Arinsal

...first trip skiing was to arinsal andoora in the winter of 1994, a two week holiday with my step brother. We book with cyrstal holiday to stop in a small family run hotel, towards the lower end of the price scale. About a month before we were due to travel we were contacted and told there had been a problem with the hotel and they would have to move us to a different hotel the St Gottard. A 5 star hotel and one of the best in the resort. Bonus
...which takes about 3-4 hours. Arinsal is the last drop off by the coach so everyones usually very tired by the time you arrive.

Hotel

The hotel is towards the bottom of the hill leading up to the slopes, but is very nice indeed, our room was towards the back of the hotel with a great view of the mountains and steam running right next to hotel. We stopped half board, with both breakfast and evening meal run on a buffet ... more

Arinsal, my first trip skiing was to arinsal andoora in the winter of 1994, a two week holiday with my step brother. We book with cyrstal holiday to stop in a small family run hotel, towards the lower end of the price scale. About a month before we were due to travel we were contacted and told there had been a problem with the hotel and they would have to move us to a different hotel the St Gottard. A 5 star hotel and one of the best in the resort. Bonus

As with Pas da La Casa, you can see my report on that in the other section, the travelling is quite long and tedious as you have to fly toulouse in france and then transfer by coach to Andorra which takes about 3-4 hours. Arinsal is the last drop off by the coach so everyones usually very tired by the time you arrive.

Hotel

The hotel is towards the bottom of the hill leading up to the slopes, but is very nice indeed, our room was towards the back of the hotel with a great view of the mountains and steam running right next to hotel. We stopped half board, with both breakfast and evening meal run on a buffet style, with a wide range of choices. As we were there over xmas and new year special meals were also included on these days at no extra cost, the new year meal was extremely nice with lobster, sorbet etc. the only problem was the prat in a PURPLE TUX we had to share the table with.
The rest of the hotel was the usual things bar games room sauna etc. but the staff and residents were a bit stuck up, not the place for two single lads on the pull, but we did have a posh looking room for any women we brought home.

Skiing

A 20 min climb up the main road and you arrive at the lower station from where you have to catch a two man chair lift to arrive at the upper station, here you'll find the rental shops, cafes etc. and also the ski school. As we were first time skiers we had prebooked one weeks worth of lessons. The group was spilt into two groups those on one week holidays and those on two weeks holidays, but all of us had paid for just 1 week of lessons, so I'm not sure of the point of this, although it did seems that the group who were only there for 1 week moved alot slower than us, so perhaps its so we would pay for advanced lessons in the second week, I don't know. If you've never skied before I would recommend taking lessons as it is hard to pick up, and the second time I went I tried to teach a friend and it took him a lot longer to pick up than with proper lessons.
After about 3 days we had picked up the basics and were whizzing around the slopes when not with our instructor, by the end of our second week however we had done all runs a number of times and was looking for something else, this is the only problem with the resort, its very limited so the more advanced skier, if you've been skiing before go somewhere else.

Apres-ski

There are masses are bars and clubs but the quite a few, and there really good, most of them are situated around the lower station, so its worth buying a nightbus pass to take you up and down the hill. You could do a pub crawl starting at the bottom of the hill, but theres some long gaps with no pubs, the slid down the hill at the end of the night can qutie fun when you've had a few though, my favorite was the red rock bar at the top of the hill, where the reps and ski instructors would play in a blues band, it also serves some really good food.

Andorra

The final point about Andorra is that as a principality theres alot of duty free items, so take a trip into the capital Andorra de Ville to pick up cheap cigs, booze, electrical items, perfume etc. all the usual duty free stuff. I remember picking up some local brandy for about £3 a bottle. That stuff keeps you warm on a cold night I can tell you.  

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