Having just spent a week at the Hotel Rutllan in La Massana, which I booked directly with the hotel, at exceptionally reasonable rates, I have nothing but praise for the staff, from the reception, dining room to the chamber maids, the hotel is spotless, the rooms warm, spacious and quiet despite the gondola passing every few minutes during the day. It stops at 5pm. ( 08:00 - 17:00 pm daily )
My only complaint is that in Andorra it is still permitted for people to smoke indoors, therefore the main bar fills up early evening with smoke, the non smoking area is very small and not very personal.
The hotel has free wifi, however could not get it to function in the bedroom but functioned fine in the lobby. they also have two computers which cost 1 Euro for 15 minutes, which I ended up using.
The hotel has a spa and gymnasium, these facilities we did not use as at 10 Euros per person per day was a little steep.
Free indoor parking was a bonus, however get there early as there is only 8 spaces, there is outdoor parking up the road.
We stayed on Half board, the chef, was very good with a choice of two different dishes each night, however if nothing appealed they were always willing to grill something else, the food was always piping hot. The dessert chef was a little annoying guarding the desserts with his life, and made you feel slightly in awe of asking for a little more.
The hotel was ideally located literally just across the road from the gondola, the hotel had free ski lockers, the bonus was that we bought our ski passes each day and if you didn't want to go skiing on any day you didn't buy your pass, the hotel had an exceptional rate of 20 Euros per person per day. In fact due to a bad cold, I only skied 3 of the 5 days we were there, I bought 2 gondola passes to join my husband for lunch at the gondola station they cost only 10 Euros however if you have a car you can actually drive to the top where the gondola stops.
A good point to remember the ski passes do not include insurance, this needs to be purchased at the gondola station and costs 3,80 per day, well worth it if you get hit or have an accident on the mountain as it covers full insurance.
Unfortunately I needed a visit to the Doctors, I went to Dr. Mireles whom is just across the road, he was exceptionally good and very reasonable at 23 Euros, the chemists however unless you have holiday insurance are very expensive.
La Massana a funny non descript village, as we were out of high season it was very quiet, we found a good pizzeria - Angelo's and a quirky pub called the Bohemia.
The skiing area pal, was brilliant, the slopes wide and not difficult, again as it hadn't snowed several of the runs were closed, but my husband found enough to keep him happy and improved his technique Arinsal on the other hand was a disappointment with two very long runs which were grey as the snow wasn't great. My husband joined a group lesson and thoroughly enjoyed himself, they did a few off piste runs, I on the other hand had a rather expensive private lesson as it was only 1 hour, but it helped, as I asked for an English instructor.
My favourite of all was Arcalis, a natural beauty approx 30 minutes drive from La Massana, snow conditions were great, the slopes fabulous, plenty of blues, reds and even a green run from the very top to the bottom, I would suggest wearing a helmet, as there is not much respect from snow borders on the slopes.
Having skied Grandvalira for many years, would I return to La Massana, Yes ! the ski area Pal is very pretty with the forest lined runs, probably I would opt for B&B as we felt tied to dinner every evening and I did fancy a Cheese fondue the odd evening.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC