Heads Up: High-Altitude Andorra Aims Higher

Jean-Michel Ruols Architecte

The all-weather Inuu spa opened last January.

As Andorra's snowcapped peaks dissolved into waterfalls this summer, the warm mountain air filled with unfamiliar sights and sounds. Cirque du Soleil was in town in July and August, the latest effort by this tiny principality, sandwiched between France and Spain, to position itself as a year-round destination for vacationers.

Andorra has never been synonymous with summer. The rugged landscape perched high in the Pyrenees has long conjured up images of a postcard-perfect winter wonderland. Untouched ski slopes offer solitude. Its bustling shopping centers are a magnet for die-hard shoppers who wander through endless stretches of clothing racks without ever encountering the high value-added taxes that are a fact of life around Europe.

But increasingly, visitors are striding through the crisp mountain air in this Catalan-speaking nation of 85,000 even when there isn't a snowflake in sight.

"Our main objective is to convert Andorra into a 365-day destination," said Montse Buíl, who heads public relations for Andorra Turisme, a government agency.

One of the biggest changes came last January, during the height of the ski season, with the opening of two major all-weather venues: 360 Extrem, Andorra's first indoor skate park (360extrem.com) and Inuu, a new spa wing (inuu.com) within Caldea, one of Europe's largest thermal baths and long a top attraction in Andorra.

Skate parks are hardly new in Andorra, where skateboarding becomes a warm-weather equivalent of snowboarding, and outdoor public ramps entice locals to practice kicks and ollies at all hours. But in the cavernous warehouse that contains the skate park of 360 Extrem, enthusiasts can perfect their moves in the middle of both winter and summer storms.

As Carlota Maestre, an owner of 360 Extrem, put it: "It's a country where it's raining or snowing during all months."

On weekday mornings, the football field-size center is reserved for professionals and visiting teams, attracting international stars like the competitive freestyle skiers McRae Williams of the United States and Richard Permin of France to multiple-sport facilities comparable to what might be found at an Olympic training center. On weekday afternoons and evenings and on weekends, a 20-euro ticket for adults ($26.75, at $1.28 to the euro) — 14 euros for children under 14 ($18) — grants 90 minutes of access to 360 Extrem's offerings. Its claim to fame is a vertigo-inducing 45.9-foot indoor ramp the owners claim is the tallest in the world, which hurls daredevils in gravity-defying poses into a pit of snow-white foam cubes.

Nonadrenaline enthusiasts can languish in the cavernous pools at Caldea, which opened 18 years ago. Even among locals, the labyrinthine network of jets and whirlpools is so popular that Caldea is the only attraction in Andorra that remains open until midnight, rain or shine.

Its gleaming annex, Inuu, offers yet another option that is protected from the elements. Entry to an exclusive zone within the spa, which has a separate lagoon and gym, is 65 euros — with the most extensive, "Idylia" package, a selection of five treatments that can be scheduled over the course of three days, priced at 313 euros.

These additions have come as the principality tries to make its economy more self-reliant by growing a local tech sector. One project, unveiled in August, is the Active Tourism Andorra app, which lists various attractions around the nation, a mobile version of a guidebook. Within a few months, Andorran officials plan to introduce start-up conferences and a tourist-friendly system that promotes the rental of electric cars.

For now, though, changing the way visitors view tourism in Andorra is the main focus. It was last fall that Andorra decided to assemble a circus out of its perennially thin air. It teamed up with Cirque du Soleil in a multimillion-dollar affair that officials hope will become an annual event. Cirque du Soleil descended on the capital, Andorra la Vella, for three weeks of performances of an original outdoor showcase called "Scalada." The Andorran government commissioned the show and covered all production costs. Fittingly, the plot revolves around Andorra's four seasons.

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