Hotels in Canillo for a family holiday in Andorra

Canillo is Andorra’s biggest parish, 120.86 square kilometres, and one of the best places to stay if you’re travelling with children. Grandvalira describes it as calm and mountain-like, without the crowds, and I’d add that it’s the one village in the eastern valley that works as well in January as it does in August.

Skiing from Canillo

The winter reason to stay here is the gondola. It has 8-seat cabins, leaves from the middle of the village and rises to the Vall del Forn, in Grandvalira’s Canillo sector. According to the resort, the slopes suit families and beginners because they’re easy, and Mon(t) Magic sits at the top with its children’s circuit and a zip line over 500 m long.

For a family with first-timers, my advice is simple. Stay a short walk from the gondola, let the little ones find their feet on the Canillo sector and, once they’re confident, the rest of Grandvalira is waiting. The bigger picture is in skiing with kids in Andorra. If you’ve booked through a UK tour operator, check whether their ski school meets in Canillo or further up the valley, because a daily bus with small children takes the shine off.

Driving, the covered Arenyeta car park has 261 paid spaces and qualifies for the 50% Andorra Pass discount on the day you ski, from 8:00 to 20:00. By bus, the L3 and L4 stop in Canillo on the way to Soldeu and Pas de la Casa, every 30 to 40 minutes Monday to Saturday and every 60 to 70 on Sundays and holidays, according to Grandvalira.

Summer, when Canillo comes into its own

This is where Canillo beats Soldeu and El Tarter. Three of the country’s best-known sights are close by. The Canillo Tibetan bridge, 603 m long and up to 158 m high, can only be reached on the official bus from Canillo itself, and costs €17 (€19 from 18 July to 13 September) or €14 for under-12s. At the Roc del Quer, a 20 m platform juts 12 m out over the valley; it opens all year, weather permitting. And Meritxell Sanctuary, Ricardo Bofill’s rebuilding of the old shrine, is just down the road.

For families, Grandvalira opens the Mon(t) Magic Family Park in summer with free activities, including mini golf from age 3 and a play area for children aged 4 to 11. In the village centre, the Palau de Gel has an Olympic-size rink of 1,800 m², though Andorra Turisme warns that maintenance work has left it partly shut, with no reopening date. Check before you plan around it.

Canillo is also good Romanesque country. Sant Joan de Caselles, from the 11th and 12th centuries, has a free-standing bell tower and a Renaissance altarpiece, and Sant Serni, in the village itself, is known for its tall bell tower. Summer guided tours of Romanesque churches, the Romànic de bat a bat, stop at both Sant Joan de Caselles and Meritxell.

Camping and budget stays

Canillo is Andorra’s camping parish. Of the seven campsites on the government’s map of tourist sights, four are here, Casal, Janramon, Santa Creu and Font de Ferrosins. Even Grandvalira, when it talks about motorhome parking, points people wanting full facilities to Canillo’s campsites. On a summer budget trip, this is the first area I’d look at. More in camping in Andorra.

The villages of the parish

Canillo is more than its main village. Andorra Turisme says the parish is split into eleven neighbourhoods, among them Soldeu, El Tarter, Ransol, Prats, El Forn, L’Aldosa, Els Plans, Meritxell, Incles and Bordes d’Envalira. Ransol, with medieval houses and Sant Jaume church, of pre-Romanesque origin, gets plenty of hotel searches; Soldeu and El Tarter have their own pages.

For named hotels, Grandvalira’s summer blog suggests the Hotel Bonavida and Hotel L’Ermita for being close to Mon(t) Magic. I haven’t seen their star ratings in an official source, so my rule stays the same, near the gondola in winter and near the bridge bus stop in summer. Budget for the tourist tax on top of the room rate, too. To weigh Canillo against the rest of the country, see where to stay in Andorra. On the parish’s south-facing slope, alongside Prats and Meritxell, lies El Forn in Canillo, if you’d like to see a smaller village.