andorra soldeu info???

A snowHead

Back again with another resort request. Just come across Andorra-soldeu. The piste map looks really good for us. Lots of long blues. Cheap and good bit of life with a few excursions. What are the runs like, same with restaurants. Us it a resort that suffers with snow fall. Any help would b appreciated. Found couple of nice hotels that come in under budget so quite interested in. Is it a pretty area. Doesn't have to be amazing, but somewhere nude to walkaround at night. Also are there tree lined blues. Thanks

A snowHead

Was BASI training area so is good for intermediates. The Sport Hotel Soldeu 3* is good, right next to lift. Quite high so gets and keeps snow. Not a lot of trees or sparkling restaurants but is tax free. Quite a lively night life, should be very OK with your naturist habits although can be cold so take willy warmers.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Soldeu is a much nicer village that its neighbour Pas De La Casa but some of the accommodation is quite a walk from the gondola, just check the locations if this is something that would bother you. Some TOs offer places like Encamp, El Tarter and Canillo billed as Soldeu. They are separate villages entirely, also lift-served but much smaller than Soldeu. Food and drink is generally good value but despite tax-free status I would say no cheaper than many Italian and Austrian resorts. Large and generally easy ski area, but like anywhere snow can be fickle. I have twice been in March, the first time the snow was fantastic, the second time there was virtually no snow, just 20% of the resort open.

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Thanks. Would be going mid January, so hopefully this would help as colder weather than march. Was looking atbthe sport hotel as seems good value. Anyone if the blues are nice wide ones that we can cruise around, or are resorts like Skiwelt better for this. Also, is there a snow park? Thanks

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I take it you can ski between the areas ( soldeu to el tarter) etc and not have to rely on ski buses.

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I found a lot of the runs in the Skiwelt to be quite short, except for the ones back down to the villages, it's pretty much the same here.

Yes you can ski between the villages - apart from Encamp which seems to be out on a limb connected by a cable car only. Your January theory isn't quite right, whilst it's colder in January they tend to get more snow later in the season - this doesn't mean to say there'll not be enough snow for you in January.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

The runs tend to be very wide and in fact in a number of places it is just one huge piste with different tracks marked down it and separated with snow retaining fences. There are lots of longish blues, but they all tend to be very similar. Eateries on the mountain tend to be very low quality, but OK in the the town. To me the night life is spoilt by smoking so I didn't like it. However, I gather some people actually like smoke and if you are one of them you will probably like it.

When I went there a couple of years ago the lift passes were more expensive than Les Arcs. I think they are now slightly cheaper. Do not expect bargain basement.

After all it is free

Thanks. May have to think twice if snow fall isn't that goos in Jan. Wint be booking till November anyway but want to get an idea if where to go. Don't do smoking, so this may put me off. V tempted to go back to les arcs or la plagne but just want little bit cheaper. Who knows though,if the euro gets better it may be cheaper over there. We r not cg drinkers anyway so not too bothered about beer prices. But don't want bargain basement. Would like a little bit of class, just not €8 a hot chocolate class.

hammerite, where would you recommend fot long coasting blues. This is mainly what we are after. Ideally tree lined

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If you don't like smoking then you might not like Austria either, they still smoke indoors in Austria too, although we haven't found it too bad (having a child in tow we don't do big nights out though!).

If you want good value, nice towns/villages and no smoking in bars/restaurants I'd definitely look at Italy, it might cost slightly more for the holiday (than say France - at least it seems that way when we've looked) but you'll find eating and drinking to cost a lot less than France. I suggested Cervinia on another of your threads. It seems to tick all the boxes apart from being tree lined as it's pretty high up.
We're off to Arabba for our next trip, which could also tick some/most of your boxes (never been before).

We've been to Skiwelt, Andorra (staying in Pas, but skiing the whole GV area) and Les Arcs of the places you've mentioned, but I think we preferred Cervinia to each of them. Skiwelt would probably come a close second, the snow conditions when we were there weren't great. We've really enjoyed our trips to each of them.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Jon Ford, for long easy blues and reds La Thuile in Italy is pretty good. It's a quiet and pretty village but all accommodation (other than the Planibel) is a 15 min walk or a bus ride from the lifts, however, there are good locker facilities at the lift base station so you can do this walk in comfy boots! Good value for money too and some excellent mountain huts, plus if you are pining for France you can ski over to La Rosière although there are two long drag lifts and a tricky red involved.

snow reports

we went last jan and the temperature was for most of the week was 10-18 degrees!! snow conditions were pretty bad on the lower runs, we stayed at the sport village which was pretty pricey and us, plus many others staying there got food poisoning!
people in my ski class stayed at the naudi and said that was very good, most hotels are some walk to the slopes/gondolla though..... the ski area would of been great, if only they had snow! we would love to go back as liked the type of easy cruising runs and it was a very small place with only a few bars, but lots of atmosphere and live music most nights, small enough that you often bumped into the same people and got to know them!
we would only go back though if it was last minute and we knew the snow was good.......... plus the lift pass isn't cheap either if you can't guarantee good snow!

thanks cbowls30, queen bodecia, and hammerite. Im going to have to stop asking about resorts, as every time I ask about a new one, it confuses me even more!. Deff not booking until late November/December, but want a list of resorts in different places that I can book depending on snow fall. Think will keep Andorra at the back of mind for now as I think there are better resorts out there for similar money. Someone recomended Salze D today so been looking at there. Still want Austria (skiwelt) but dissapointed wuth hotel choice.
Will keep searching, and chec out La Thuile now (annoying about getting the bus to/from runs, but I like the idea of hte lockers at the bottom of runs though. I take it they are safe?

You know it makes sense.

Jon Ford, if you use the lockers, you don't need the bus, it's a 15 minute walk, and yes the lockers seem safe enough to me, they are in a shop which is closed overnight. Or you could stay at the Planibel hotel which is at the foot of the slopes (but the village centre is a nicer location in my opinion). There are absolutely loads of hotels in SkiWelt, it should be easy to find what you want.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Hi Jon, I've been to Andorra a few times. I taught my 2 kids there the last two times we went skiing & I can tell you that there are loads of long, wide easy blues that are easy to coast around on. You can also go all the way from one end of the Grandvalira area to the other with hardly ever having to go off the blue runs (the very occasional bit of red). Some of the blues are tree lined, especially the ones leading down into the resorts of Soldeu & El Tartar, but higher up most of the runs are quite open. There are several blue runs around the Soldeu/El Tartar area that are each about 5 miles long from the top of the mountains down to the resorts. I love the place & think it's great for beginners & people wanting to speed along on wide easy stuff.

A snowHead

Before I went to andorra people told me I would get bored quickly.

Ive done over 100 weeks on snow in my years and Andorra did no dissapoint, the beginers in my party loved it and so did I, the amount of accessible terrain, just a short skip from the runs was immense.

Loved every second.

My advice...go

A snowHead

Just a quick update ref the smoking in Andorra. Banned as of Jan 1st 2013.

Cynic, "Was BASI training area so is good for intermediates" Still is. So you think all BASI people are only intermediates? wink

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Andorra seems to give you what you want, it's got the right skiing but it was just so costly. We stayed at the Sport, we wanted to drink water at dinner, but it was just so expensive, they would not allow us to have tap water. In the end we bought water one day and kept the bottles, taking them down each day, refilled from the tap. Lift passes were the most we have ever paid, despite a discount, as we have kids. They charge full price from 12 up - the kids are now 16 and 18 and we're still getting child and youth prices everywhere else.

Sport is ski in, ski out plus crossing the road. The run down is red, challenging if the snow is melting, but there's a gondola alternative right into the hotels.We went in April, 2 weeks, and apart from costs have no regrets. We went by train with a few hours stop over in Paris each way - can very much recommend this.

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We found another resort with hardly any skiers on it - not Soldeu or Pas De La Casa. It was about 30 minute drive from Soldeau, through windy roads, but an excellent skiing experience and hardly a tuorist in sight. If you have a car, I would recommend it as the other two resorts were packed like sardines.

If someone else knows the name, I would recognise it. It MIGHT have been La Massana. Prices to eat and drink were reasonable there, although I didn't really pay attention, I'm affraid.

I improved so much more there than on any of the other skiing trips I've ever been on and we enjoyed some great evenings out in small, family run restaurants. Prices in these were considerably cheaper than we expected and the quality was excellent (home made soups, meat, etc).

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

We went to Soldeu last year (end of Jan), staying in the Sport Hotel across the road from the gondola. That was my 4th week on snow, & my family's 3rd week. We loved the resort - skiing was excellent, despite lack of snow - there seemed to be extensive snow making facilities, & the piste bashers did a brilliant job overnight every night. There's seemed to be endless blue runs to explore, & we progressed fairly easily onto a few of the reds. Even so we only explored about half of the ski area, so one year will go back to explore further.

We loved the Sport Hotel, & thought for the price it was very good value (we'd gone on a Crystal Ski Plus package). Staff were friendly, atmosphere was lovely, & the food was very very good.

The village itself was not huge, but there was enough choice of bars etc for us with 2 teenagers in tow. The only downside, & the single thing that has stopped us going straight back this season, is the transfer time - it was a good 4 & half hours, & I believe if the weather is bad it can be much longer!! Shocked

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I went last March, skiied Grau Roig to Soldeu - runs not that long, but plenty of blues and reds - marking seemed a bit haphazard as some reds very easy, some blues reasonably steep. However it was Spring snow, so difficult in the morning on rock hards frozen hard-pack, easy in afternoon as softened.

I thought Masella/La Molina (Alp 2000) in Spain was much better skiing - tree-lined, 6km runs with plenty of nice blues and reds and even easy blacks (they seemed to have 6 markings, easy green, green, blue, red, black and double diamond black).

Prices where great. Not all busy on slopes as long as you avoid weekends and it is not a Barcelona school holiday.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Hi Jon,

My girlfriend and I went to Arinsal (Andorra) in March and it was brilliant! I was teaching my girlfriend so there were a lot of great blues and a few reds when she was confident enough.

My brother was in Soldeu about 4 years ago in Feb and he didn't have the best of weeks because of a serious lack of snowfall and a dodgy hotel choice (3* more like a 1*). But I guess it's just luck of the draw with snowfall and he booked last minute hence the hotel!

If you're thinking about Andorra I can definitely vouch for Arinsal and we stayed in the Princessa Parc which was great! Whatever your choice Andorra is a really great place and excellent value for money!

After all it is free

Andorra is great, you'll love it! Here's a video from Grandvalira in March this year with runs labelled too so you can get an idea of the slopes:

http://youtube.com/v/VEei-A28h6E

Arcalis was the place I was thinking of. Remembered it eventually.

http://www.ski-europe.com/resorts/arcalis.html

Help!!

andorra soldeu info???

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