To get the best from Andorra you need a great base – and this British-owned, family-run hotel is the most welcoming we have found in Andorra. We use this as our centre of guiding operations – our uplift vehicles & guides start the day here, yet it is only a short roll to the lift station for quick Bike Park access! The hotel is extremely bike friendly – and has an amazingly friendly, social feel. Our guests love this new, quieter location away the constant town centre traffic noise, the brilliant on-site bar (Happy Hours galore!), the massive bike store, the bike wash and the famously delicious restaurant! It even has a riverside garden and terrace for chilling out post-ride, where they host BBQs for our guests! The hotel is situated next to the World HQ of Commencal Bikes, and the town centres of both La Massana and Arinsal are only minutes away. Within easy reach there are loads of 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. And our team will be on hand to make sure that you find the best of them, of course!
Due to huge demand, this BRAND NEW package gives you the Ultimate flexibility to ride your preferred mix of uplifted guided Enduro trails, hit the Bike Park as much as you want, whenever you want and includes all Pal Arinsal lift passes for your week too! This is the next stage of development of our constantly evolving our Andorran Holidays to become any rider’s dream – be guided when you want, ride Park when you want, mix and match to suit your mood! It’s 100% flexible! See below for a rough itinerary, and for detailed info on some of our favourite trails, but with this trip YOU are in control of your week. Want to ride Enduro all day, then hit the park once we get back for an hour? Done. Want to have a full day in the Park today, but be guided all day tomorrow? Easy. Want to spend half the week in the Park, but still see the very best of the high backcountry? Simple. Whatever mix YOU want this trip provides it – and includes all the lift passes too!
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, the Park is huge and varied, and the natural riding is staggering…and completely devoid of other trail users!. We are based just outside 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 on the natural trails – 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, and we rarely see anyone else at all! On guided days we will take you to phenomenal singletrack in every corner of this tiny country and you are going to be amazed….and on Park days you will start to realise that the perfect antidote to the crowded, often wet and worn vout parks of the Alps was here waiting for you all along!
Location-wise, this accommodation offers us an opportunity to really mix things up. The beauty of this location means that you can access the gondola to the Bike Park very easily, yet for guided days we can also drive our trailers right up to the Bike Store to load your bikes (whilst you enjoy a coffee) before we head further off into the mountains. On guided days expect multiple uplifts, 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 (both inside and outside the Park) which return you to town – most of which descend around 1000 vertical metres!
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 guests-only bike washing station on site!
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 – your choice> Either have your first day exploring the Bike Park with your included lift pass, or join our guides for the first guided enduro ride. The guided group often go straight to the high backcountry and hit “Lawnmower” in the morning, followed by “The Boneyard” and “Locals Only” after lunch at a local cafe. This offers a variety of different trails from high mountain to deep forests…it also features two very large van uplifts and at least two VERY large descents! Return to town late afternoon and meet the rest of the group, get a park lap in if you fancy! (note: in lower season weeks this swaps with Monday due to lift opening days).
Monday – flexible guiding in/ off the park!> riding from the door we all use the local lifts at Pal Arinsal (was Vallnord) . However, 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. This is a fully flexible day, so you can do as much or as little natural riding as you want. If you just want to session park trails you can, if you want to ride with our guides…you can! The guides show you highlights of the park before diving off onto hidden trails only locals know about! There are loads of natural trails here; 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 – your choice> Again, you can either hit the Park with your included lift pass, or ride with our guides.This enduro day of guided riding will usually see us heading over to the other side of Andorra by van, 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 – your choice> this is the guides’ Rest Day (like most guided trips) – but many people use this day to ride at the Bike Park, which is on the doorstep, using your included lift pass. 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 – more flexible guiding> probably again using the local lifts at Pal Arinsal we will guide yet more amazing natural trails, as we can’t fit them all into one day! Want a full or half park day? No problem – we will meet you later! If you choose to be guided expect the super long “Go Rock Yourself”, which takes a couple of hours with most groups, and 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 – your choice> you can choose a final day in the Bike Park, but most will opt for the Uplifted Enduro option on the last day, as we usually head to the highest backcountry epic of the week! This sees us return to the Soldeu area, but head higher, up above 2500m. We grab a gondola, drop into a quick 500m descent back to town as a warm up…we then go and ride one of our two biggest high mountain trails, such as “Ridgeliner” or “Jordis Way”. These 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 a bonus descent, such as “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 Ultimate Andorra 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, and in certain low season weeks, reduced Bike Park opening. 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 | |
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– Daily Uplift Supported Price includes: – Great family-run Hotel |
June 2024 |
7 night holiday, upto 6 days riding £750
|
4 night break, 3 days riding £625 |
£175 – week |
Early Season, Uplift-Supported Weeks Guided Days: we use vehicles for high start/ low finish rides (or the lift at Pal Arinsal) every day. However, these early-season weeks are before the lifts are open fully, see below. In early-season weeks, even with van support there is a bit more climbing than later weeks, as this is before the opening of the gondola at Soldeu. We start very high by van, make alterations to our routes, and we always climb at a very gentle pace! Some routes may be slightly shorter as linking lifts we use to add additional descents in high season will not be open. Certain big-mountain routes may involve longer climbs which are avoided in higher priced weeks, but usually no areas or major descents are inaccesable. |
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– Daily/ Max Uplift Support Price includes: – Great family-run Hotel |
June 2024 15th – FULL August 2024 Sept 2024 |
7 night holiday, upto 6 days riding £850 |
4 night break, 3 days riding £700 |
£175 – week |
June DAILY Uplifted and September MAX Uplifted Weeks Guided Days: a mixture of vehicle uplifts for high start/ low finish rides, plus use of ski lifts wherever possible. MID JUNE Weeks = DAILY UPLIFTED – some form of uplift every day, and use of ski lifts wherever possible. Similar to the low-season weeks above, however the Bike Park WILL be fully open, offering more flexibility. These weeks include a 5 day lift pass. LATE JUNE and ALL SEPTEMBER weeks = MAX UPLIFTED format, just like High Season Weeks! The gondola at Soldeu is open every week from late June, which means that these dates will run like high season weeks; heavy use of ski lifts and/or vehicle uplifts every single day for high start/ low finish rides and minimal climbing! During MAX Uplifted weeks we aim to achieve at least 75% descending every day, and some days are entirely uplifted! However, some short climbs of upto 250m are still neccesary mid-route on our biggest backcountry trails. |
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– MAX Uplifted – Great family-run Hotel
|
July 2024 6th – FULL August 2024 |
7 night holiday, upto 6 days riding £870 |
4 night break, 3 days riding £720 |
July August |
High Season, MAX Uplifted Weeks Guided Days: High-season weeks feature heavy use of ski lifts and/or vehicle uplifts every single day 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 easily achieve at least 75% descending every day, and some days are entirely uplifted! Some short climbs of upto 250m are still neccesary mid-route on our biggest backcountry trails, but this is minimised wherever possible. EXTRA DESCENTS! These weeks often include a bonus uplift during the day, so you get even more bang for your buck! |
"We all got to ride the sort of trails we wanted, at the speed we wanted, as often as we could!"
William Crannburn
Read more reviews3rd May 2024 Offers
MAY MADNESS SALE – save a BONKERS £100 per person! We call Andorra “Home of the BIG trails”…well, with this crazy offer it is also land of the SMALL prices! Book ANY guided ... Read More
8th 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