For the fifth consecutive year, we (me and some friends of mine) go to Andorra with the purpose of skiing. In my opinion, for the amateur (downhill skiing) mid-level, this micro country offered the best combination of price and quality. Why am I writing in the past tense "offered"? The simple fact is that the prices for ski-passes grew by 10-15% per year and reached 50 euros per day of skiing, catching up with the prices of Austrian resorts. And I must say that this is too much, with all my respect. This also applies to other moments, such as alcohol, food, hotels and so on. The question is, why then go to Andorra if you can go to Austria?
At first, everything went pleasantly familiar: meeting friends at the airport, taking alcohol anesthesia before the flight, soft landing in Barcelona, snacking at a cafe on the mountain pass ...
Very long time we could not choose a hotel. Previously, we preferred the hotel "President". Once lived in "Cervol". However, the level of the "President" has been steadily falling from year to year. And when in the previous year we were informed that the sauna had burned down and therefore the pool was closed, we decided to turn away from the “President”! Finally, we finished off the optimization of transport. For some reason, the Andorrans only cleared them for several reasons, including a stop at the “President”. The logic of their thinking is completely unclear, because the bus in any case goes past the hotel!
This time we turned away from a proven hotel, raised the price a bit, and bought a week at the Andorra Center. One friend comrade very much praised the cuisine of this hotel, - as it turned out, he somewhat embellished the situation. Another important argument was the location of the hotel - the very center of the city, right near the city hall.
Of course, we began to compare the good old “President” with the “Andorra Center”. And I have to admit that the old horse was somehow better than the new one ... For example, I was very depressed by the hotel lobby, the overall impression was that you were at the station - it was not at all cozy :-( the rooms are usually standard. The soundproofing of the rooms is satisfactory. The bathrooms are with poor, plumbing fixtures. In the "President" the plumbing looks noticeably more solid.
Number of Andorra Center
The kitchen was on the same level as the hotel "President". However, it must be admitted that the kitchen here had significant advantages in the form of free water, Pepsi at dinner, and free champagne at breakfast. For the rest, we were forced to admit that it was not clear that it would make sense to pay extra money ...
Andorra greeted us with a complete lack of snow. Instagram accounts of alpine lovers were filled with selfies in full uniform on ... green grass! Snow was visible only in the area of the slopes.
In principle, the first two days we skated relatively well in Vallnord. There was snow there. But everyone was eager for snow in Grandvalira. And here would spit on this Grandvalira with its mad price tag. But everyone wanted snow, everyone talked about it. And he came ...
The snow came and ... did not leave. It fell, fell, fell...
And in the end everything was covered with white foam.
There were problems with transport: buses got stuck, taxis did not come ... as it is familiar, isn’t it?
And then the lifts were closed - there was no chance to see a some damn thing in the mountains.
Someone went to drink
Someone went to the shops
and someone was happy about the snow ...
In total, out of six days, we normally were skiing only two. I forced to admit the season Andorra 2019 failure. Probably next year we will go either to Austria or ... and even to Bulgaria!
