Family holidays in the Spanish Pyrenees

The Spanish Pyrenees are essentially a vast outdoor playground for those that have a thirst for adrenaline. From Sort you have the Aigüestortes and Lake Sant Maurici National Park right on your doorstep, a wild and beautiful landscape that’s immensely popular for trail hiking. At points you can make out the precarious routes that escapees in World War II would have taken as they crossed from Nazi-occupied France into Spain.

Small group trips build flexible itineraries according to what you prefer to do with your time, with afternoons often left free to do your own thing as a family or add in more activities. You might be tackling the foaming rapids on a white water rafting expedition, a great team-building experience; sliding, jumping and abseiling your way around a canyoning course, which may sound a little scary if you’ve never done it before but is all handled by well qualified instructors; or mountain biking and horse riding along scenic trails in the national park. Sort itself is a very attractive old town, where those less inclined towards the white-knuckle adventures can enjoy whiling away some time.

Skiing and snowboarding trips in the Spanish Pyrenees are focused on Cerler, where tailor made itineraries can mix fun snowshoeing or husky sledding with private lessons. This resort is fantastic for beginners and intermediates with some 65 runs and reliable snow, and there is supervised play and babysitting available for non-skiing younger children.