Andorra advice

Hi all

Looking at organising a European mtb holiday for 2013 with a few friends. Andorra seems to be getting quite a bit of attention recently. However I’m struggling to find many companies going out there and offering guiding. I’m aware of singletrack safari, who look pretty good….but I’m interested to explore options.

Anyone been out there? Know of any good companies?

Many thanks!

DP

You’d do well to find anywhere better than rivierabike (molini, Italy) IMHO.
It is tremendous. I can’t imagine a better riding holiday ( although they may exist).

There are good things about Riviera, but to blanket-recommend it to someone asking about Andorra is a bit naive.

Sorry OP dunno otherwise!

Only recommended as they do a ride or two in andorra. Apologies for not making this clear.
Still awesome though!

I dunno if it’s your thing but there’s quite a bit of bike park type riding where you wouldn’t need a guide – Grandvalira and Vallnord both have quite a few waymarked trails, most of which can be ridden on normal bikes by non-crazy people. There is also La Molina quite nearby. I didn’t do any XC while I was there so can’t help with that sorry – I bet there’s some good stuff though.

Thanks so far guys….I’m actually looking at Italy aswell, but a couple of my group have Andorra in their heads so I just wanted to put the feelers out.

I’ve just come back from a bit of a tour. We rode quite a few days in Vallnord which is fantastic. Grandvalira is great too but as said, they are more your sort of bikepark type places.

La Molina too was just awesome and also near you have Les Angles, another brilliant place to ride.

Andorra is fantastic. We met two blokes who worked at Commencal when we were wild-camping near La Massana and they arranged a little tour of the Commencal offices for us. We got to see the 2013 prototypes in the flesh and gave a nod to Mr Max Commencal himself too…
Sweet.

We also went to Sauze d’oulx in Italy, a few days before the superenduro was on. Saw Dan Atherton riding among other top blokes. Absolutely brilliant place, just amazing…. 😀

Sounds like you had a good trip! Thanks for the info

Mmmm, I dont think Riviera bikes will ride in Andorra… I rode with Rivierabikes and Singletrack Safaris earlier this year, and would thoroughly recommend them both (depending if you want to go to Andorra (small country in the Pyrenees) or Italy (bigger country shaped like a boot in southern Europe).

Andorra’s got a couple of good bike parks, including the Maxiavalanche and world cup runs below the tree line, and natural stuff which would be best found with a guide. Nice country too, and fairly cheap.

Thanks….from your experience of Andorra, was there a decent amount of natural singletrack to ride…..in other words, is there plenty of stuff beyond the bike parks?

Nice country too, and fairly cheap

We found all the bike kit was significantly cheaper than France/UK.
A mate succumbed to some uber-posh POC body armour because of it.

Yep, a couple of our group arrived without pads and got POC’d up fairly quickly.

Naw – check out the videos on the Singletrack Safari website, that will probably convince you. There’s loads of natural singletrack, from flowy pine forest to some pretty tech and rocky affairs. Plus, alot of the bike part trails feel quite natural, something like Route 66 is pretty much a “natural” trail, nothing like what you would find on the pistes in Morzine.

The whole country is smaller than Dartmoor, but it seems to pack a lot in, but outside of the parks we didnt see another rider all week. Generally really reliable weather too.

I’m becoming more convinced! Thanks a lot!

Andorra is tiny, a bit cheap and cheerful – that’s it’s market, its a “tax free” place so booze is super cheap. IIRC correctly it’s a 3hr drive from Barcelona for example.

Personally I’d say there are dozens of places in the Alps I’d go before Andorra but each to their own. To be totally fair I haven’t been there since the summers of 1982 and 1983 !

Personally I’d say there are dozens of places in the Alps I’d go before Andorra but each to their own. To be totally fair I haven’t been there since the summers of 1982 and 1983 !

….nothing like an informed decision!

The only company I can think of that does Andorra is singletrack safari. I don’t know anything about them but saw their van all over last year. Andorra is ace, the bike parks are great, the locals are really friendly, there is loads of hor piste stuff and the weather is usually better than the alps. Top place and well worth a visit.

Tick