Val d'Aran

The Val d'Aran faces north: its river, the Garona, runs into France and eventually to the Atlantic, unlike every other valley on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, and that orientation gave it an Atlantic climate, greener and wetter than Catalonia beyond the ridge, and a history of looking both ways. Aranese, a variety of Occitan, is an official language alongside Catalan and Spanish, taught in schools and used on signs, and the valley has held its own institutions since a 1313 charter. Its thirty-odd villages are built in stone with slate roofs, several with Romanesque churches including Sant Miquel de Vielha and the church at Salardu. Until the Vielha tunnel opened in 1948 the valley was cut off by snow for months each winter.

What you actually see

• The Aranese language - Occitan in official use on signs and in schools.
• The stone villages - slate-roofed settlements with Romanesque churches.
• The Atlantic drainage - a valley flowing north into France.
• The Bonaigua pass - a high road over the ridge, open in summer.

When to go

June to September for walking, when the passes are clear and the valley green; December to April for skiing at Baqueira. The Bonaigua pass closes in winter, leaving the tunnel as the only access.

Honest expectations

The valley is expensive by Spanish standards, shaped by the ski trade. The Bonaigua road closes for months and the tunnel can queue. Weather is Atlantic, meaning rain and cloud more often than the rest of Spain.

Nearby

Baqueira Beret is at the valley head; Aiguestortes national park lies south over the ridge.