“You can’t get there from here.” We’ve all heard it and joked about it, but there are some real spots where it feels like it’s true. Andorra fits the case.
Andorra has no official airport. There are no trains that you can take to get there. The road is the only way to get there, and the only public transportation is a long bus ride (availability of which is sparce as there are only so many runs per week in either direction).
The only other way to get there? Drive. If you drive, there are several considerations to consider.
We rented our car from a place in Barcelona, Spain and started at the end of a holiday weekend. As we went down the highway, we realized that we were fortunate in that the traffic returning to the city after a holiday weekend was backed up for miles. Sometimes you can plan for that, sometimes you can’t.
Another discovery on the road from Barcelona to Andorra were the number of highway tolls. They were both frequent and fairly expensive (over a $100 US). Because we always have a contingency fund planned in, this was not an issue for us. Count on bringing some Euros, some of the individual tolls are over $25. Most of the tolls were for tunnels, some of which were just opened.
From Barcelona, without traffic, it took us about 3 hours to get there. The roads were in great shape. It seemed like most had been recently paved.
In the Capital
In the capital, Andorra La Vella there are numerous one way streets. The street layout is not particularly intuitive for driving.
The city center isn’t particulary large, and there’s virtually no parking available on the street. There are plenty of parking areas and garages within the city. As such, it’s easy to park and walk around.
Our particular hotel, Hotel Hesperia, had no street parking availble.
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They did have parking in a garage that was slightly challenging to find. The entrance was via a small alley. There were parallel roads such that we had to make sure we were on the “inside” road to get to the alley. It took us 3 tries to get the right alley. The exit was an alley close to the hotel. Even with its initial challenges, it was quite convenient.
Outside the City
It’s pretty easy to drive through Andorra, but don’t expect a six lane highway. The main road is a completely enjoyable two lane highway. It’s more like a country road. Sometimes cutting through the mountainouse terrain.
You can’t drive too fast, the roads are too windy. Not a blowing wind mind you, roads are quite curvy going aroun the mountains. On the other hand, you really don’t want to, as you’ll miss a beautiful drive through the Pryenees. There are numerous side roads that take you up to the ski areas and hiking trails.
We drove into Andorra from the border of Spain on the west. We drove out of Andorra at the French border on the east as we were heading to Cité De Carcassonne, France to see the Carcassonne Castle there.