Map of Andorra

Two years ago, I took my son, Callum, to ski in Aspen. He was six years old, it was his first time on snow and he was learning in one of the world’s best winter-sports resorts. When you begin your skiing career in Aspen, there is only one way to go, and that’s downhill.

Last winter, Callum was gagging to get back on the slopes. So was I, but unless I won the lottery, Aspen was out of the question. In fact, almost everywhere was out of the question. It was December when Callum and I decided we wouldn’t survive the winter without a dose of skiing, and by that time, most packages to the popular Alpine resorts in February half-term were sold out.

Our choices looked stark: Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia or Andorra, none of which is routinely ranked in the premier league of pistes. The first three were swiftly ruled out, because they cater almost exclusively to beginners. I would have skied the entire resort on day one and been bored stiff for the rest of the week. Yes, parents can be selfish too.

So, Andorra it was. We settled on Soldeu, a small resort with a huge network of pistes and a highly rated ski school staffed by English-speaking instructors. The only downside was the journey: our flight left Gatwick at 5.20am, and was followed by a four-hour coach transfer. The alarm would be set for 2.45am.

On the plus side, Andorra looked cracking value. This season, over February half-term, a week’s half-board in a four-star hotel, opposite the lifts, costs £986pp with Thomson. In Val d’Isère, in France, a three-star will set you back £1,482pp. One rung down the ladder, the difference is just as stark: £662pp, half-board, for a three-star in Soldeu; £1,002pp, B&B, for a two-star in Val d’Isère.

The skiing seemed interesting, too. Soldeu is no beauty — not so much a village as a string of hotels, bars and shops strung along a main road — but it’s home to some excellent beginner’s terrain, as well as acres of wide-open blue and red runs that are perfect for improving intermediates. Now that it’s joined forces with the neighbouring resort of Pas de la Casa, it offers no fewer than 63 lifts and 125 miles of runs — meaty even by Alpine standards. And when fresh snow falls, as it often does in the Pyrenees, the off-piste is impressive.

Soldeu is popular with both beginners and children, most of whom enrol in ski school. The teaching is good value — five three-hour lessons for just £63 — and so popular that on the Monday morning, it took us almost an hour to queue for the gondola up the mountain and fight our way through hordes of families to register with a class. Not a great start.

Callum had been up since 6am, doing star jumps at the end of my bed (“To warm up, of course, Daddy”), so by the time the class started, at 11.30am, he was raring to go. With him were 10 other children, all aged seven or eight and with some experience on skis. Their teacher was Ann, a blonde fortysomething who looked less like a ski instructor than the social secretary of a golf club in Surrey. The kids loved her.

In Aspen, where each instructor took charge of just three or four children, parents were presented with written reports detailing their darlings’ daily progress. Soldeu was much more laid-back. When I picked up Callum at the end of the first day, I asked Ann how he’d got on. “Fine, brilliant. See you tomorrow!” she grinned.

I asked Callum how it went. “Um, a bit boring, because we only went on the flat bit,” he said. “But actually brilliant. I’ve got a new best friend.”

At 1pm, the restaurants on the mountain were horribly crowded, so we took the gondola down to Soldeu for lunch. At the Villager Pub, we had home-made steak pie and chips and fish fingers, which, with soft drinks, came to £14. Beside us, a French family struggled with the English menu. “Qu’est-ce que c’est, gravy?” a boy asked his father.

It’s easy to be sniffy about Andorra. The bars have karaoke and quiz nights, the supermarkets are stacked with Heinz beans and Fray Bentos pies. But we found it an easy-going, friendly place. In the evenings, the atmosphere was fun without being boisterous, and families were welcome everywhere.

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