... However for a snowboarder, or skier, especially one with very little money Andorra, and in particular Pas de la Casa, is heaven. Andorra, being a tax-free country, is the place to go for a bargain holiday so my mate and I booked and so began my week of delight.
We booked a four star, ... Read review
This stylish, contemporary hotel is situated at the foot of the Grandvalira Ski Resort, ... more
offering a variety of outdoor activities to help you rest and relax in summer or winter. The family-friendly Grau Roig is surrounded by the mountains and lakes of t...
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Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Advantages: Everything is tax free, Great apres ski, Suitable for everyone Disadvantages: Long transfer time
...money Andorra, and in particular Pas de la Casa, is heaven. Andorra, being a tax-free country, is the place to go for a bargain holiday so my mate and I booked and so began my week of delight.
We booked a four star, half board hotel in Pas de la Casa and paid for everything like boot and board hire, and lift passes for a week at a cost of £502 each, which is really good when you consider the cost for the same holiday in other countries, ... ...bit hour bus journey to Pas (probably one of the only down points about going there) but if you can stay awake on the journey it is well worth it for the fantastic views. When we made it to Pas, which is on the boarder of France and Andorra the Reps, from Crystal (who we booked with) took us to our hotel, which was clean and smart. By the way the Crystal reps, were absolutely brilliant. Check out www.crystalholidays.co.uk for further information. more
Andorra is one of the smallest countries in Europe and lies between France and Spain, in the middle of the Pyrenees but I wouldn’t be surprised if you had never heard of the place, let alone know where it is. However for a snowboarder, or skier, especially one with very little money Andorra, and in particular Pas de la Casa, is heaven. Andorra, being a tax-free country, is the place to go for a bargain holiday so my mate and I booked and so began my week of delight.
We booked a four star, half board hotel in Pas de la Casa and paid for everything like boot and board hire, and lift passes for a week at a cost of £502 each, which is really good when you consider the cost for the same holiday in other countries, and just couldn’t wait to go. So when the 17 December finally arrived we were slightly excited.
After flying to Toulouse, it is a three and a bit hour bus journey to Pas (probably one of the only down points about going there) but if you can stay awake on the journey it is well worth it for the fantastic views. When we made it to Pas, which is on the boarder of France and Andorra the Reps, from Crystal (who we booked with) took us to our hotel, which was clean and smart. By the way the Crystal reps, were absolutely brilliant. Check out www.crystalholidays.co.uk for further information.
As we both live in a village in England and knew village life is boring we thought Pas, being a village too would be pretty crap with little to do other than snowboard. But, you guessed it, we were wrong. Pas has more shops than my local town, somewhere between 100 and 200. It has a number of restaurants and bars and a few nightclubs as well. Wow, we thought, if only our village back home was a ski resort. The types of shops ranged from your average supermarkets; surprisingly there was about five or six, to your expected winter sports shops. There were also a number of electronic shops and jewellery/perfume stores. The types of restaurants ranged from the expensive all the way down and yes, a fast food restaurant, in the form of Burger King.
So, to the slopes and with boards ready and boots on we clambered for the first time onto the chair lifts. In Pas the lifts, which are in the main two or four seater chairlifts, are all at the same place, in one centralish area and the skiing area for Pas is on the same slope as what the lifts go up. The designated area carries on down the other side of the mountain into Grau Roig a hamlet, and on after that up and down another mountain, so there were more than enough slopes to cover during the week. We found the area going into Grau Roig the best for boarding, although skiers may have a different opinion. There was a variety of terrain, wide flats, tree routes, steep and twisting and our average snowboarding skills were tested and improved. In all there are 100km of piste, 25% blue runs, 55% red and 20% black. There 33 lifts, of which 12 are chairlifts, one a cable car and the rest drags. Lift passes were £70 for six days and snowboard and boot hire about £60, ski and boots I think were about £50. There is also a board park and baby slopes which we didn’t get chance to try.
We had some great days of snowboarding, some hilarious moments and some scary ones, and I think you’ll love the boarding or skiing here too. By the way, if you want a scary ride try the two-seater chairlift up to Pas from Grau Roig on a windy day. It shakes like anything and is so hard to get on and off, with a board strapped to your foot because it is small and goes quite fast. And if you make it to the top, over the jagged rocks and random cliffs, when you go to get off make sure you don’t fall back as there is a cliff edge two feet from the exit point.
One of the best things about Pas is the après ski. If you want they is something different to do every night, you can even bum-board down the closest mountain in the middle of the night, under very poor floodlighting. There are some brilliant bars, the Milwaukee, like an English pub, the Underground Bar and Marseilles just to mention a few and the Billboard club is pretty good later on at night. The reps. were able to lay on things to do all week, like trips to the capital city, bar crawls and the bum boarding. They also liked to party and often came out to the bars in the evening and some great fun was had.
Now for some tips and recommendations on what the best things are to do while there. Firstly bring as much money as you can. We took two hundred pounds each but wished we had taken much more. This is because things are so cheap, sounds odd, I know. But this is a great chance to buy everything you wanted in England but could never afford as well as your Christmas presents should you go before 25th Dec. There are some great clothes shops with amazing prices. I got a pair of ‘Diesel’ jeans for £20, ones that had cost my brother £70 back home. I found a department store on our trip to the capital (which I must say is well worth going to) that had loads of winter sports stuff all at about half the price of back home and I picked up a ‘Burton’ jumper for £40. In general everything is about half the price it is here. If you looking for a car head unit or speakers or maybe a camera they Pas has an amazing number of electronic stores with equally amazing deals, and check out the perfume stores as well, they have great prices (that was mums Christmas present sorted). If you want some great food at a reasonable price or you want a place to relax check out the ‘Tupi Bar’ to the right of lifts as you look up the mountain. It has a kind of Mexican theme and the staff are great. The manager always gave us great deals like a free drink with a meal and so we soon became regular customers. As for the nightlife the best place is definitely ‘The Underground Bar’. The manager, who ‘works’ behind the bar at the back, is in a word mad. Basically he gets drunk along with you, how cools that, and just ask and he’ll give you and all your mates a few free rounds of shots. He will also test his new concoctions on you for free and at times, usually later on when he has had a few, he will get up on the bar and poor bottles of anything and everything over his customers, I got Apple Schnapps.
Check out these sites: www.uksnowboardingguide.co.uk www.ski-europe.com www.skiandorra.ad
What else can I say? It never really got too busy on the slopes, the place is easy to get around and everything is within walking distance. Oh yeah, they prefer Spanish Pesetas to French Francs though most places accept both, but it will all be Euros soon. I hope you visit, you will love the place. Great boarding, cheap everything, cool après ski what else could you want.
Advantages: Cheap, Good fun, Good skiing area, Good drinking, Friendly locals Disadvantages: 3 1/2 hour coach transfer to toulouse airport
...spent the Xmas break in Pas de la Casa and it was our first visit to Andorra. Yes - we would go again. Although it was early in the season there was enough snow to make the holiday a good one. Skiing is quite extensive and the lift system is good with few queues. The lifts in the main are chair lifts which can be a bit unnerving for first timers but you soon get the hang of them. The nursery slopes are very crowded and its good that you only spend ... ...blue runs where the greater space allows easier instuction. Ski instruction is very good with most if not all of the instructors speaking good english. This was our second ski holiday and probably our best to date.
The town itself is lively and caters for a younger age group, but that doesnt mean if you are over 21 then you are past it, as the reps are excellent and the locals very friendly. Eating out is good value and remember that as this is ...
groomoid 12.02.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Pas de la Casa/Grau Roig
Advantages: Wide range of skiing Disadvantages: Long transfere time
Pas de la Casa, known to most as 'Pas', situated in Andorra a principality on the French/Spanish border. With no airport all holiday makers must fly to Toulouse and then endure a 3 hour coach ride to Andorra, but it's well worth it. Pas is the first resort you arrive at, being just 100 yards from the border crossing.
The main town itself, consisting of shops, bars and some hotels, is situated at the bottom of the main slope, other hotels spread ... ...Buying a lift pass for Pas will also allow you to ski in the neighbouring resort of Grau Roig, all chair lifts and drag lifts close at 5:30 pm so ensure you are not in Grau Roig when they close as it will be an expensive taxi ride back to Pas. The two resorts spread over 3 valleys, with plenty of varying types of skiing, the two main slopes are big wide expanses very good for beginning just moving off the learner slopes of which there are two, one ...
freestone 06.01.2001 (08.02.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Pas de la Casa/Grau Roig
Advantages: Cheapest of the cheap, duty-free shopping Disadvantages: An ambience that is pretty unique.... thankfully
...hell on earth that is Pas of an evening. I found the service in restaurants to be as rude as I'd ever come across (some places would as soon ignore you completely as serve you), but once you see how the majority of the English holidaymakers conduct themselves, you can see their point. A succession of truly hideous apartment buildings litter the mountainside, and I suppose that if that's what you construct, you're expecting a certain sort of clientele.
...
greenierexyboy 27.10.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Pas de la Casa/Grau Roig
Advantages: Fantastic Ski and snowboard school Disadvantages: Not great Apres ski
We stayed in Pas de la casa which is a 2 and a half hour transfer from Tolouse. It is not a pretty town, but has a lovely backdrop of the mountains. We stayed in self catering accomodation which was clean and basic. Food and drink in restaurants was not as cheap as advertised online (although drink in supermarkets is cheap, 1 litre of smirnoff vodka 7.40 euros which is £4!) The service was friendly and it helped we spoke french and spanish, but food ... ...which is not good for a big group. I really enjoyed my two snowboarding lessons which are excellent and a must for all learners that go there. I went for the one on one lesson, you learn so much quicker that in a big group.Overall a great place to learn and go tax free shoppping, but definately a budget holiday resort. ...
annie81 31.01.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Pas de la Casa/Grau Roig
Advantages: Cheap booze and perfume, resort is compact Disadvantages: Long transfer from airport, lack of quality places to eat and drink
...again (but not back to Pas de la Casa). It has been described as the Ibiza on Snow and as a general indication of what you can expect this is not far wrong.
The facilities are fine. Plentiful chair lifts, good runs up and over the main resort into neighbouring resorts and the snow is pretty reliable. I was lucky to have gorgeous weather there in March which certianly made the experience a delight. Lessons are widely available and all the instructors ... ...joy to learn with. Others were more fierce and less understanding I hear, so this is a bit of pot luck. Hotels here are not exactly classy. It is basic and functional. Walls are thin, doors slam loudly. But the resort is small and nowhere is out of reach, even in ski boots. There is a distinct lack of good places to eat, which was surprising given the quality of the neighbouring country's cuisine. Even the local supermarkets didn't seem to have a ...
Rogerbyname 15.06.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Pas de la Casa/Grau Roig
Value for Money
Sightseeing
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around
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Advantages: Nature and sport activities Disadvantages: crowds and heavy traffic in the town centre (I don't recommend you stay there)
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Let’s get away from them and their shopping bags full of cheap licor, cheap cigarettes and other nice staff that doesn’t particularly interest us at time being. We didn’t come here to get stressed. We came to relax, walk and enjoy what we can.
If it’s winter you most certainly will go skiing. Skiing, snowboarding, toboganning and all kinds of possible winter sports are available at the five ski resorts. I’ve been to three of them, PasdelaCasa – GrauRoig, Soldeu El Tarter and Pal. I certainly prefer PasdeLaCasa – GrauRoig, especially when you get to the slopes by Funicamp, the telepheric which provides excellent views and saves time.
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happy_hamster 24.03.2001 (21.05.2001)
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