My homage to Catalunya
Combine a city break to Barcelona with an adventure in the Pyrenees
FOR YEARS, my winters have been spent skiing in the Alps. Many of my summers have been spent in a little Catalan village in the north-east of Spain.
But despite the fact that the Catalan Pyrenees are home to 16 ski resorts, I had never managed to combine my passion for skiing with my love of Catalunya.
Last season I decided to change that, embarking on a road trip to the region’s cradles of snow sports – La Masella, La Molina and Port Aine, finishing up in Baqueira Beret in Val d’Aran.
It’s now easier than ever to get from Barcelona to the mountains with regular bus services. As I was visiting four different resorts, I chose to travel by car but still indulged heartily in the cityto-ski theme, discovering fantastic food and culture, excellent prices and perfect powder snow along the way.
The road trip began at the Yurbann Trafalgar in Barcelona, a hotel that instantly put a smile on my face with quirky notes hanging in the foyer and my bedroom. The Yurbann also offers a tasty buffet breakfast and free use of a mobile phone while I’m exploring the city.
Wandering around Barcelona on a sunny February day, it’s still possible to find a €10 menu del dia in a local eaterie but I’m harbouring serious foodie thoughts.
I sign up for a Food Lover Tour which takes me to five or six local tapas bars and some of the oldest hostelries in town, including El Sortidor de la Filomena Pages, which serves up an excellent tuna carpaccio.
At Celler Cal Marino I laugh as a friend attempts to drink red wine from a traditional Porron. At El Sortidors del Parliament I wash down smoked sardines with vermouth and at Pepa Tomate, I enjoy calamari with alioli and spinach with honey.
A Food Lover tour is a great way to learn about Barcelona’s districts and to visit local bars away from the tourist-crammed Las Ramblas.
I work those tapas off with some culture, visiting Gaudi’s first house - Casa Vicens – which is now listed as a Unesco World Heritage site and gives a clear insight into his early design work.
With art nouveau on my mind, I take a tour of the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau which was built by Lluis Domenech and operated as a hospital until recent times. The interiors are wonderful and Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia is visible in the distance.
Now it’s time to ski. A two-hour car journey takes me to Cerdanya Eco Resort in Prullans, my base for skiing La Molina and La Masella. Hotel Muntanya & Spa a swanky new eco resort; it’s a well-loved complex with good food, indoor swimming pool and simply furnished family rooms from €68 a night.
At nearby Lles, I take a snowshoe tour through the forest.
This isn’t any ordinary forest – this is where record-breaking ultrarunner and mountaineer Killian Jornet ran as a child. In 2017, Jornet set a new record for the fastest-known ascent of Everest, as detailed in his new movie Path To Everest.
Inspired by Jornet’s adventures, I go night skiing at La Masella. A gaggle of excited schoolchildren queue for hot chocolate as I click into my skis and blast down perfectly prepared pistes.
La Masella has been teaching people to ski for 50 years and it teaches me something new too. For the first time ever, I ski offpiste at night with a local guide, an experience which challenges my technique and gives me a little insight into how Jornet’s exceptional talent must have been nurtured growing up in this area.
La Masella offers 53km of pistes, a perfect size for families, but it’s also linked to La Molina to offer a total of 142km of skiing in ‘Alpe 2500’.
La Molina has been teaching people to ski for a grand 75 years. Families come from Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and Basque country to ski here and it’s encouraging to see so many young children learning to ski – a few of them may go on to be champions like Jornet.
For more experienced skiers in the family, the good news is that skiing in these resorts is high – up to 2,500 metres and with a thousand metre vertical drop from La Tosa to Pla de Masella.
Price-wise, I’m pleasantly surprised, both in hotels and restaurants.
It would be a mistake to leave this area without having dinner at Ca l‘Eudald in Alp where beautiful dishes are presented and wines matched without pomp or ceremony.
I feast on a seven-course tasting menu for €40 with dishes that include duck carpaccio with foie, the traditional Catalan dessert Mel i Mato (fresh cheese with honey) and Ratafia liquer to finish.
NEXT STOP on the road trip is Port Aine, a ski station so friendly that my guide Berni brings his teenage daughter along to show me the slopes and bridge the linguistic gap.
The hotel Port Aine 2000 is busy – bustling with Spanish families and groups intent on enjoying themselves over excellent buffet meals. The temperature outside might have dropped as the region prepares for fresh snow but the ambience is warm.
I wrap up in layers and ski some of Port Aine’s 55km of pistes – lovely blues and reds – before beginning the final part of my road trip to Baqueira Beret in the heart of the Pyrenees.
Val d’Aran is an autonomous region within Catalunya where local people speak Aranese.
Until the Vielha tunnel was built this region was isolated, allowing it to retain its language.
With 33 villages dotted along the valley, it’s steeped in ski and mountaineering culture and history. Art lovers will enjoy exploring the Romanesque and Gothic churches found here and throughout Catalunya.
The ski terrain is Alpine and the powder is deep when I arrive at Baqueira Beret but I’m equally charmed by the people – Xavi Ureibe who works for the resort and whose family were heavily involved in its development; ski instructor Pau Mila from Era Escola ski school who has taught Spanish Royals and politicians – including former PM Jose Maria Aznar – to ski.
As well as guiding me around the slopes of Baqueira and Bonaigua, Pau introduces me to BB’s gourmet restaurants – the Moet bar and Cinqo Jotas, a contemporary restaurant and grill specialising in Iberico dishes.
Then there’s Manel Rocher who has spent years painstakingly gathering the history of the Pyrenees at Refugi Rosta in Salardu, four km from Baqueira Beret. The refuge is now a museum with a 3D collection showcasing 19th century techniques alongside today’s virtual reality wonders.
To stay at Refugi Rosta is to step into and sleep in 19th century history, sitting and eating where pioisn’t
neering mountaineers plotted ascents.
I’m brought there by mountain guide Francisco Comas who runs a company called Exciting Events. Francisco can tailor-make any ski adventure I want from heli skiing to skimo (ski mountaineering) but today there’s no need- the pistes of Baqueira Beret are covered in deep fluffy powder.
After skiing, he takes me to the tiny village of Bagergue – home to a local cheese maker and four restaurants, a foodie’s dream village. We eat lunch at Casa Rosa, diving into hearty bowls of Olha Aranesa, a stew made with meat, vegetables and chick peas.
Once a favourite with King Juan Carlos of Spain, Baqueira Beret is known as a high-end resort with a mix of four and five-star hotels offering access to 157km of pistes between 1500-2500 metres. They say the higher you go the higher the accommodation prices so I choose another option – to stay in Vielha, 14 km down the hill.
Each morning I take the car or ski bus up to the ski area (during peak season it can take longer than the normal 15 minutes) but in return I get to enjoy Vielha’s shops and medieval history along with its cosy nightlife.
I eat pintxos at Cafe Nuevo and sleep at the three-star Eth Solan hotel, all for reasonable prices that give me access to the jet set slopes of Baqueira Beret.
It feels like the best of both worlds and it feels good to have finally discovered the ski resorts of Catalunya.