’t just about your time on the slopes! Arinsal has some great bars and restaurants and the best part is that they are all family friendly, which is important when you’re on holiday with your children, although if you don’t have kids then don’t worry – the parties go on until the early hours with two nightclubs, one a dance club and the other with cheese!
There are also lots of activities to get involved in ranging from relaxing at the Caldea spa through to exhilarating helicopter flights! There’s also sledging, quiz nights, pub crawls, meal nights, shopping trips, ice skating and lots more to keep you entertained.
You can find out more about Arinsal at www.arinsal.co.uk.
