If you've ever flown from the UK to southern Spain or Morocco, odds are you've flown over these mountains. Likely the same if you've flow to either from Ireland too (sometimes they route you out more west from Ireland, but you get the point)

I've looked down at them from the plane a good number of times and wondered what they're like. I know they're Spanish and so in my head should be... well, Spanish. But, I wanted to go and find out. So I did!

The Way Out

I found flights into Biarritz in south-west France. The flight times were lovely (out was 1225 departure, landing at 1520 local, and inbound was 1720 landing at 1815 local), and were about £50 return. Not the absolute cheapest but I thought worth it for how good the times were.

Now if you didn't know, Biarritz is not a big airport. Like, really not big. about 5 commercial flights a day big. This is why it only flies from Stansted and Dublin in the UK and Ireland and, considering I live in the UK currently, Stansted was my only real option.

I do not live near Stansted. It's about 2 hrs 40 mins for me to drive down, a drive I normally do quite a lot (given the massive selection of flights to weird and wonderful places from Stansted), but this time I thought I'd treat myself. I booked a room for £52 at Manor of Groves hotel, 20 mins drive from Stansted airport with a big gym, pool, sauna and steam room, which you get full access to with the room cost.

So, I had a lovely evening in the gym then chilling in the pool, got a full nights kip, then was ready to be up and away! I then used my 1/3 of the Price Stansted Airport Parking trick and parked on a driveway in Stansted Mountfitchet, hopped on the Stansted express, blasted through the airport and before I knew it, landed in Biarritz.

Across to the Spanish Pyrenees

I rented a car from Sixt for this trip (best deal I could find). It was actually one of the most expensive bits at £180 (including unlimited km's, cross border coverage and fully comp insurance), but with the amount of exploring I wanted to do it was well worth it. Plus they gave me a free upgrade, so that's something!

The hotel was over in the Aran Valley on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees. This was about 3 hours drive using toll roads (which averaged about €40 there and back), but it would have takes about 5 hrs + with no tolls, so had to bite the bullet on that one.

Accommodation

The hotel I stayed in (Hotel & Restaurante Peña) was a great little find. Nestled in a valley, it had a comfy room with massive bed, balcony to chilll on, and lot's of exposed wood giving it a real chalet-like feel. Even better, I only paid £120 total for 2 nights here for 2 people (so £60 each!)

The hotel also has an indoor pool (with 3 water jets in and around it), a sauna and a gym, all available in the room charge. The pool requires swimming hats to go in though (you can buy them from reception if you don't have one).

There's also an on-site restaurant, with decent enough food for decent enough prices. Also it's the only restaurant for a little ways, so the prices are probably even more fair because of that.

Aran Valley

Without rambling on too much here, there are absolutely tonnes of walks, hikes, viewpoints and more. I imagine during the main ski season it would all be bouncing with people, but during the off season there are a few bars and restaurants open, but seemingly hardly any people.

I didn't really hike that much since I was on hand luggage only, so all pics and things I saw were a 15 minute walk max away from a road or car park. as you can see though, incredible views and total stillness (as in, absolute silence) almost everywhere I stopped.

Check the Spain map if you want to see everywhere I went, or would go next time if I went back.

Worth It?

As with almost every trip, yes. I booked this all about 5 days before I flew, and paid about £110 for flights and accom for 2 days (remember though the accom was split between 2 people).

Point is though, had I stayed home and gone out to see friends for a night out, I'd have likely spent up and around that anyways by the time you factor in drinks, taxi's, food etc. But instead, I went knocking about the Pyrenees for a few days, and had a lovely time.

So as is the ethos with which I'm trying to build this club with, if you do have a little cash spare and a few days off, why not just go somewhere else?

If that sounds up your street, you can become a member a with a free trial to get the feel of the club before you pay anything. Would be class to have you! :)