The National Car Museum, a century of motoring in Encamp

The National Car Museum is the kind of place people keep for a rainy day, and that’s not a bad plan. But it would be unfair to treat it as a fallback. According to museus.ad, its collection ranks among the most important in Europe for cars and is a world reference for bicycles, which is quite something for a parish of fewer than fourteen thousand people.

What you’ll see

The route opens with an 1885 Pinette steam carriage, the oldest piece, and closes with 1980s sports cars. In between come around eighty vehicles, some sixty motorbikes, according to Andorra Tourism, and a hundred bicycles, much of it from private collections. Models, posters, advertising and motoring accessories fill in the gaps.

What I like is the approach. Rather than lining up bodywork, the museum explains how each era adapted styling and engineering to its needs and how speed and power limits kept being pushed. The bicycles tell the same story, from an awkward, dangerous contraption to a reliable, practical machine.

Opening hours and tickets

Outside summer (January to May, October to December) you’ll find it open Tuesday to Saturday, with a morning session from 10:00 to 14:00 and an afternoon one from 15:00 to 18:00. June and September add a Sunday-morning session and a longer Saturday, to 20:00, and in July and August weekday afternoons run to 19:00. It’s always closed on Mondays. The full timetable is in the table.

A standard ticket costs €5, the concession €2.50, and a guided tour adds €1.50. Under-tens go free, and Andorran citizens get in free every Wednesday and on two Saturdays a month, which won’t help most British visitors. It accepts the PassMuseu, which knocks 50% off three museums of your choice, and I’d pair it with Casa Cristo, a few minutes’ walk away. Andorra’s other collections are compared in museums in Andorra.

What’s the visit like?

Self-guided with an audio guide in Catalan, Spanish, French, English and German, or guided with advance booking and a supplement. Andorra Tourism reckons on about an hour. The building is partly accessible and has a children’s corner, school workshops and the national museums’ shop. For a preview, museus.ad links to a virtual tour.

For British families on a ski week, the practical point is location. On the map it’s under a kilometre from the Funicamp base station, so a morning when cloud sits on the slopes can become an hour here without moving the car.

The snowman of Envalira

One story the museum tells is among the best in the country. Andreu Claret, a founder of the Catalan party Esquerra Republicana, lived as an exile in Andorra and ran the country’s snowploughs. According to museus.ad, it was he who cleared the Envalira pass during winters of heavy snowfall, and when a freak snowfall hit Barcelona in 1962 he drove his machines down to clear the city.

How does it compare with Andorra’s other motor museums?

Three museums in Andorra touch on the subject, and each does something different. The Motorcycle Museum in Canillo holds 150 models in 700 m²; the Bici Lab in Andorra la Vella fills 1,700 m² with the Riberaygua collection and is all about bicycles. Encamp’s is the most rounded if you’re interested in transport history in general, as it brings cars, motorbikes and bicycles together on one route.

With children who wilt in museums, this one works better than a Romanesque church, thanks to the children’s corner and big exhibits that make sense without reading. With a petrolhead in the family, it’s a fixture of the trip.

Events and getting there

The museum is part of the Canya als museus autumn and winter 2026-27 programme. On 30 January 2027 at 12:00 there’s a free themed tour, “L’automòbil en rodes de guerra”, on vehicles that played a part in wars, with a vermouth to finish. Booking is recommended on +376 839 760.

It stands at Avinguda de Joan Martí 64 in central Encamp, and national bus lines L2 and L4 stop in the village. If you want more, the Andorra motorcycle museum in Canillo is a short ride up the valley, and in Andorra la Vella the Bici Lab is the place for bicycle fans.