ANDORRA: One of SMALLEST and MOST MOUNTAINOUS countries in EUROPE – a ROAD TRIP

Located between France and Spain, there is a mountainous micronation. A tiny state with the slogan, the country in the mountains. This natural beauty is located in the Pyrenees mountain range and is one of the smallest countries in the world. Visit the Principality of Andorra with me and discover its most beautiful roads. Welcome to Andorra. Look how beautiful these views are. I have to admit that before my world trip and riding through Andorra on my way home, I didn't even know that this country really exists. It's completely embarrassing, but that's how it was and it's absolutely lovely. So Andorra, this is a place to be and this country really exists. Andorra is officially called the Principality of Andorra and is a microstate in the Eastern Pyrenees bordered by France to the north and Spain to the south. The present Principality was formed by a charter in 1278. Andorra is the sixth smallest state in Europe, the world's 16th smallest country by land and 11th smallest by population with an area of 467 square kilometers and a population of approximately 77,000. And yes, these days, Andorra is probably most famous for its mountains with Andorra-La-Vella being the highest capital city in Europe at an elevation of 1,023 meters above sea level. So if you want to cross Andorra, there is one thing that is certain and that's that you have to ride down into the valley where the main roads connect Andorra to France and Spain. And from there, you can head up to the mountains again and leave Andorra on some more small routes like the Smuggler Trail or over the bigger passes and that's what we plan to do this time. On our way through Andorra, we drove through the town La Masana. La Masana is as well the name of the commune itself. One of seven parishes of Andorra. The commune is extremely mountainous and contains the highest mountain in Andorra, Coma Pedrosa, with an elevation of 2,942 meters. Just to give you a feeling what riding in Andorra is like, now we are traveling on the main road from Andorra to France where other countries have four-lane highways. You still ride through beautiful mountains here and can enjoy amazing views even if you take the biggest roads available in Andorra. Isn't that lovely and beautiful? We drove through the towns of Canillo, El Tarter, and Sol d'Oeuf and all these villages are connected to the skiing area of Grand Valira, which is the biggest skiing area in the Pyrenees. I have to admit that I have never thought about skiing in Andorra before because it's kind of far away from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, where I reach the slopes that I ski at within two hours. But now I really want to go here in winter too. It looks very nice here. So this is the end of a beautiful day of riding and we are super close to the border of France already, but we were not asked if we would not try to find an accommodation at least a little bit off the main road. So let's check this out. To give you a feeling for the size of Andorra, we had just crossed Andorra from one of its most Western borders to its most Eastern border, a ride of about 52 kilometers for one hour and 15 minutes. So yes, Andorra is really not that big, but very worth a visit. Wow, I'm so happy to arrive here at this hotel. What a beautiful day of riding with the off-road in Spain and then crossing into Andorra. And unlike in many other places, it was very easy to find a place to stay here in Andorra. I guess it's really more a winter destination or maybe we were just lucky this time. I don't know. We ended our day in a hotel at Grau Roi, right at the bottom of a chairlift. Grau Roi is a sector of the Grand Valira Ski Resort in Andorra that in total has 128 slopes and a length of 210 kilometers. It includes Alpine skiing and cross-country skiing tracks. Grau Roi is the only sector in Grand Valira though, which does not have a populated settlement. Good morning from Andorra. Today we are doing a little bit of distance because we want to go to Italy to chase some super nice gravel roads there. So we will have to cross France in the next two days and that's what we're going to do today. So there is a tunnel that you can take from Andorra to France to avoid this high mountain pass that we are doing now, but we of course take the path and not the tunnel. The Envalira Tunnel or Tunnel d'Envalira is a tunnel in Andorra that runs between Pass de la Casa, near the Andorra-France border, and Grau Roi. It enables its users to avoid the Envalira Pass. This is the top of the pass, Port d'Envalira, with an altitude of 2,408 meters, which is actually pretty high for this area. And I mean, just look at these views. Port d'Envalira is a mountain pass in the Pyrenees in Andorra that connects El Pass de la Casa, which is a skiing resort and mountain pass, with the rest of the country. The climb has been featured several times at the Tour de France and Vuelta a España cycling races and is the highest paved road in the Pyrenees. Now the bike tipped over in the wind. Shit. Even though my little fox had a short horizontal rest, we were back on the road immediately. Only much later, when it was too late to turn around, I realized that I must have lost a part of my camera equipment where the fox fell due to an open bag. These are the tolls you pay when traveling, even on toll-free roads. So that's it. We are back in France now. That was a rather short visit to Andorra, but it was lovely again, and I hope to return soon. This time, we chose to exit Andorra to France. But if you want to exit Andorra in the south to Spain, I have another route suggestion for you that I can highly recommend. We did this route on our ride to West Africa, and on the way, you can also visit Andorra-la-Vella, the capital city of Andorra. But the fun starts here. Head to the adventure park Naturlandia in Andorra, ride to the upper parking space where the summer toboggan run starts, and take a turn right on the small forest road Camí de la Font de la Rabasa. There are several off-road options to cross the border of Andorra and Spain and to head back to bigger roads. Enjoy the ride. Thank you for joining our short visit in Andorra. Give this video a thumbs up if you liked the ride and leave me a comment if the mountainous country is on your bucket list too. The next episode will take us to the historical province Provence in southeastern France and over the mountain pass Col de la Maddalena, back to Italy, and to the start of our biggest adventure so far. Tune in next Thursday if you got to go there too.