14 February 13, 2022The Sunday Times
Travel Ski
W
e’re sitting
in a refuge
high up
in the
Pyrenees
talking Andorran military
strategy. That this tiny
European country — smaller
than Anglesey and with
a population the size of
Maidenhead’s — doesn’t
actually have a military is
a mere detail, it seems.
“The Catalans keep saying,
‘Come and invade us,’” says
my host. That would pit
Andorra’s tiny police force,
augmented by a Dad’s Army
of the heads of the most
venerable Andorran families
who have a historic right to
bear arms, against the mighty,
militant, neighbouring
Spanish province.
“It would be a swift
victory,” he adds, the
fire illuminating his
grinning features.
“Mainly because
they say they’ll
just surrender.”
Innovative
attempts at
independence
from Spain aside,
I really can’t think
of a nicer place to be
invaded by. Like many,
I’d harboured outdated
perceptions of Andorra. This
dinky snowglobe of a country,
clasped in the locked hands
of France and Spain, became
synonymous with cheap and
cheerful ski holidays in the
1980s and 1990s.
Its reputation preceded
it and was usually swaying
around, dressed in cheap
ski gear and talking with a
British accent.
But after the emergence of
rival affordable ski countries,
such as Bulgaria and Slovakia,
and some serious soul-
searching over the past
decade, it has been subtly
repositioned. Families,
couples, luxury — these are the
markets it’s courting, and the
strategy is paying off, helped
by an enlightened approach to
tourism and some of Europe’s
most snow-sure credentials.
After the fist-gnawing
frustration of travel over the
past 23 months, faff-free
certainty is what travellers
crave most — and Andorra is
pledging to stay open 365 days
a year. That’s partly down to
a dovetailing of winter and
summer programmes, but also
a declaration of test-free, post-
pandemic accessibility.
#Paradis365, they call it.
As one of the handful of
nations in the world without
an airport, that promise
probably needs a caveat,
though having two entry
points does rather improve a
visitor’s chances. It certainly
gets me out of a tight spot.
Booked to fly into Toulouse,
a 90-minute drive from the
northern border, I simply shift
flights to Barcelona when
President Macron is engaged
in a protracted period of
anti-Brit grandstanding pre-
Christmas 2021.
It’s the more fitting way toarrive, given Andorra leans
more to the south than the
north (Catalan is the official
language). The more uplifting
too: the heat of the Barcelona
sun may be absent in winter,
but not the painterly light it
casts, silhouetting Mount
Tibidabo’s summit church into
a Disneyesque confection as
we begin our two-and-a-half-
hour journey from sea level
to snowline.
On a map Andorra can
resemble a loose pebble on
the crazy-paving European
map. But there’s nothing
smooth about it; this is a
place of mesmerising
verticality, every bit as
imposing on first glimpse as
Innsbruck or Chamonix.
We drive through Andorra
la Vella, the capital, past the
Sunday-league-calibre
national football
stadium where
Grealish, Saka
and co played
a World Cup
qualifier last
autumn.
Onwards, past
the Poliesportiu
d’Andorra, where
Elton John
performed in 2015.
Then through the retina-
searing shopping streets that
draw the Spanish and French
in their tens of thousands,
attracted by the lowest VAT
in Europe.
Arrive at night and you
could mistake Andorra for
ugly. The perma-Christmas
light installations and odd
Romanesque church do little
to distract from architecture
of functional, unrelenting
insipidness; the creaky,
overhung-roofed charisma
of a French Alpine village
seems in short supply. Yet
come daylight you barely cast
a glance at this, so striking is
the Pyrenean backdrop.
Comprising two thirds
of the country’s 188
miles of skiable pistes,
Grandvalira — or “GV”
— is the focal point of
Andorra’s winter season.
It stretches from the
gondola station at
Encamp all the way to the
French border, and bills
itself as the biggest ski resort
in the Pyrenees.
Two exceptional hotels,
and numerous rapidly
improving ones, serve a
sophisticated crowd of
French, Spanish, Dutch and
Andorrans. Dangling off the
country’s main north-to-
south road like an
exquisite coat hanger,
Sport Hotel
Hermitage & Spa is
a member of the
Leading Hotels of
the World group.
It has the air
of a traditional
gentlemen’s
club, with acres
of dark wood, a
Michelin-starred
Japanese restaurant,
staff in immaculate knitwear
and a cavernous spa
complex that offers everyNever have I
experienced a
less intimidating,
more inclusive
ski area
You’ve got this little Pyrenean nation all wron
and cheerful has morphed into stylish and u
imaginable way to
buff, soothe, chill or
wallow. Take a full
morning rather than the
Supermarket Sweep 20
minutes I foolishly allow
for it.
From the balcony of your
room you have ringside seats
for one of Andorra’s most
revered runs: Aliga (“eagle”
in Catalan), the women’s giant
slalom World Cup course.
This is where Lindsey Vonn
— the Trump-baiting, Tiger
Woods-dating Olympic
champion — wiped out in
2016 skiing at 85mph and
had to be stretchered down
the mountain.
The elite women
complete it in a quad-
eviscerating 85 seconds.
Going all out, I manage
just under ten minutes,
with three protracted
stops while I affect to take
in the views.
And truly there’s no need
to force the pace if you don’t
want to. Get up on top of theThe Olympic
champion skier
Lindsey Vonn,
below, crashed on
Andorra’s Aliga runthis, so striking is
an backdrop.
ing two thirds
try’s 188
able pistes,
a — or “GV”
alpoint of
winter season.
from the
ation at
the way to the
der, and bills
biggest ski resort
nees.
eptional hotels,
ous rapidly
ones, serve a
ed crowd of
anish, Dutch and
Dangling off the
main north-to-
like an
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l
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e air
onal
s
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od, a
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an
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morning rath
Supermarkett S
minutes I foolis
for it.
From the balco
roomyou have ring
for one of Andorra
revered runs: Aliga
in Catalan), the wo
slalom World Cup c
This is where Linds
— the Trump-baitin
Woods-dating Oly
champion — wipe
2016 skiing at 85m
had to be stretch
the mountain.
The elite wo
complete it in
eviscerating 8
Going all out
just under te
with three pro
stops while I affect
in the views.
And truly there’
to force the pace if
want to. Get up onThe Olympic
champion skier
Lindsey Vonn,
below, crashed on
Andorra’s Aliga runmountain and a huge, sunlit
Pyrenean playground opens
up. Andorra certainly doesn’t
feel small from up here:
motorway-wide blues,
switchback reds, wide-eyed
blacks, moguls, off-piste zones
and the place where middle-
aged journalists collide with
their own limitations in the
cruellest possible way: the
ramp-laden snow park.
Working my way across the
GV ski map, I’m struck by the
number of mature skiers on
the slopes. I hesitate to call
them old, given that many
glide effortlessly past me.
I catch up with one at a
chairlift: an 81-year-old Brit
called Tony who came four
years ago for the free ski pass
that Andorra grants the over-
75s, and hasn’t looked back.
Tony is on his way to the
new L’Abarset bar at the foot
of the mountain. A stylish A-
frame building with a flaming
terrace that could readily host
a 1990s rock video, this is the
place for après-ski Andorranstyle: seafood (oddly),
sophisticated wines, chilled
beats. Order a Jägerbomb here
and they’d probably call in a
Swat team.
The other top-notch hotel
is about 5km southeast of
L’Abarset as the chamois
struts. Ski-in, ski-out Hotel
Grau Roig has a moody spa,
caveman-chic aesthetic that
layers on the faux fur and a
stylish taupe-and-light-wood
bar/restaurant where
overexcited Mamils can playANDOR
COMES
OF AGE