The best places to visit in Andorra, ranked

Most British visitors see Andorra from a chairlift or a shop window, and both are fair enough. But the country has a second face that the ski brochures rarely show, with glacial lakes, churches that have stood for nine centuries and a valley where no car has ever driven. This ranking is for that side of Andorra. I’ve scored twelve places on what they offer that you couldn’t get elsewhere in the Pyrenees and on the effort they ask, and I tell you which cost nothing.

My top three, and not a shop among them

In first place is the Madriu-Perafita-Claror valley. It covers 4,247 hectares, close to a tenth of the country, spread over four parishes. What wins me over isn’t the view, although there is one, but that it’s a landscape shaped over centuries by shepherds and ironworkers and never reached by tarmac. UNESCO made it a World Heritage site in 2004 and it’s still the only one in Andorra. The usual way in is from the Engolasters road.

Second comes Sant Joan de Caselles in Canillo, an 11th and 12th-century church whose Lombard bell tower stands apart from the nave, with a Renaissance altarpiece inside. The tourist board puts it among the three key Romanesque monuments alongside Sant Miquel d’Engolasters and Santa Coloma, and I’d go along with that. Third are the Tristaina lakes, three of them above 2,300 m, reached from the Coma d’Arcalís. If you only walk once in the high mountains here, make it this one.

The house that explains the country

If you only go inside one building in the capital, make it Casa de la Vall. The Busquets family built it at the end of the 16th century, the General Council bought it in 1702 and met there until 2011. Inside is the Cupboard of the Seven Keys, and the motto of the coat of arms is on the facade. To me it’s the clearest answer to why Andorra is a country rather than a county.

In the same parish you’ll find Santa Coloma, a church of pre-Romanesque origin with a round bell tower. A projection brings back the murals that were stripped from its walls in the 20th century, and the 12th-century originals are displayed in the Espai Columba across the road. It’s the only church on my list that charges, because the visit comes with the museum.

Villages and valleys to slow the pace

Pal is my favourite village in the country. It sits above 1,500 m, all stone, timber and slate, and its church of Sant Climent, from the late 11th century, has Andorra’s only three-storey bell tower. Over in Ordino, La Cortinada has Cal Pal, a house dated 1347, and the church of Sant Martí with Romanesque paintings. The rest are in the prettiest villages in Andorra.

The Incles valley is the easy summer option. It’s a glacial valley between El Tarter and Soldeu, and for the core of the summer season (roughly mid-June into the first days of September) cars are kept out and an electric train carries you to the head. The Obac path is 2.6 km and graded easy, and routes lead on from there to the Juclar lakes, the largest in the country at 21 hectares.

Is the Tibetan bridge worth it?

Yes, as long as you have a head for heights and accept that it’s an attraction rather than wilderness. The Canillo bridge is 603 m long and hangs 158 m above the Vall del Riu, and its operator describes it as one of the longest in the world. Tickets are €17, or €19 from 18 July to 13 September, and the only access is the official bus from Canillo. The pack with the Roc del Quer viewpoint, a 20 m glass walkway with 12 m in thin air, costs €20. I’d do both the same morning.

The ones I’d leave till last

Meritxell is the sanctuary of Andorra’s patron saint. The old one burnt down on 8 September 1972 and Ricardo Bofill designed the new one, which opened in 1976. It matters more to Andorrans than it does to me as a building. Casa d’Areny-Plandolit in Ordino is a 17th-century manor house turned museum, a good stop if you’re in that valley anyway.

Caldea comes last for a practical reason. The thermal water rises at 65 to 70 °C and the glass building in Escaldes has become one of the country’s calling cards, but I couldn’t read its official prices, and I won’t recommend something without knowing what it costs. If you’re after activities rather than sights, see things to do in Andorra, and to fit it all into a short break, try a weekend in Andorra. For the overall picture first, with the seven parishes, the weather and the paperwork, start with my Andorra travel guide; the UNESCO-listed side, the Madriu valley and the fallas, has its own page on Andorra’s UNESCO World Heritage. My favourite landscapes, rather than sights, are in most beautiful places in Andorra.