GRANDVALIRA

THE making of Andorra as a world-class ski destination has been the creation of the Grandvalira ski zone, the largest ski area in the Pyrenees, with ski lifts that whisk skiers and snowboarders from the resorts of Pas de la Casa, Grau Roig, Soldeu, El Tarter, Canillo, and Encamp into a single inter-linked snow playground on a par with the best of the Alps.

The statistics speak for themselves: 193km of marked ski runs, from 18 beginner-green runs to 22 black! There are competition stadiums, boarder zones, off-piste routes, 48 restaurants and bars, 1,065 snow cannons, Mickey Snow Club children’s circuits, 450 licensed ski instructors working from seven different centres and even dog-drawn sleigh circuits. All this with snow that was 40cm deep on high runs last December, peaked at 63cm and was still at 47cm in April! And the statistics don’t tell the whole story. There are gentle wooded runs. Scary black-run plunges

. And an exceptional level of sunshine. That’s to say nothing of excellent mountain restaurants and prices way below the norm in the Alps. Grandvalira is the key to the success of the Pyrenees as a ski destination … and the key to a perfect winter snow break with Ski4udirect.

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Valnord

THE charm of the Vallnord ski zone, in the South west corner of Andorra, lies in the fact that it is NOT an up-for-it, all-out ski destination. There’s plenty of skiing with 63km of runs in the Pal-Arinsal sector, all at between 1,500 and 2,650 meters so there is superb snow from December right through until April. Two hundred instructors await to help beginners or to improve your style, 15 restaurants in Pal-Arinsal make for plenty of choice when eating lunch on the slopes. But its great glory is its simplicity.

Very much the prettier ski-zone, with excellent off-piste routes, ancient Andorran villages dot its mountainsides where rough old stone inns called “bordas” lure skiers to abandon the slopes for superb but simple food. The Vallnord is also the place to go if you prefer Telemark or don’t want to ski at all but simply walk in spectacularly-beautiful scenery bathed in winter sunshine.

Plus it is a short distance from the capital Andorra La Vella where duty-free prices make the shops a magnet for those who love a bargain and don’t feel the need to spend every minute of a winter break out in the snow.

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