Time to brush up on your geography, because this week, we are going to a place almost no one does: Andorra.
Where is it? Get a map…and maybe a magnifying glass. Squeezed between France and Spain in the Pyrenees Mountains, Andorra has all of 180 miles to its territory. The language is Catalan, the population well-to-do, and the politics unique in that Andorra, a “co-principality,” is technically ruled jointly by the people who don’t even live in the country — the President of France and the Bishop of Urgell in Spain, both of whom are referred to as “princes.”
Another thing: man-sex was decriminalized all the way back in 1790 (hi, Pam Bondi), making this nugget of a nation ahead of the curve in more ways than one.
But it is not the easiest place to get to: Being so mountainous, there is no airport or even train station in Andorra — to get here, you have to take either a bus in from Barcelona in Spain or a helicopter from Toulouse in France. It’s a scenic trip, but I’ll be the first to say that Andorra doesn’t make it easy.
However you get there, most Andorran vacations start in the capital, Andorra la Vella. Wedged into a STEEP valley, the city never had much space to expand, so it just built “into” itself over the years; you can have buildings dating from the 9thCentury right next to something Star Trek-y.
Being so high up in the mountains, it should come as no shock that skiing is a big part of draw. A trio of ski resorts, Grandvalira, Vallnord, and Naturlandia, take what you can do with snow and a moutainside to the extreme by including dog sleds, air treks, and snow buggies on the roster, along with the usual ski runs and their assorted diamonds. And then you can go to the geothermal Caldea Spa in Escaldes-Engordany (just to the east of Andorra la Vella) to soak the cold away.
The one downer, at least from a gay perspective, is that when you are as small and remote as Andorra, combined with having gay meccas such as Sitges, Toulouse, and Barcelona two hours away, the country does not put much oomph into developing a gay scene. One notable exception is gay-owned and operated Restaurant Can Pere in the village of Anyós, just to the north of Andorra la Vella. It makes an excellent intro to the cuisine of the Pyrenees, and if you are into history, the town could have stepped out of the medieval ages, with its narrow stone streets and squat houses.
But if you are really in a bind, there’s always Grindr.
For more information, go to visitandorra.com/en/home. Steele Luxury Travelwill assist you with your travel needs to Andorra and Europe beyond! Visit us at https://steeletravel.com