Ask most people to come up with the key ingredients for a great ski holiday and you can be sure “nice beaches” isn’t high on the list. Fresh snow, challenging pistes and stunning scenery are more obvious entries, coupled with lively après-ski and cosy accommodation.

These are all in good supply in the Catalan Pyrenees, which take in the easternmost 90 miles of the mountain chain that divides Spain and France before petering out near the Mediterranean.

Although largely unknown to Scottish skiers — with the exception of Catalan-speaking Andorra — the area’s ski resorts are now within easy reach thanks to direct budget airline flights from Scotland to Girona and Barcelona. The improved air links make them ideal for anybody who fancies combining a few days on the snow with exploring this beautiful corner of Spain.

High in the mountains, the scenery is almost alpine, with peaks reaching 3,000ft and opportunities for some fine, uncrowded skiing on snow that, surprisingly, lasts until April, despite the area lying on the same latitude as Tuscany.

But down at sea level the golden beaches are a reminder of a more familiar Spain. On my first day skiing at La Molina, Spain’s oldest ski resort, I got a fantastic view across the Pyrenean foothills to the shores of the Mediterranean 60 miles away. The following day I got an equally stunning view back up to the snow-capped peaks from the beach resort of Roses, which sits at the northern edge of the Costa Brava.

Temperatures may have been subzero in the mountains, but on the coast it was warm enough to paddle in the sea and enjoy a sunny lunch al fresco at a seafront restaurant.

Rather than going for ready-made ski packages, it appears many people now prefer the flexibility of organising flights, hire car and accommodation independently over the internet.

Our plan was to mix a bit of sightseeing with a few days’ skiing, which was plenty of time with two young children in tow. For this reason we had headed up to Cerdanya, the great valley of the Pyrenees that straddles the border with France. Easily accessible from either Barcelona or Girona, there are more than 20 ski stations within a 20-mile radius of its main town, Puigcerda.

As well as other snow-based activities — including snow-shoeing, “mushing” with huskies and snow-mobile expeditions — the Cerdanya valley is awash with historic villages to visit and also offers a couple of decent-sized towns. Alternatively, you can do what we did and head to the coast for a day.

For our stay we had booked into a casa rurale (a farmhouse or country property that has been turned into a B&B or self-catering accommodation). We spent two nights at Cal Marrufes, a beautifully converted stone farmhouse in the village of Age, just outside Puigcerda. Still part of a working farm that breeds cattle and Hispano-Breton horses, our room looked out over a courtyard where tolerant cats, dogs and chickens kept the children amused.

Since casas rurales tend to be in or around small villages, they aren’t the best choice for anyone looking for wall-to-wall nightlife. But if you’re happy to rub shoulders with the locals in a village cafe and take a gamble with correctly translating Catalan menus (Flam de Peuada, incidentally, is mousse made from pigs’ trotters), they can be far more rewarding than a resort.

From Age there is an extensive choice of skiing. We plumped for La Molina, but could just as easily have headed for Masella in Andorra or some of the nearby ski stations in France — or north Catalunya, as the Catalans call the area, which was once part of a unified Cerdanya.

La Molina proved to be an excellent choice, with virtually no queuing, a good mix of runs and a lovely sunny terrace bar by one of the lower slopes for lunch. If you do exhaust its 44 pistes, there is a cable car linking it up with Masella, making the combined ski area one of the biggest in the Pyrenees.