Tucked away in-between France and Spain is the small principality of Andorra. Well known for its duty-free status and party atmosphere, it’s an area we had never been to before.  This year, though, we thought we’d give it a try as the largest ski area, the Grandvalira, was included on the Ikon pass. 

Getting to Andorra from the north of Scotland was, as expected, rather torturous. A ‘weather bomb’ had hit, blanketing Scotland in ice and snow, so we made the sensible decision to head to Inverness airport the day before our flight. There’s a rather nice Marriott Courtyard hotel at Inverness airport now which offers a good deal on dinner, bed and breakfast plus parking. So for the princely sum of £209 plus 10 days parking (another £80) we found ourselves warmly ensconced in the hotel while the blizzard raged outside. Come the next morning we congratulated ourselves on our sensible decision as we looked at the A9 road reports. It was a welcome change to have time for a leisurely breakfast as well – I’ve always wondered what the full-cooked breakfast would be like as every other time we’ve only been able to grab a quick coffee and croissant before an early flight. Verdict on the breakfast: standard fare of sausage, egg, bacon etc from a help-yourself buffet. Nothing spectacular but well-presented and tasty. 

We headed across to the airport nice and early as we were booked in Business Class with British Airways for the flight down to London (thank you Avios!) That’s a nice experience and the staff in the lounge are always very friendly and attentive. After an uneventful flight down, we took the National Express coach from Heathrow Terminal 5 round to Gatwick North Terminal. It’s a really easy and convenient way of travelling between these two airports. The National Express coaches go from stands 11-15 right outside T5 and drop you at North or South terminal at Gatwick. We got off at North Terminal and it’s then just a short walk along the side of the terminal to the hotels. We were staying at the Premier Inn this time. It’s a Premier Inn, so I wasn’t expecting much, but what did surprise me was the level of service. The Gatwick Premier Inn has an intimidating array of electronic kiosks when you arrive at the reception level, but straight away a very helpful check in assistant stepped forward to help me through the process of checking in, purchasing a meal deal and generating my card key for the room. All very polite and helpful. We decided to take the dinner and breakfast meal deal which at £26.99 per person seemed very good value. I had beef & ale pie with chips for dinner, Nick had the mixed grill and again the level of service exceeded my expectations.

If you are staying at the Gatwick airport premier inn, it is very convenient, but do note that the restaurant and bar get extremely busy. It is well worth booking the meals in advance and also booking a table, otherwise you might well find that they can’t fit you in. The menu is basic, but decent enough for the price range. 

After an early breakfast, we trundled our bags over to the terminal and checked in then went to grab a coffee at Juniper & Co. The coffee there is expensive and not that great but the benefit is that it is a quiet haven away from the bulk of the crowds. 

The Easyjet flight to Barcelona was just what you expect from a no-frills airline like Easyjet. No frills, but equally no thrills, so nothing to write about there. Once landed we looked for the easy-to-spot Inghams rep as we exited the baggage collection and then onto the small coach to head up to the resort. I’m always torn when we go skiing, do we go for the apparent ease of booking a package through a mainstream travel company (Inghams, Crystal, Neilson are all pretty much of a muchness in my opinion and have the European market covered). Or, do we do it independently. On this occasion, the convenience of the package tour won out and so we didn’t have to think too much, but on the downside we did have to endure the chatter about all things we don’t need from the travel rep: no, we don’t need lift passes; no we don’t need to hire kit; no, we don’t need ski lessons. At least on this occasion it was all taken care of on the bus up to the resort. 

The drive from Barcelona is pleasant enough. The first half on the motorway and then, after an enforced half-hour “comfort” stop (which isn’t really necessary on this length of journey), the second half up into the mountains. I was surprised how built up the route was as we passed through lots of towns and villages. In total the transfer took about 3 hours and we arrived in Soldeu around 5pm.

First impressions of the Park Piolets Mountain Hotel & Spa were very positive. The entrance walk-way is very pretty with outdoor firepits and lighting. We were welcomed at Reception and checked in efficiently and offered a glass of Cava sparkling wine. Oh, why not…go on then. The bell-hop efficiently relieved us of our baggage and took it all up to our room allowing us to wander up clutching our champagne flutes. 

It’s a modern hotel and the bedroom corridors are all done in deep red. We were up on the 5^th floor. The room was spacious with a really good amount of storage space, wardrobe and drawers as well as a separate bed/couch to spread out our kit. Quite unusual in a European ski hotel. 

We went out for a walk to get our bearings. Soldeu is not large. It is a few minutes walk from the Hotel Piolets Park up to the Gondola. There’s a few shops and bars on the way including The Harp bar which has live music at 6pm and 10pm every night and, by all accounts, gets pretty raucous. We gave it a wide berth. The Park Piolets bar is lovely, lots of different seating areas, ambient lighting and waiter service, but the prices reflect that. We paid €22 for 2 glasses of Cava. More reasonably priced is the bar at the Hotel Maistre, just around the corner where 2 small bottles of Freixenet will set you back €8.  

One of the nicest things about staying at the Park Piolets Hotel is the ski concierge service. There’s a fleet of black minibuses lined up at the door of the ski room in the morning waiting to whisk you up to the gondola. It is not that far and could easily be walked, but it is uphill and as there’s a minibus service why wouldn’t you use it? The gondola then takes you on a 5-minute ride up the face of the mountain to the Espiolets area where there’s a café and an obvious meeting place if you are hoping to catch up with other people to ski with, as we were. 

You can buy lift tickets in the gondola base station before you ride up if you haven’t already arranged these through your tour company or pre-bought them. If, like us, you have an IKON season pass, then you need to go to a ticket window to have your pass validated and then they’ll issue you a pass for up to 7 consecutive days to use instead of your IKON pass. I’m going to write a blog soon about Ikon and Epic passes, so look out for that if you’re not sure of the benefits of having this pass.

Throughout the week we explored the runs between Soldeu, El Tartar and Pas de la Casa. I was actually quite impressed with the runs. There was not a lot of snow when we were there (early season in January) but the resort had done a really good job of keeping slopes open and maintaining the pistes in as good condition as they could. The pistes are long and there’s a good variety with something for everyone. We really enjoyed the long, cruisy reds and blues down to the Solanelles chair and the Solanella run down to the Pla de Les Pedres chair which apparently is quite a new chair installed just a couple of years ago. 

The other nice thing about the Piolets Park hotel is the spa with its thermal pool with waterfall jets, indoor and outdoor hot-tubs, sauna and steam room. However, it is not included within the price of the stay so you have to pay €26 per person for a 2-hour slot. We only did it once and booked a massage afterwards as then the thermal experience is included in the price. The massage was a real treat – we both went for a full 90-minute whole-body massage which was definitely needed after a couple of days skiing on the hard-packed pistes. I don’t know whether all hotel spas are extra but we also went for a quick look round the very up-market Hermitage Spa which costs €62 per person – ouch. It does look wonderful though. The Hermitage Hotel is the very high-end hotel right next to the gondola. The pension didn’t stretch that far on this trip. 

Our return journey was as tortuous as the way out. Our early start from the Hotel Piolets Park was not too bad: we had to be on the bus for 06:50 hours. It was then a 3-hour journey back to Barcelona airport where we found the terminal blissfully empty and were able to check in without spending 2 hours waiting in line. Nothing like Turin on a busy Saturday, then! If you did want to travel independently, there is a bus service by Andbus which runs from both Barcelona and Toulouse airports on a regular basis. 

Once back at Gatwick, we decided to venture a bit further afield for our evening meal rather than choose the Premier Inn meal deal option. So, we headed next door to Vanda in the Sofitel. Vanda is a Thai restaurant, however we seemed to end up with a very Chinese-style chicken and cashew nuts and a pan-fried lemon chicken with a sticky sauce. Not quite the delicate spiced dishes I was expecting from a Thai menu. Perhaps we just did not order the best things for us on the menu, but the wine (supposedly a viognier) was pretty disappointing as well. I don’t think we’ll be eating there again next time we’re back at Gatwick. 

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