This British-owned, family-run hotel is the most welcoming we have found in Andorra – plus it’s extremely bike friendly – and has been chosen due to its’ amazing social feel! Our guests love the new, quieter location (the town centre has a lot of traffic noise), the brilliant frriendly on-site bar, the massive bike store, the bike wash and the famously delicious restaurant! It even has a riverside garden and terrace area for chilling out post-ride where they host BBQs for our guests! The town centres of both La Massana and Arinsal are only minutes away – where there are several great bike shops, bars that offer everything from sunny terraces to live music, food to suit any tastes and a great atmosphere wherever you go. We will be on hand to make sure that you find the best of them, of course!
Over the last decade and a half we have constantly evolved our Andorran Holiday to become a trail rider’s dream, with perfect natural singletrack unfurling under your wheels at every corner! See below for a rough itinerary, and for detailed info on some of our favourite trails, but we always tailor each week to the group we are riding with, in order to give you the best possible experience.
Andorra truly is a mountain biking paradise; huge, snow capped mountains feel very Alpine, but we have a climate more similar to that of nearby Spain. The positive attitude to bikers from the incredibly warm and friendly locals is amazing, and the natural riding is staggering…and completely devoid of other trail users!. We are based around Andorra’s busiest & best positioned summer town, full of fellow riders enjoying Pal Arinsal Bike Park (formerly Vallnord), host to the MTB World Championships for the second time in 2024, and an annual World Cup venue.
Andorra is definitely somewhere you need guiding – there is no official mapping, and the ones which do exist are very inaccurate. Every valley below 1800m is covered in thick forests, so you can’t even see where you are! However, it’s this which makes Andorra almost unique – our trail network is almost deserted, other than by a few locals. The trails are World-class if you know where to find them, but they simply don’t get much traffic – we rarely see anyone else at all! We will take you to phenomenal singletrack in every corner of this tiny country and you are going to be amazed….not just by how good the riding in Andorra is, not even by how incredibly beautiful and unspoiled it is: mainly you are going to wonder “why the hell have I not ridden here sooner?”!
Our hotel guests also have access to our extensive toolkit, use of our workstands and track pumps etc, which are available in the secure Bike Store beneath the hotel. Bike washing is very easy too – there’s a gusts-only bike washing station on site!
Location-wise, this accommodation offers us an opportunity to really mix up our routes, making use of our unparalleled local contacts – sometimes riding direct from the door, on other days we’ll load your bikes up onto our trailers and use our vehicles to head further afield. We often do point-to-point rides where we start and finish in different locations too. Expect multiple uplifts in any day, plus plenty of use of ski lifts too! The hotel sits in the junction of several huge valleys, and mountains tower all around. This means that there are many amazing descents which return you to town – most of which descend around 1000 vertical metres!
In the evenings we will help the group choose somewhere great to eat, help you book it, and often help you get there in our van too! We don’t offer half-board options simply because Andorra is such good value that everyone wants to go out to eat for a similar cost! We have loads of food options within easy reach to suit any taste or pocket. The hotel also has it’s own restaurant, which specialises in asian dishes, and people come from all over Andorra to eat there. Every guest who eats there loves it – it’s amazing!
Eating and drinking in Andorra is remarkably cheap – think Spanish prices, minus VAT – so to give you a few examples: a large beer is around 3E (£2), tapas is available from 4E (£3) per dish, a full-sized pizza in a nice restaurant is 10E (£8.50), main meals in most places start from around 10E (£8.50) and if you go to the very best restaurant in town and eat the very most expensive dish on the menu you will still only pay around 25E (£22)!
Here’s an example of how a typical week looks in Andorra:
Saturday – arrival day; Airport Transfer direct to your hotel. Our staff, will be on site to welcome you, give you a quick tour, show you where to store bikes and explain the facilities etc. Later on, we will all head to a prebooked an evening meal location for the group to meet and get to know each other, and our staff will give you information about the week.
Sunday – first day of guided riding; we often go straight for the high backcountry and hit “Lawnmower” in the morning, followed by “The Boneyard” and “Locals Only” in the afternoon. This day offers a variety of different trails and features so we can get a feel for how the riders in the group tackle various things…it also features two very large van uplifts and at least two very large descents! One of these is before lunch at a local café, the other is in the afternoon after a further van uplift (in lower season weeks this swaps with Monday due to lift opening days).
Monday – riding with your guide from the door we use the local lifts at Pal Arinsal (was Vallnord) – but just because this is one of the best known bike parks in the World doesn’t mean it’s all about man made trails! In fact, some of our toughest, most technical natural riding is hidden away off the edges of the park. We will show you a mix of the best bits of the park before diving off onto hidden trails only locals know about! There are loads of natural trails we love here, so we will usually ride a few such as “Bus Stop”, “Hidden Valley” and maybe “Rocky Road” or “Nutjob” if we think you are doing well! Lunch is usually at the BBQ terrace in the Park.
Tuesday – the third day of guided riding will usually see you back in the van and heading over to the other side of Andorra, to Soldeu, to use the gondola there. From this we can access a choice of trails, often riding things such as “Try the Door”, “Helter Skelter” or “Happy Ending” in the morning. After lunch at a cafe we may jump back in the van back up to a high mountain pass to ride an alternate version of” Locals Only” called “Pylon” back to town.
Wednesday – strictly speaking this is a Rest Day (like most guided trips) – but many people use this day to ride at the Bike Park, which is on the doorstep. Alternatively you could head into the capital city via cheap, regular buses – the bus stop is right outside! It’s a lovely, clean city with many, many shops. Many people visit The Caldea – Europe’s largest natural spa baths – a big tourist attraction. Wednesday is also the day our 4 night short break guests usually leave.
Thursday – probably again using the local lifts at Pal Arinsal we will get you out onto yet more natural trails, as we can’t fit then all into one day! The super long “Go Rock Yourself” takes a couple of hours with most groups, so is often saved for this day. We may even head to a little-used cable car at the edge of the park which takes you to a separate mountain from where we can ride “1 Brake and a Prayer” and “Lateral Flow” – trails which are absolute opposites! Lunch is again usually at the Bike Park restaurant.
Friday – back in the van, and back to the backcountry! Usually at the end of the week we return to the Soldeu area, but head higher, up above 2500m. After a trail back to town as a warm up (something like “Marmot”) we go and ride one of our two biggest big mountain trails, such as “Ridgeliner” or “Jordis Way” – both of which are over 10km long with over 1000m of vertical height loss! From the valley a final meeting with the van takes us back up to 2000m to ride something like “OCD” which is a super varied 650m descent back to base.
Saturday – departure day: our scheduled transfer service collects you from the hotel door and returns you direct to the airport allowing plenty of time to get there for your 2 hour minimum check-in window
Our Andorran guided holidays have 3 price points: these simply reflect the amount of uplift (gaining height be vehicles and lifts) which you can expect in those weeks. Mostly this comes down to lift opening dates – we still use vans for uplifts in cheaper low-season weeks, but there may be routes which we have to adapt and do a little more climbing in order to access the highest areas. In higher season weeks we use maximum uplift in order to achieve a huge amount of descending in comparison with how much pedalling there is – we aim for at least 3 times the descending to climbing…and some days we do not climb at all!
| Overview | Available Dates (commencing) |
7 Night Price | Short Break Price | Single Supplement | Special Offers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
– Daily Uplift Supported Price includes: – Great family-run Hotel |
June 2024 |
7 night holiday, upto 6 days riding £720 |
4 night break, 3 days riding £595 |
£175 – week |
Early Season, Uplift-Supported Weeks WE NOW FEATURE SOME FORM OF UPLIFT EVERY DAY! These early-season weeks are before the lifts are open fully, but ALL June dates are now lift-assisted daily – this means we will use vehicle uplift for high start/ low finish rides (or the lift at Vallnord) EVERY DAY. In low-season weeks, even WITH van support there is a bit more climbing than in July, August and September, as these weeks are before the opening of the gondola at Soldeu – so we start very high, and make alterations to our route choices to reflect the extra effort, and we always climb at a very gentle pace! Some routes will also be slightly shorter than in September, as certain linking lifts which we use to add additional descending in high season weeks will not be open. Certain big-mountain routes involve longer climbs which are avoided in higher priced weeks, but usually no areas or major descents are inaccesable. For example, “Jordi’s Way” & “Ridgeliner” are accessed via a huge van uplift followed by around an extra 300m of climbing which would accessed via a gondola in high-season weeks. But with our new format you will still descend far more metres than you will climb (usually 3x more down)! |
|
– Daily/ Max Uplift Support Price includes: – Great family-run Hotel |
June 2024 8th – 9 places August 2024 Sept 2024 |
7 night holiday, upto 6 days riding £750 |
4 night break, 3 days riding £625 |
£175 – week |
June DAILY and September MAX Uplifted Weeks These are traditionally slightly quieter weeks, athough September now sells out every season! There will be a mixture of vehicle uplifts for high start/ low finish rides, plus use of ski lifts wherever possible. JUNE DATES are DAILY UPLIFTED – these rides will feature some form of uplift every day, but there may be certain routes that have less uplift than in later weeks. For details see the description of the low-season weeks above. SEPTEMBER WEEKS now run in MAX UPLIFT format, just like High Season Weeks! The gondola at Soldeu will now open every day in September, which means that these weeks will run almost like high season weeks, with heavy use of ski lifts and/or vehicle uplifts every single day for high start/ low finish rides and minimal climbing! They are tradtionally slighty quieter weeks, so we are keeping the price down, but the uplift will increase! During September we aim to achieve at least 75% descending every day, and some days are entirely uplifted! Some short climbs of upto 30 minutes or so are still neccesary mid-route on our biggest backcountry trails, but this is minimised wherever possible – but, of course, there are not always lifts or roads to the very top of highest trails! |
|
– MAX Uplifted Price includes: – Great family-run Hotel |
July 2024 6th – 2 places August 2023 |
7 night holiday, upto 6 days riding SPECIAL OFFER – HIGH SEASON AT LOW SEASON PRICES! |
4 night break, 3 days riding SPECIAL OFFER – HIGH SEASON AT LOW SEASON PRICES! |
July August |
High Season, MAX Uplifted Weeks These high-season weeks have heavy use of ski lifts and/or vehicle uplifts every single day for high start/ low finish rides and involve minimal climbing! If you are wanting to maximise your descents, and minimise your climbing these are the ones to go for as we have the widest uplift options available. During these weeks we aim to achieve at least 75% descending every day, and some days are entirely uplifted! Some short climbs of upto 30 minutes or so are still neccesary mid-route on our biggest backcountry trails, but this is minimised wherever possible – but, of course, there are not always lifts or roads to the very top of the very best trails! NEW EXTRA DESCENTS! Many riding days now include a bonus uplift during the day, so you get even more bang for your buck! |
" very well organized and professionally run and most importantly the riding was awesome!"
Dan White
Read more reviews8th Mar 2024 Offers
NEW HIGH SEASON SALE – book at LOW season prices! Andorra – so much variety in one tiny country! Book July and August at LOW season prices with code Summerlove, Uplifted Guided Trips ... Read More
1st Feb 2024 Bikes Sponsors
We are really excited to let you know that our partners at Commencal have now confirmed the first models in their 2024 hire bikes range in Andorra! There are some beautiful bikes this year, including ... Read More
8th Jun 2023 Offers
Hit Huge Dusty Trails AND make a HUGE SAVING! We know how tough times have been recently – and as a small company we are in the same situation – 2023 is a tough year for us all ... Read More
25th Apr 2023 News
Want to combine a Barcelona City Break with you MTB Holiday? Want to arrive a day or two early, or leave slightly later than our usual Saturday changeover and visit the city? Great news – now ... Read More
LIKE + SHARE THIS POST and get a HUGE £1️️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ discount per person on new guided bookings for July and August 🤯
ALSO when you share this post we'll give you £50 off per person on a 7 night guided stay in ANY week in June or September too! 👌
Get your summer sorted with a discount, and hit awesome descents like this one: Lawnmower. It's not one of our biggest trails...it is "only" 6.5km long and around 700m vertically 😅😜 Our BIG descents are more like 1000m high and are 10+km long....👀 Andorra is the home of the big trails....
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Want to ride in almost guaranteed good weather, but still have those epic Alpine feels? Want to have trails of every kind, from loam to rock, from flow to tech, from high backcountry wilderness to rich deep forests? Want massive mountain riding with minimum pedalling? Well, what you heard is true - Andorra has it all - and it's the perfect riding destination...come and feel our summer vibes ☀😎🍻👌💜🇦🇩
SPECIAL OFFER - book high season weeks at low season prices at www.singletracksafari.com
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Oliver Smyth
Yes and I've messaged you already.... Waiting.
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