Soldeu

A snowHead

Hello!

I'm looking for advice and this place seems to be rather full of it (intended as a compliment!) So, Soldeu, Andorra: I'm going for two weeks in March. I'm also on the tiniest budget ever. Anyone got any tips for survival?

I'm thinking along such lines as: is there an affordable supermarket? =/ anyone done a season there?

A snowHead

lucalu, Just arrived home lastnight after nearly 3 weeks in Soldeu, snow is brilliant just now. It is a very friendly resort, food on the mountain is not the best though, mainly fast food type unless you go to Pas, but that makes it costly. There are 3 supermarkets in Soldeu, I'd recommend taking sandwiches for lunch. Ski School is good value and staffed with plenty of English speakers. Lots of good apres ski entertainment including several Groups/Bands made up of ski instuctors! I'll be back there late Feb after a couple of weeks in the Alps.
PM me if you need any info, I know it well.

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

The lift pass prices in Grandvalira are getting quite ridiculous now. Roughly 40 Euros a day (depending on how many days you buy in advance.) But since you can't avoid buying a lift pass, this is a cost you just have to pay.

Otoh, Andorra is about as cheap as it gets for eating and drinking out. (Although even that has gone up a lot in recent years too.) As mentioned, there are 3 supermarkets in Soldeu, but there is also Caves Manacor just below El Tarter. If you don't have a car you can catch the bus down there for a week's shopping. You can actually fill up on free sausage and booze samples here if you are really skint! The prices for food are about the same wherever you go, but there is more choice in Caves Manacor. Of the 3 shops in Soldeu, Supermercat Fonts has the best range of fresh meat, fruit and veg. If you want to eat out, you won't find better or cheaper food than in the Hotel Bruxelles. The country bread sandwiches will feed 2 of you if you supplement them with a packet of crisps from the shops, and only cost about 5 Euros, and they'll even do them as a takeaway option so you don't have to suffer the shame of ordering one cheap sandwich between 2 of you! Tapas Caletas is also doing decent cheap fare too (and the owner is lovely and deserves the business wink

) Up the mountain most of the main eatery areas have an Express-oh! branch which does Macdonalds-style fare, and is quite reasonable for mountain food.

You can get out and about quite easily if you want to - there is a regular free ski bus, but you can also hitchhike quite easily. The locals will usually pick a hitcher up, just remember to be nice to them! They stopped being so helpful for a while after a few holiday makers took advantage of their generosity, but hitching seems to be back on the up again.

If you are looking to keep yourself in plonk, buy the boxed wine, Don Simon at 2 euros a litre. It's fairly drinkable, even more so if you make it into mulled wine. San Miguel is your cheap beer option.

You'll have to get used to carrying your skis around - there is only one locker option at the gondola station, and it's not that cheap.

Buy ear plugs if you find yourself in the pub when the ski instructors' band is on, and save on medical costs! Unless you like the sound of them murdering songs. They managed to wheel out a bagpipe player this season, god knows where from!

Other than that, can't think of anything else that's going to keep your costs down.

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I don't agree with Andorra being cheap for eating and drinking out it has the reputation for it but its not true.
The bars in resort are more expensive than bars in Austria and Italy and the food on the mountain is truly awful and mostly self serving crap a pizza on the sella Ronda will cost you far far less than a burger in soldeu.
It sounds like I hate the place but I do like the place as I learned to ski there and only have the highest praise for the ski school which is fantastic which is slightly lronic as the best thing about Andorra is its world class ski which when booked as package is an absolute bargain. Happy

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Vintageryan, As most of the bars have not raised their prices for the last 5 years I think you will find that they are now reasonable again. We did 6 weeks in several resorts in Austria 6 years ago and arrived in Andorra directly from Austria to find the prices were 10% more than Austria, however it has now reversed.
Lift prices also get a kicking, but once again 205km of prepared pistes with modern uplift equipment, compare other resorts with the same amount of prepared pistes and the same uplift capacity (queues are almost non existant) and you will find that they are all a similar price.
Food on the Mountain I agree is not ideal, but just the other day at the restaurant at the top of the Encamp gondola a small beer and a freshly cooked burger €5.20. Els Clos at the foot of Tarter, large burger and beer €5.80. A big tuna salad & beer €6.20. Some of the fast food places have been revamped into buffet style and have a good choice, but not the cheapest.
I'll be in France at the end of the week where a small beeer on the mountain can be €5. alone and a lunch is frequently €20. My wallet gets mugged Sad

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I am glad to hear the bars have frozen prices and I am a big fan of the ski area but I think its harsh to compare a lunch in Andorra compared to France. It does sound like the prices on the mountain have come down as well but I don't think Andorra deserves its tag as cheap and cheerful ( which isn't a bad thing).

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

I don't know - over the years I have eaten in Borda del Rector, Borda del Horta, Cort Popaire, Sol i Neu, Snails and Quails (or whatever it is called now,) Hotel Bruxelles, La Sangria and others, and found them to serve very decent Pyrenean mountain food at a very good price. You have to look for these places though! They don't just leap out at you, but locals and regulars know where they are. Some of them you can walk to, others you need transport.

I ate in Borda del Rector last week, and we had some bread and olives to be going on with our aperitifs, then starters which included foie gras (controversial, I know, but I like it!) and local delicacies. Main courses included steaks cooked on an open grill, and wild game dishes. We didn't have pudding, but had coffees and liquors, and the whole meal was well washed down with wine from a very good selection. There were 5 of us, and it came in at about 35 Euros each, which I think is rather cheaper than you'd find food in a decent restaurant in France, for example.

I also had lunch several times at the Hotel Bruxelles, and the sandwiches there are fabulous, and cost about 5 Euros each. For what you get I don't think you can find cheaper food out.

I agree that food on the pistes in the Dolomites is much better and possibly cheaper (the food is one of the things I raved about when I went there last year,) but on the whole, compared to the soul-less vast canteens you find up the mountain in places like Les Arcs and La Plagne, the food up the mountain in Andorra is no worse and definitely cheaper. And I happen to like Iberican ham sandwiches wink

After all it is free

I was mostly disappointed with the food on the mountain when in Andorra and thought it was reasonably expensive for what you get. However, I couldn't resist the doner kebab place down in Grau Roig one day!

hammerite, Glad to see you like the local food. rolling eyes

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Dypcdiver, If I found somewhere at lunch that served local food then I'd usually eat that, our hotel offered hot/cold buffet meals and I'm always a try one of everything to see if I like it person. I may not be the most well travelled skier around, but in my visits to 8 different ski resorts/areas I think the Grandvallira had by far the most disappointing food on the mountain. It was just very difficult to find somewhere that served local food on the mountain, at times it felt like lunchtime in Alton Towers where you try and find the best of a bad bunch of fast food places. We don't ski with an aim of going to a particular place for lunch, we ski until we're hungry and stop at the next place we get to.

The sad fact is that the only lunch that stood out the whole time we were there was the kebab place in Grau Roig (it only sold kebabs!), not that it was anything special, I was just surprised to find a kebab place in a ski area. In contrast our last 3 trips have been to Italy (twice) and Austria, I can't remember one bad lunch.

However, I wouldn't let that put me off going back as we enjoyed our week there regardless.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Not a problem, my original post

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We were in Pas.

The kebab place may have only been there for one season, seemed very much like one year it could be a kebab shop, the next some other fast food place. Very franchise like. I've just looked at piste map to remind myself and I think it was at the bottom of Mirador run near the Cubil lift.

dudes,

thanks for all this info!!
I'm actually being forced to cancel my trip now... other priorities. Sadly. I want a kebab up a mountain!

(Anyone need a flight to Barcelona?)

Help!!

Soldeu

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