Andorra 2024

Whilst travelling through France (refer France post) we diverted as part of our original 2020 plans into the very tiny country of Andorra, and as we soon found out… the home of ‘climb… winding… and nutters’.

But before we explain all that, a few fun facts to kick off with concerning Andorra:

• it is small & landlocked - 468 square kilometres in size
• the official language is Catalan but Spanish & French also commonly spoken
• small population of ~80,000
• is highest capital city in Europe at 1,023 metres
• has ~10.2 million tourist visitors per year
• per capita income average is greater than both Spain & France which it borders
• Andorra is not a tax haven but does have a low tax environment

The drive from France into Andorra involved climbing and winding into the Pyrenees mountains, through some tunnels before winding and dropping down into the town of Ordino to then wind and wind and wind our way around constant roundabouts and we do mean constant.

This shows where we drove within Andorra

Also as we were driving towards Ordino, there were lots of men walking along the side of the road, strung out in mainly single file, heading towards Spain.  From what we gathered, they were immigrants on constant move searching for a better life.

Now for a population so small, the next surprise was the amount of buildings, ski resort style accomodations within the various towns we drove through but also clinging to sides of all the abundant valleys.  Guess the number of tourists who visit need somewhere to stay.  The towns all looked quite modern and everywhere was very clean.

Typical of towns within Andorra with lots of resort style accomodation
(Credit for photo to Idealista)

So just what did we do here during our short stay of a mere 2 full days?  Well we did a lot of winding, climbing and observing what i coined as the local ‘nutters’, but not meant in a derogatory way.

Let me explain!  We were visiting over a weekend, so the locals were busy engaging in their recreational norms in a landlocked country surrounded by steep mountains and masses of winding roads.

Ordino is below in the valley

They either go hiking into the steep mountains together as a social outing OR they ride pushbikes slowly up the steep zig zagging roads before descending back down them at break neck speeds… nutters!  We did secretly admire them though.

Many/most of the houses are located on sides of hills

We had read about a very small private community called Sant Julià de Lòria, who had built interesting houses and creating art out of iron so after winding, climbing and winding, hope you are getting a clearer sense of travel within Andorra, we found it and a resident happily welcomed us to wander amongst the houses.

Great designs of a house in Sant Julia de Loria

The community of homes is extensive in Sant Julia de Loria

Both much of the artwork and homes were quite impressive!

Interesting street lamp

Their artwork specialty is ironwork

The rest of our time was driving up and down a few mountains to view how people live and the scenery below back into the valleys.

Andorra's scenery is captivating

Walking into another section of Andorra

Two locations however were must sees for us, the first being ‘The Tibetan Bridge’ which is strung out over yet another deep valley called Vall del Riu and involves a 1 km slightly uphill walk to reach it from the car parking area.

Its real name is the Pont Tibetà, but has been labelled as the Tibetan Bridge because all the bridges in Tibet are apparently suspension bridges.  This bridge opened in 2022, is 603 metre long, 1 metre wide and strung out at an altitude of 1,875 metre and 158 metres above the valley below it.

The Tibetan Bridge

As far as Rob would go onto the bridge

Rob came a little way onto the bridge for a photo opportunity then rapidly retreated due to its height above the valley as the rest of us ventured out across it.  Whilst it did sway around a little as we walked on it, it felt and was very secure, well we hoped so anyway.

Looking down into the valley Vall del Riu
from the halfway point on the bridge

Not too far away from the Tibetan Bridge is Mirador Roc del Quer, a cantilevered platform built in 2016 extending 12 metres into fresh air over a cliff’s edge.  It is a stunning viewpoint providing unobstructed views to the valley, houses and those every present winding roads below.

The Mirador Roc del Quer viewpoint

Keeping us company was a statue of a man gazing out across the same spectacular view we were enjoying and this sculpture is known as the ‘Ponderer’.  It was worth the small hike from where we had parked the car to enjoy the amazing views.

Rob standing on a glass panel on the
lookout... wonder if she knew!

The 'Ponderer' and the rest of us wondering about such a stunning view

So our 2 days in Andorra were complete and it was time to get giddy again as we re-negotiated the constant roundabouts, winding our way back up into the mountains and this time some low cloud to find ourselves back across the border into France.

CLICK HERE for more photos of Andorra 2024

Andorra is a country of great mountain scenery and a vibe of contentment due to being located where it is, semi isolated from those bigger countries surrounding it.

So if you haven’t seen the France post, track it down plus... when it comes out, look out for one on the UK which has a few twists to it.  

Till any of the above… go well!