Andorra
Thinking of visiting Andorra next June. Has anybody any information regarding sites? What is best way to get there? Will probably be coming from Lourdes area.
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We stayed a night at Camping Valira when we passed through Andorra. It's fairly close to the centre of town and, from memory, quite OK. The sanitary facilities were a bit old, but clean.
Andorra is actually much easier to reach from the Spanish side. Access from France is via a fairly winding mountain pass with lots of hairpin bends after you leave France and enter Andorra on the N22, the only road that links the two countries.
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I can’t help with sites in Andorra as we just went up there for the day - up the main N20 road from the French side. It was very busy with a long line of slow traffic as hundreds go there for the day for shopping.. Thousands actually.
it’s not totally duty free there but the sales tax is only 5% instead of 20% here at home. As a result the main town is an enormous shopping zone - dozens of malls, supermarkets, discount stores, electronics, clothing ,perfumes and jewellery stores - all quite astonishing up there in the mountains. But you need to know exactly the make and model and price of something at home to make a true price comparison. Most people were buying alcohol and cigarettes in quantity. but the French customs officers had mobile patrols conducting searches at the roadside as cars went back down into France. There are limits of what you can take back into France.
The guidebooks say the rural parts of Andorra are attractive, but we thought the town was a blot on the landscape. We didn’t stay.
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Went up there for a day from Argeles many years ago when the children were small and they're in their forties now. Was unimpressed.
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Can I ask why you want to visit Andorra?
Like others we've been less than impressed by Andorra. Most people go there for the 'Duty free' but because of that the town itself is absolutely (as said) an eyesore, full of brash signs, conflicting colours, traffic congested roads, shoppers and customs patrols. If that's why you're going, don't bother. Take a 'virtual drive-through' courtesy of google Street View and see what you think.
If you want to know what Andorra town is like, and do some 'shopping', take a drive from Perpignan through Le Perthus, and La Jonquera and stop at either. Andorra town is like both combined, and on steroids. Both have some redeeming features, with nice restaurants up in the hills around the towns, but you'll get the authentic Andorra feel with narrow roads, traffic, immense parking problems, parking meters, and overpriced rubbish in the shops.
Customs staff are hot on anyone breaking the rules, and the penalties for over-buying the allowances are punitive.
If you're going just to say you've been then do a day trip from a campsite in France, or Spain, and avoid the town itself. If you're going for the scenery and mountains then there are also nicer places along the Spanish border that are worth visiting.0 -
Must be over thirty years since I did a day visit from Argeles sur Mer. Like most others, I was unimpressed and it is unlikely I shall ever return.
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