Pierre & Vacances Andorra El Tarter

Fantastic apartment. The only thing I would say is the difficulty parking the car in the underground car park

We booked via the telephone in the UK as 3 couples advised 3 bedroom apartment with pull out beds would be booked for us. On arrival at 7.30pm given a 3 bedroom apartment with bunk beds. At checkin we were given very little information about ski locker set up of apartment etc. All very rushed. Apartment was not suitable for 3 couples. It was clean and would be suitable for a family, the apartment was clean and well maintained Disappointing response from Pierre Vacance when raising the issues that we had.

Stayed in a pleasant modern 1 bedroom apt operated by Pierre et Vacances booked through Crystal Ski. Disappointed to find reception didn't open until 3pm and rooms unavailable until 5pm having been dropped off at bus stop down the road by Crystal transfer coach from Toulouse. However we got into apt soon after 3pm. Reception staff v helpful. Hard to find our ski store room in basement car park and way out. This was also unheated and v wet. Should have hired a locker near lift as hard work with 2 young children walking uphill to gondola or chair lift carrying skis and crossing busy road. We asked for twin beds and got them. Heating good with lots of adjustable radiators for drying gear. No plug for kitchen sink or bath and not available. Toaster caused a power cut but easy to right in fuse box and reception provided a brand new toaster. Well equipped kitchen with plenty of crockery and good utensils. Big fridge freezer. Microwave and electric oven and 3 induction rings. Dishwasher and washing machine. Small pack of cleaning stuff provided. Towels and bed linen changed mid week but not cleaned. Fairly quiet except for the odd door bang. Lift. TV with BBC news. Good WiFi. No view. Easy to open windows with roller shutters. Good well lit and ventilated bathroom with bidet, loo and bath(unusable with no plug!) with shower over and drying lines. Not much in village and spoilt by busy main road. Lot of ongoing smart apt devpt. Food shop cafe and a few basic restaurants (pizza/pasta/burger) up steep hill behind (good for takeaways). Neilson Hotel le Clos nearby and has happy hour (-10%) 5.30-6.30. Supermarket 10 min walk down road and good shop in petrol station over the road. We used Euroski hotel's swimming pool and sauna (jacuzzi and steam room not working) 10 mins safe walk up road towards Soldeu. Towels provided but need to buy/hire swim caps. €7/10/14 admission depending on age and what's open. You can also go to Llop Gris pool in village near chair lift. All worked well for us but it's nothing special and lacks real charm and character like most of Andorra.

Unfortunately we had a rather poor experience here. We did a package with Crystal Ski and when we were dropped off we were told we would have to wait for 3 hours as reception was closed until 5pm. Fortunately a very helpful cleaner called Eve passed us and helped us get into our rooms sooner. If you book direct it appears they will leave keys in a locker so not sure why they don’t do that for Crystal. The room was small for 4 of us and our sofa bed in the living room was broken which made for a very poor nights sleep. When we reported this on the 2nd day they pretended to fix it but it collapsed again making 3 really bad nights sleep. We couldn’t put the mattress on the floor as there was no room. Eventually after a slightly more robust complaint the reception staff agreed to relocate us to another room (subject to availability that is) which they did and we were better off for the rest of the week. Be careful here, no tea towels are provided and they wanted to charge for extra toilet paper. It appears they will provide 1 roll per room for the duration of your stay. On the plus side it’s in close proximity to the el Tarter gondola. I think they would charge for ski storage there as well but we made alternative arrangements. Not our best experience I’m afraid