Pierre & Vacances Andorra Pas De La Casa Princesa

“Good location for skiing in and out and lovely mountain views”

There are lots of positives about this place: the studio apartment was well-equipped (although the cups were too small for a Brit tea-addict and it had a peculiar antique tin opener!), it was clean, quiet, two good lifts, great free WiFi, the bed was comfy, the shower was excellent (and the shower … more

There are lots of positives about this place: the studio apartment was well-equipped (although the cups were too small for a Brit tea-addict and it had a peculiar antique tin opener!), it was clean, quiet, two good lifts, great free WiFi, the bed was comfy, the shower was excellent (and the shower gel provided was lovely), towels were very nice and the location with ski in and out was great. However, there are definitely some drawbacks/negative points worth noting: the main one is the condition of the boot room. I have never seen such a terrible one! See photos. Half the lockers are broken, it's a freezing, smelly dungeon of a place and the lights keep going out when you're halfway through putting your boots on. After the first day I took my boots back to my room, as it was horrid putting freezing cold, stiff boots on. The second point to note is the heating in the apartment, which I thought wasn't working and raised it with Reception. They said they'd get someone to look at it - nothing happened - and it wasn't until a couple of days in that I realised there's a thermostat that needs to be turned up in order for the individual heaters to work. Why Reception couldn't have told me that I don't know :-( The third point to bear in mind is that whilst it's great to have ski in and out from the boot room, it means carrying shopping back to the apartment is quite a marathon! Either you have to climb up the slope (not to be recommended if you're carrying shopping as it's VERY steep), or walk through the town and it's a L O N G way from the bottom of town all the way up to Princesa. TIP: take a short cut by walking through town and then taking the path which leads directly up to the boot room, ie the end of the path you take directly from the slopes. If you book your boots and skis through SkiSet Surfevasio ask Reception to call them to pick you up to collect the skis and boots. They will come and get you and bring you back with your gear afterwards. It's a hugely helpful service (but this wasn't volunteered by Reception and it was only when I asked for directions to SkiSet that I was told of this facility - they really should have asked me if I'd booked with SkiSet and told me the procedure, or else I would have faced a VERY long walk there and back again with my gear). Finally, just a point about taxis. I arrived at 1am and it was cold and snowing. I'd emailed Princesa from the UK to ask for the name of a taxi firm I could pre-book with, as I knew I would be arriving very late, but they told me it's not possible to book ahead and gave me a tel no. On the night, however, nobody answered the phone and in the end I had no choice but to put one foot in front of the other and find my way to the apartment - all uphill of course, in the snow, dragging a suitcase. It took a good half hour and I was exhausted by the time I reached the place. Not a great start to the holiday! The out of hours procedure for getting my key worked perfectly though, thank heavens. For all of that though I would recommend Princesa for a ski break and I thoroughly enjoyed my first solo ski holiday, and my first time in Andorra. I hope I'll be back.

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