This weekend a friend and I travelled from Barcelona to Andorra for a short trip. We took the bus from Barcelona to Andorra La Vella, chatting with some other people on the way, the 3 hour bus ride flew by. We didn’t have that many expectations, but we were expecting some snow or colder weather, as we were going skiing the next day. We were greeted with neither of those, and felt nervous about how the skiing conditions would be. But we happily enjoyed the sun, and warm (ish) weather. Andorra La Vella is the capital city of Andorra, it mostly consists of modern, tall buildings. The city has lots of different levels as it is built across a hill, and up the mountain slope. There is a small, older historic center, and lots of funky gardens on the steep slopes of the surrounding valley walls. We enjoyed a steep hike up the mountain, wandering along vegetable gardens, and an oasis of stray cats. Even though it was the middle of winter, and we were at around 5k feet in elevation, people were growing lettuce, and flowers had just been planted. We stayed in a hostel above a pub in the old historic area, a charming, narrow building, with a very lively street life below (don’t forget earplugs when staying in hostels). Many of the houses were built of stones, and had a unique, charming mountain style. Much of the historic buildings had been remodeled, and the ‘city’ itself was quite modern, with lots of stores, a casino, hotels, malls, and billboards. This European capital ‘city’ felt like the most ‘American’ city I had been to in Europe so far. Definitely catering a bit towards tourists and their comforts. But overall it was a small, picturesque, safe city. There are other towns in Andorra you can stay in, and ones closer to the ski mountain, but this was definitely the most budget friendly option, and pretty nice.
We knew we wanted to go skiing the next day, so we walked to the tourist information point to ask about the buses. The lady was so nice and gave us a lot of information in a mix of Catalan and Spanish. Before going to Andorra we had tried to find information on busses between the cities, and how to get to and from skiing. We couldn’t find anything, so we decided to just go for it, and figure it out when we got there. It all worked out, and there were many buses and people going skiing the next morning. We woke up early, checked out of our room, and caught a bus to the next nearest town, Encamp, which had access to the ski mountain. We were surprised how far up in elevation we went, and despite that, there was still no snow whatsoever, nor on any mountains. We hopped off the bus, and were about to walk to the ski rental spot we had planned to go to, but saw a sign advertising ski rentals for $15 a day. Score. We went in there and pretended like beginners to get the most basic, cheap skis we could, to just have a day of fun, and messing around on not-so great skis. After getting all of our stuff, we went and got coffees and croissants, and ate it outside keeping an eye on our ski stuff. Then we headed towards the ‘funicamp’, a cable car that would take us up to the ski mountain. It is the longest cable car in Europe, disappearing up over the mountain, into the low laying clouds. There were crowds of skiers and lines of cars headed skiing. After waiting a half and hour to get our tickets sorted we were ready to go. The cable car was one of the biggest I had ever been in, it could fit around 12 people and our skis hung on the inside, in front of us. The cable car hung on two cables, and rocked its way up the mountain. I am not one for heights nor being locked in a gondola suspended hundreds of feet in the air, my whole life skiing I had never gotten used to it. But on this ride I was too busy looking all around at the beautiful Andorran landscape and mountains; watching the landscape change, from leaving Encamp and making our way up the mountain… from town, roads, to forrest, waterfalls, and valleys, and eventually high altitude rocky mountains, it truly seemed like a never ending gondola ride. I knew it was the longest before riding it, but I didn’t know it would be THAT long, it probably lasted around 25 minutes or so. Finally we could see snow, and reached one of the summits of the ski mountain!
We were skiing at Grandvalira, one of the largest ski resorts in Europe, and wow was it big! There wasn’t a ton of snow, but at least most of the slopes were covered, and a lot of runs were open. Since we had checked out of hour hostel, we carried our backpacks with us. We had known we would probably end up skiing with our backpacks so we packed very light. Everything we needed for the ski weekend into one little backpack. We rocked jeans over leggings, thin gloves, scarves and glasses. It was warmer than we expected so we were happy about that. We could have payed an overpriced fee for a locker for the day, but whats the fun in that?
We took off on our first run, made the first few turns to the cschkshhhh sound of pure ice. We had both only skied on the same pair of skis for the past 6 years, so we were not used to the skinny, rental skis and boots. That wasn’t quite the issue, while trying to make a hockey stop at the bottom I slid 10 feet before finally stopping, my skis had absolutely no wax, and no edges to carve. Opposite of what you want for skiing on pure ice. I knew the skis wouldn’t be great but this was hilariously awful. You get what you pay for, but we were just here to have fun, and not take ourselves seriously.
Every run was pure ice and it took us a while to get used to it (we’re not from the East Coast after all). The mountain was so big, it was amazing, there was SO much to explore. We made it our goal to get from one side of the mountain (around the middle of Andorra) to the other (the Border of France). After spending about an equal amount of time deciphering where we were on mountain, and skiing, we finally had skied in pretty much every area of the mountain! It was so cool to have basically skied half-way across the country, and seen the border of France. On our way back to the cable car, to get back down to Encamp, we hit a very intense, unexpected blizzard. At first it started as pelting hail, then big flakes, then 60 mph wind. We were basically being blown back down the other side of the mountain. I quite literally closed my eyes and prayed for the best as I blindly skied down the black diamond ice rink, snow blinded. After somehow making it down, we were taking a lift up another section, and the storm was suddenly left behind. The sun peaked out, and there was no wind. At this point our jeans were a bit wet, our fingers a bit cold and we were glad we were headed down. We caught the cable car down, returned our ski gear, changed, and hopped on the bus back to Andorra. After chancing missing our bus for a pizza, we sprinted and caught our bus back to Barcelona. It was quite the fever-dream day, writing this now, I can’t believe I was just skiing in the mountains of Andorra the other day. Side note, if you have the IKON pass I highly recommend trying to go skiing while abroad! The mountain that I skied at, Grandvalira, was included, and so many others in Europe! Also remember to always have some euros on hand for taking buses in small towns. More often than not, they only take cash, and you don’t want to get stuck somewhere. Anyways, it is possible to have unique travel experiences without spending hundreds of dollars, or doing guided activities. There is my little ‘how to’ on have a fun, budget trip (of less than 48hrs) in Andorra.
Check out some photos of my time skiing below!
DU Abroad 