HA Holidays in Andorra
EV Encamp village and amenities
TA Transport in Andorra
WA Walking in Andorra
OW Our walks
EP Extra photos
Walk Photos
Welcome to our Andorra page. We include detail and links for the resort, transport and walking we did on our holiday.
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OH Our holiday
HA Holidays in Andorra EV Encamp village and amenities TA Transport in Andorra WA Walking in Andorra OW Our walks EP Extra photos |
Walk Photos |
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Andorra was our summer holiday destination in 1988.
This holiday was organised by the UK based specialist holiday company Ramblers Holidays. At the time of our holiday Ramblers only provided one leader, and as far as we are aware this is still the case, so if you choose a Rambler's holiday ensure you and any companions are happy with the grade of walking.
We were unfortunate in that the regular leader for Andorra, who knew the area well, was not available and the replacement leader did unfamiliar the area. He was leading at a grade above his comfort level, and so some of the walks were not as challenging as we would have liked.
Surprising there were six people who had been on our Julian Alps holiday the previous year. Lawson in particular was a very keen walker, so on occasion we took the option to include tops, whilst others savoured a leisurely lunch and siesta.
A May 2005 internet search revealed many options for walking holidays in Andorra including Inghams, Ramblers (based in Encamp as our holiday was), Thomsons & Waymark.
For general information on Andorra, see Andorra.
To fly to Andorra your options include Barcelona Airport or Toulouse Airport.
Novatel Autocars run a bus service from both airports direct to Andorra.
The Ramblers Holiday to Andorra was (and still is) based in the village of Encamp.
The village is spread out either side of the main road that runs through Andorra. In itself Encamp is not a particularly attractive or interesting resort - we would have preferred to be based in Massana or Ordino. Encamp has all the main facilities including supermarkets.
We stayed at the Hotel Coray which was alongside the road. This is a large 3 star hotel which had a good restaurant and a pleasant bar area. On our holiday the main courses were varied over the fortnight, though the choice for non meat eaters was quite limited. For afters creme catalan was very popular, one of our group had this every night!
Encamp is the location of the National Automobile Museum - with cars dating back to 1898 as well as many antique motorcycles and bicycles.
There is no railway line to Andorra. There are buses which run along the main road though the country from the Spanish to the French border, and bus services through the Arinsal and Ordino valleys. The hub of the services is the capital Andorra La Vella. Time tables are available via the transport section of the Andorra tourism site. Services between La Vella and Soldeu, and La Vella and Ordino are frequent, but there are few buses to Arinsal and El Serrat. On our holiday use was made of both public transport and private transport.
None of the walks organised by Ramblers made use of any chair lifts. When we were there they only ran in winter.
Andorra is a very mountaineous country, the mountains being part of the Eastern Pyrenees. The roads in Andorra take you up fairly high - the road over to France reaches about 2400m. As most of the mountains are between 2200m and 3000m there are many opportunities to reach the tops and for ridge walking. The scenery is very impressive.
The maps we used were obtained in Andorra. There was a map at 1:40000 covering the whole country, and you can also buy maps at 1:10000 scale for walking.
Some of the paths in the area were marked using paint markings, but they were not as distinct as Austria or Switzerland. Some of the walks we did used paths not shown on the maps. Unlike Austria and Switzerland there were no manned refuges, only a few small bothies.
The walks described below are those that we did on the Ramblers walking holiday. All apart from one walk were led walks.
Although it was only September we had a heavy snow fall in the first week, and for a day or two the road over to France was blocked. The snow and accompanying bad weather meant that we had a couple of days where the walks were very short. These short walks are not described.
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WPC Pico de Casamanya
WCR Cap de Rep WPM Pico Moiana WCI Col d'Incles WTL Tossa de la Llosada |
WCS Cap del Siscaro
WPCr Port de Creussants WPP Pic de Pessons WPS Pic de la Serrera |
Please excuse the quality of the photos - they have been scanned in from negatives - despite many attempts they would not scan that well, possibly due to the age of the films. Hence the pictures do not really do justice to the area.
| Monday 12/09/1988 - this was a good walk for our first proper walk of the holiday. We did not arrive at the hotel until after midnight on Saturday night, and only did a short walk on the Sunday. We caught a bus to the junction with the minor road to Ransol, from whence we walked along the road to Ransol, and then took a path climnbing above the village. The group had a rest below the summit, and a few of us continued up to the south summit of Casamanya. From the summit we descended the south ridge to the Col d'Ordino, and from there made our way back to Encamp. | |
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| Riu valley. | Approach to Casamanya. |
| Tuesday 13/09/1988 - this was a walk on the hills to the east of Encamp. The bus took us up a minor road to Cortals d'Encamp (1850m) where we started the walk. From the road we followed grass slopes to the summit of Cap de Rep. There were some good views from here. We continued north east along the grassy ridge over Tossal de L'Ovella (2457m) to the summmit of Tossa d'Encampadana (2476m). From the summit we descended to Prats and Meritxel on our way back to Encamp. |
| After the Cap de Rep walk we had lots of snow! This had blocked the road over
to France. On two days we did short valley walks and on the third day visited Andorra La Vella the capital.
Saturday 17/09/1988 - We headed south, this proved to be the best choice weatherwise and we did a good strenous walk. The walk started from the village of Escaldes, a short bus ride south of Encamp. From the village (1050m) we walked up the Parafita valley to the Refuge de Parafita (2185m), and from the refuge we walked up to the col and then onto Pic de Moiana (2565m). After the summit we descended to the Madriu valley, where we picked up a path running alongside a canal to Engalasters lake, and from there we followed a path back to Encamp. |
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| Refuge de Parafita (2185m). | Pic de Moiana (2565m). |
| Sunday 18/09/1988 - there was still a reasonable amount of snow on the peaks, today's walk was in the Incles valley. From the hotel we took a bus to the junction with the minor road to Ransol. and then walked along the road to St Pere, where we followed a path up the valley past a church. The path continued onto the Col d'Incles. Lawson and Dennis left the main group at the col and climbed up a snow slope to a minor peak at about 2500m lying below the Pic Negre de Juclar. The rerturn was the reverse of the morning's walk. | |
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| Incles valley. | Incles church with Juclar peaks in background. |
| Monday 19/09/1988 - the weather was improving all the time and the snow was melting fast.
Todays walk was to a peak above the ski resort of Soldeu.
From the hotel we took a bus to Soldeu, and then walked up the ski piste/track to the summit of Tossa de la Llosada. From here there are good views over the Pessons range. From the summit we walked down towards the valley to Cantel taking in views of the Gargantillar Ridge, and from Cantal we made our way back to Encamp. |
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| Views from the plateau. | Pessons range from Callosada. |
| Tuesday 20/09/1988 - from the hotel we took a bus to Port d'Envalira at the top of the pass.
This gave us a start altitude of 2407m. From here it was an easy walk to the first peak
of the day Pic Maia (2640m). We then walked along a grassy ridge to the Port Dret Col
before walking up slopes to the summit of Pic del Cap del Portoret.
Walking towards the French border we climbed a number of minor peaks before reaching the summit of the Cap del Siscaro - the highest point of the day's walk. There were excellent views of the Juclar peaks from here. We descended the Serra del Mig ridge into the valley, reaching the Siscaro Refuge. From the refuge we took paths and tracks to Incles, where we caught the bus back to Encamp. |
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| Road up to Port d'Envalira. | Ridge up to Pic del Cap del Portoret. |
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| Siscaro valley. | Siscaro refuge - on this photo you can just make it out - its tiny - look to the right of the sign. |
| Wednesday 21/09/1988 - todays walk was in the north west corner of Andorra in the Tristiana area.
From the hotel we took a bus up the Ordino valley, past El Serrat, and up the ski road to Orri. From Orri (circa 2200m) we took the path past the small lake Estany de Creussant, and then up onto the Col de Creussant on the main ridge. We climbed up to a minor peak south of the col (2681m) and a minor peak north of the col (2702m) before retracing our steps back to Orri. From Orri we walked alongside a stream to Pont d'Arcalis, and then joined the road back to El Serrat where we caught the bus. |
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| On the main ridge ridge with Pic de Tristiana in the background . | Tristiana valley. |
| Thursday 22/09/1988 - this was an excellent walk in the mountains in the east of the country.
From the hotel we took a bus up the main road past Soldeu, to the junction with a minor road to Grau Roig. From here (circa 2000m) we walked up the dirt road to Grau Roig, and then followed a footpath to the Pessons Lakes. We climbed up from the lakes onto the col north of Pic de Pessons taking in the views, and then onto the summit of the Pic de Pessons. Leaving the summit we walked down to the Gargantillar lakes. From the lakes we walked down the long Madriu valley to Escaldes, for the bus back to Encamp. |
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| Lowest of the Pessons lakes. | Pessons lake with peaks behind. |
| Friday 23/09/1988 - this was the last day of our stay in Andorra and as there was no led walk, Alan, Lawson and ourselves decided to climb the Pic de Serrera, one of the highest summits in Andorra. Unfortunately there was a lot of cloud and so our efforts were not rewarded with good views. Jackie was at the back and was well miffed when Dennis came down from the top to say she didn't have to bother with the top due to lack of views. We started from Ransol and followed marked paths past the lakes to the peak, the return route was the reverse. |
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| The Esglesia Sant Roma de les Bons is an easy walk from Encamp and dates back to the 12th century. You can also see replicas of Roman frescoes. | Valleys. |
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| Casamanya in the distance. | La Cortinada. |
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| Our group. | Encamp. |
This page was last updated on 12th April 2007.