Soldeu, Aparthotel El Pirineu

Aparthotel El Pirineu was up a hill, which can be a bit heavy, going with big suitcases. We were fine since we had backpacks. At the end of the day after a hard days skiing it was the last thing you wanted to do, but it did help to stretch the muscles.

The hotel is also called "Hotel Alba", this confused us at first, there are no big signs out side with "El Pirineu". The resort is quieter than Soldeu, so if it's nightlife you're looking for book there.

The hotel was of a good standard and the staff were friendly. The room were ok, we had a duplex, for 8 people, 2 twins upstairs, 4 bed's downstairs with 2 upstairs bathrooms/shower and 1 toilet downstairs. The water was hot 24hrs.

The rooms were cleaned and the beds were made everyday, whilst we were skiing.

Majority of our party were vegetarian, which we thought may be a problem. We were pleasantly surprised which the restaurant in the hotel. The breakfast was good , they had the usual cereals and bread plus tea ,coffee and hot chocolate.

For dinner the restaurant provided 3 course meal. The staff provides a menu with the days menu. Sometimes there were no vegi options listed, but when we asked the staff, they bend over backwards to create something and the quality of food was great.

Most nights we were too tired to go out so we played table football in the bar. One day the table was out of order, and the man on reception, actually managed to fix it with a knife from the kitchen. Top Man

Over all we had a great time at the hotel, the ski school great, the snow was great and the resort has lots of slopes from beginners to advanced.

The hotel El Pirineu was the worst 3* hotel I have ever stayed at. On arrival we were given one key, despite us saying that we had booked 2 studios (at £700 for the week per studio). We were assured that the rooms were interconnecting but then discovered that the second studio consisted of bunk beds in the hallway. The bathroom was dirty and was then not cleaned until 4 days later and only when I told reception, there was however a card in the room saying that it would be cleaned every day.

The kitchenette was pretty useless as there was no cutlery or mugs when we arrived. After finding a mug we then had to overcome the problem of no kettle and were told to boil water in a casserole pot with just one handle, not an easy task.

The food was generally good, though the hotel made no effort to cover their tracks when recycling the food from the night before! The french onion soup was lovely, however when poured over the sausages as onion gravy the next night it wasn't quite as appealing. Also there was no vegetarian option for 3 nights. Finally I feel that charging 1 euro to toast the bread that we would eat for breakfast anyway quite ridiculous.

These are just a few of the rather unpleasent aspects of the hotel El Pirineu!

Aparthotel El Pirineu is a British owned and managed hotel in Soldeu el Tarter, with three stars, excellent restaurant with choice of hotel menu or a la carte, mini suites with either 4, 6 or 8 beds, we booked last minute via the internet, www.thealba.com. two great bars, one of which is quieter the other is a pub. The owners will arrange ski passes and ski hire for you with a few days notice and a little bit of discount from the normal resort prices. Short walk to skiing about 200 meters.