 Poster: A snowHead
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I had a bad experience with Hotel Bruxelles for food with half-board accommodation. The room itself was good, but the food (both breakfast and dinner) was poor and service was equally bad. For a half-board package in a hotel, this was the first time we encountered simple breakfast items at extra costs. For example, yoghurt 1.50 euro, cheese & ham 3.50 euro. Hot breakfast food was not available. Free of charge items include corn flakes, coco-pops, bread butter jam & honey, tea coffee fruit juice & milk, and one croissant. Food at dinner was generally poor. There was no choice of food from the set menu for half-board guests. Soup was made from canned soup with a sprinkling of dried parsley, invariably tasteless. Main courses ranged from “quite good” to “very poor”. One evening it offered spaghetti Bolognese, which tasted awful and the spaghetti was hugely overcooked and still wet on the plate. Another night the chicken curry was of cook-in-the-bag quality. The menu allowed upgrade at extra costs. To upgrade the main course to a steak will cost 2.70 euro, and there was further option of upgrading to “a la carte” with a 10% discount from full price. We have never encountered a set menu with no choice of dishes, and the quality of food was so memorably poor. To be fair though, they made the steaks, ribs and fish (as part of the half board set menus) quite well. Dessert ranged from standard ice cream to canned fruit cocktail to unpalatable brownie cakes, so desserts were poor in general. Service at the table was poor too. Half board guests “must” turn up at table between 7 and 7.15pm, otherwise the table would be given to paying customers from the outside. The management were obviously very keen on getting rid of half board guests from the restaurant as quickly as possible. They gave practically no time to the half board guests to read the menu (be it offered no choices). Wine at normal cost but arrived quite slowly. Food was delivered very quickly, which could be seen as efficiency or the management wanting to get rid of “no profit” guests. This was the first time I encountered at a hotel restaurant that the waiter “asked” the guests to leave the table for outside people, less than ten minutes after the dessert. At least two tables were each given their bill twice for their drinks & upgrades. This kind of rudeness is just unheard of. Half board guests were treated as nuisance. We had two sandwiches (at normal price) at about 2.30 pm on the day of arrival. There was little pressure on the kitchen at the time and yet it took 30 minutes for the sandwiches to arrive. The ski room was unheated so it was not acceptable to leave the boots there, even though the hotel's policy did not permit ski boots in the rooms. We carried the boots to the room, and we heard people walked to their rooms wearing their ski boots. The ski room was in the hotel basement but only accessible via the street and then walk around the car park, which was inconvenient. The hotel has no lifts. The rooms were warm, comfortable, equipped with a nice shower and daily cleaning was done well.
Grandvalira claimed to have some 192 km of marked pistes. We found many wide pistes, and a lot of them are divided by barriers so that they become two or three pistes. Some pistes were divided by nothing. The left side has blue markers and the other side has red ones. On the piste map they were shown as separate pistes. So there was serious doubt whether 192 km was an honest claim. This level of variety did not feel like 192 km. Piste condition was poor due to thaw-freeze condition, but it was not helped by poor piste management. Snow was not pushed from slope slide to the piste at night to cover the bald / icy patches, although pistes were groomed every night. Bald patches were often not marked by any warning, especially those developed during the day. The icy stretches (not just patches) were treacherous. We saw instructors making recovery manoeuvres on them. Piste grading was flattering. Blues would be green in France, reds would be French blues, and blacks would be French reds, except the Avet which was a true black run of proper steepness and rock hard bumpy ice offering lots of vibration. The ski servicing shop at lift station was honest, friendly and helpful although the craftsmanship of ski servicing was not exceptional and was more expensive than Italy. We pre-booked our lift pass in the UK (but not through the tour operator) and the pick-up was easy & efficient at the office. Food on the mountain, such as sandwiches & kebabs, was of good quality, but hot chocolate was sweet & tasteless, espresso was weak. They were expensive for Andorra’s reputation, as they were the same as French prices.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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barrywoo, reading the general reporting and your post I do get the feeling that Andorra as a destination has lost it's way and is in a limbo of up-market desire and low-market delivery, coupled with indifferent snowfall and as you say, 'ambiguous' piste descriptions . . . give them a couple f years and see what develops. But I've got to be honest and say that I've never read anything that makes me want to visit Andorra in the Winter.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Id does quite well at Trip Advisor - 4/5 - though the reviews do look a bit iffy.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I've just returned from Soldeu having visited a few years ago. Firstly,when I went before there was loads of snow and great conditions. True there were icy patches this time on many runs but I actually thought the pisteurs had done a good job with what they'd got (which is alot less than the grandvallira website claims) The slopes are generally early intermediate with a few exceptions,there are a dozen or so genuine reds and one genuine black. The rest are blues of varying levels and greens. Thing is,anyone who does their research on grandvallira will know this before they go. The price of food has gone up in the mountain cafes and is on a par with average french resorts but the drinks remain inexpensive and way below the average french resorts. Food in the village is still reasonable Lasagne chips and salad 8-10 and beer varies from 3.50 to 5.00 depending where you drink. Lift price is 191 in low and 196 during high,this is too much and should be reduced by 30-40 euros. Rental of equipment is still quite cheap.
I think Andorra has to settle inbetween prices charged in the Alps and those charged in places like Bulgaria. It cannot match many alpine resorts for terrain or snow but it can more than match many for area. It's difficult...I do like Soldeu,but they really have to hope that the terrible conditions of last year and the fairly poor start of this year coupled with increasing prices do not have a negative affect. My guess is that unless a serious couple of dumps happens very soon they will start to struggle again by the end of this week and that takes into account Sunday nights snow. As we know, half term starts next week if its poor people will not book andorra in advance like previous years. I for one would not book andorra in advance again, snowfall is not reliable enough at the moment.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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barrywoo, what extraordinary treatment at dinner... I would have totally lost my rag in that situation. And chargeable buffet items! Yoghurt 1.50€  - so bizarre it's funny - but not for a whole week.
I was told of a hotel in a ski resort in - i think - Romania, where on asking for a gin and tonic in the bar the guest was told...
"no Gin Tonic, only beer or vodka."
guest "Oh. a beer then please"
"Beer iz finished"
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