Absolutely. A carton of 200 cigarettes will set you back £14, a bottle of gin in the local supermarket £2.20, and a San Miguel at the bar about £1.50.
And is it just the bad stuff that’s cheap?
No — you can indulge more than your vices here. Electronic goods are usually 20% cheaper than in the UK.
So you’d come here to shop rather than to ski — when you’re not smoking and drinking yourself into an early grave...
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Well, no, actually. The duty-free beer and ciggies are yesterday’s news, because this pocket-sized principality, wedged between France and Spain, has just been given a makeover. After years of mutual suspicion, its two main resorts, Soldeu and Pas de la Casa, have joined forces, connected their lift systems and created Grandvalira, a ski area with 120 miles of pistes. In size, it ranks among Europe’s top 20 resorts.
Yes, but hold up there a moment. Where did you say it was?
Between France and Spain, at the eastern end of the Pyrenees.
I thought so! The Pyrenees — Europe’s also-ran mountain range. It may have the size, but surely it can’t match the Alps for quality?
Admittedly, you won’t find the slopes as long or as vertiginous as those in Verbier or Val d’Isère, but then how many people can do justice to the big descents there? We all like to talk about couloirs, moguls and powder, but, secretly, what most of us enjoy is bombing around on the groomers — wide, well-prepared pistes that aren’t too steep or crowded.
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The kind of pistes, in fact, where we can stop worrying about hurting ourselves and really work those edges. And in that department, Grandvalira is spectacularly well endowed — especially in the high, treeless sector between the two main settlements. The rolling terrain up there is home to some classic runs.
I wouldn’t recommend it to proper, hairy-chested winter-sports junkies, though — they’ll be much better off sticking to the extreme-skiing capitals of Chamonix and Gressoney. But when I was in Andorra, the skies cleared following a blizzard and those rolling valleys between Soldeu and Pas de la Casa became the perfect playground for anyone wanting to venture off-piste for the first time.
I’m thinking of plucky intermediate skiers who want to try out their powder turns, and snowboarders looking to catch their first air. And if any of them develop an appetite for acrobatics en route, they can move on to one of Grandvalira’s three separate terrain parks.
Does that mean they’re neglecting beginners now?
Not a bit of it. Soldeu is still one of the best places to learn, thanks to its Brit-friendly ski and snowboard school (00 376-890591). It’s run by Gordon Standeven, a Yorkshireman, and lessons with a native English-speaker come as standard. You’ll find it at the top of the first cable car, on a gentle, learner-friendly plateau above Soldeu. A week’s course of five lessons costs from £67pp, compared with £95-£115 with a British ski school in the Alps.
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And what about the party animals?
For proper, high-octane après-ski, you’d be much better off in St Anton in Austria — provided you can bear the Alpine prices. In Andorra, most of the action is in Pas de la Casa, right on the border with France. It’s a bleak, rather charmless place, set at nearly 7,000ft, and home to lots of smoky, pubby bars: the Milwaukee is the best of them, but unless a pint (or five) is an essential part of your holiday experience, I’d stay on the other side of the ski area in Soldeu. It’s where you’ll find the best hotels, a more international clientele and some surprisingly good restaurants.
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Such as?
Cort del Popaire (851211) — a lovely place for dinner, set inside an old Andorran barn in a Soldeu side street and lit by a big, open fire: the kind of restaurant, in fact, that you long for in the Alps but rarely find. The menu is distinctly carnivorous — they take a lot of care grilling their meat — and dinner for two will set you back about £50, including wine. There are some excellent restaurants on the mountain, too, notably Roc de les Bruixes (890696) and Gall de Bosc (890607).
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Are you saying Soldeu is posh?
It would certainly like to be. Over the past year, there has been an ambitious building programme here, and the village now boasts its first five-star hotel, the Sporthotel Hermitage. This contains one of the largest hotel spas I’ve ever seen — three huge floors of pools, saunas, hammams, fitness studios and treatment rooms.
All the same, Soldeu has none of the high-Alpine class of places such as St Moritz, Val d’Isère, Courchevel or Zermatt — but none of the stuffiness, either. At its best, in the Sporthotel Village, where I stayed, it’s almost Canadian in feel: roomy, user-friendly and unpretentious. Admittedly, this is no longer the place for a dirt-cheap skiing holiday (if you want that, head to eastern Europe).
But if you want to get a firm grip on your skiing or snowboarding — if you’re a beginner, or you’ve been struggling over the past couple of seasons to build your carving confidence — this is an excellent place to spend a week in far greater comfort than you’d get for the same price in the Alps.
How do I get there?
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It’s best to book with a tour operator. Unlike some resorts in the Alps, notably Chamonix in France, Andorra hasn’t yet adapted to the demand for DIY ski holidays fostered by the low-cost airlines. Besides, with transfers from Toulouse airport taking more than three hours, it’s off the map as far as short-break skiing goes.
Inghams (020 8780 4433, www.inghams.co.uk), for example, has one week at the Sporthotel Village, departing on January 29, for £724pp, half-board, including flights from Gatwick and transfers. Regional departures are available for a supplement. Inghams also features the Hort de Popaire apartments, for £429pp, self-catering, departing on January 29, based on four sharing a two-room apartment and including flights and transfers.
Other operators featuring Andorra include Directski.com (0800 587 0945, www.directski.com) and Neilson (0870 333 3347, www.neilson.co.uk). The latter has chosen Soldeu as a base for its highly rated Learn to Turn programme, aimed at beginners: £230pp on top of the package price buys you a lift pass, five three-hour group lessons, equipment hire and the services of your own rep.