Grandvalira — Attraction in Canillo

I skied in Encamp on January 25-26, purchasing the full package, including a ski pass, lessons, and rentals. While I was excited to learn, my first-day experience with the instructor, Isabel, was incredibly disappointing. She showed little interest in actually teaching and made no effort to provide a structured lesson. Our group had both complete beginners and more experienced skiers (I purchased lessons for beginners), yet she prioritized those who already knew how to ski (knowing tho I am not sure if I would purchase it back then), leaving the some of us with no experience completely lost. Instead of reinforcing the basics or ensuring we had a foundation to build on, she simply expected us to repeat her movements without proper explanation. Her attitude was indifferent, and it felt like she was just going through the motions rather than actually helping us learn.

The situation worsened when I mentioned that my ski boots were causing me pain. Since it was my first time skiing and friends had told me some discomfort was normal, I wasn’t sure if it was a real issue. However, when I brought it up to Isabel, she completely dismissed it without any concern. The next day, the pain became unbearable, and I had to go to the emergency area, where I was told I should not ski because my boots were far too tight and could have caused serious injury. Her negligence could have led to significant harm.

Thankfully, on the second day, Isabel was gone, and we had Fabian as our instructor instead. The difference was night and day. Fabian was attentive, patient, and genuinely cared about our progress. He explained techniques properly, corrected our mistakes, and made sure we felt supported throughout the lesson. The contrast between his professionalism and Isabel’s indifference was shocking.

Despite the awful first day, I still had a great experience overall, but only because of Fabian. I wish I had him as my instructor for both days, as I actually felt like I was learning and gaining confidence. I strongly recommend Fabian for anyone taking lessons, but Isabel was completely unprofessional and unfit to...

Unfortunately me and my family felt really uncared for and unsafe during our trip. We arrived late at night and had ski lessons in the morning, we tried to establish were we had to go to reach the ski school but were struggling to find it, and asking around wasn't helping. We couldn't find maps or directions anywhere. We asked Grandvalira staff, the only one we could find that early in the morning.Unfortunately they didn't speak Portuguese or English, and the Spanish they spoke wasn't easy for us to understand. We just kept on asking "donde es la escuela de ski?" and he just kept on pointing up to a chair lift and saying "arriba". We had never done ski before, never used a chair lift but we did what we were told. It was clear we didn't know what we were doing because we told him, requested the school directions, and we had to ask him to help put on the ski shoes/skis so we could use the chair lift that he told us to use. As expected, they had to stop the chair lift twice, because we didn't use it correctly. It was so unsafe to tell us to use such a thing. At the top of the mountain, terrified. We learn that there is no way down, and that the ski school is in fact all the way down a giant slope that you have to ski down. We requested help from the staff at the top and all the lady said was "that is not my problem". So we had no choice but to take off our skis, lest we incur a massive injury, and walk all the way down to the ski school. It took us 1h to get down.

They should have had more signs around pointing the direction of the gondola (what beginners are actually meant to use to get to the school). Their staff should have been trained to tell us where to use the gondola. Their staff should be train to assist us all the way up a mountain when we don't know how to get down.

We just wanted to know how to get to a ski school, and ended up starting our vacation frustrated, scared, fearing for our life high up a mountain. I don't advise anyone to go on a vacation to such a place with such disregard...

Decent lifts and runs but some downsides.

Pros Good, fast lifts around the mountain. The lift pass may be in the pricier side but does include the entire region and parking at any of the stations. Staff member I spoke to across the mountain were super friendly and helpful even if they were already busy on lessons etc. Barely any queues for the lifts. Reasonable prices for food and drink. Nice picturesque ski villages at the main stations. The region is very close to the capital which is definitely worth a visit (especially the caldea spa).

Cons Fairly narrow runs for a lot of lower parts making it slightly more difficult for beginners to build confidence. THE MAIN CON: Very unimpressed with the snowparks here.. As a newbie to freestyle I had seen good things on the grandvalira website, the website is wrong. El tarter was the highest but we couldn't ride it due to adverse weather. From the lift however it looked steep and confusing for a freestyle starter. Sunset snow park (peretol) was shut all week even though it was set up ready, had a working lift next to it and we had nice fresh show. Sunrise snow Park (xavi) had barely any features at all. A few jumps and only 2 boxes and 2 rails. The rest of the boxes we had hoped to hit were just propped up at the side. They also closed this park early every day for no apparent reason. The snow was still more than good enough for freestyle. They just seemed to tidy up and go home early. Not impressed at all. Unfortunately, as a boarder looking to progress in freestyle this means I will not be wanting to visit grandvalira again probably. I will only afford at most 1 trip per year and won't be...