Ski resorts in Spain

At the head of the Valle del Aragón in the Aragonese Pyrenees, right against the French border at Somport. The mountains here are high and bare and the landscape looks more alpine than most people expect of Spain. In summer the chairlift carries you up to the ibones, the small glacial lakes left in the high ground. In winter the same slopes make a compact area that is easy to get to know in a few days. The Ski Pirineos season pass covers neighbouring resorts, and Candanchú is just across the road.

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The Spanish royal family's ski resort, in the Val d'Aran on the Atlantic side of the Pyrenees. The valley has its own language and a string of stone villages with Romanesque churches, several of which are UNESCO listed. This is the largest and most reliable area in Spain, wide and open above the treeline, with genuinely good off piste and long intermediate runs. Beginners are well served at the base. Baqueira itself is functional. Salardú, Arties and Vielha nearby are far more attractive places to sleep and there is a bus between them. The eating is among the best in any ski region, because this is Catalonia and it shows. Reserve dinner properly rather than turning up. Après here happens over long lunches rather than in bars, so plan the day around that, and spend a night in Vielha if you can.

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One of the oldest ski areas in Spain, at the Somport pass in the Aragonese Pyrenees right on the French border, founded in the 1920s. The terrain is varied with a good spread from gentle learning ground to genuinely steep runs, and there is a strong ski touring and mountaineering tradition in the surrounding peaks. Astún is directly across the road and the two share a combined pass, which roughly doubles the ground available. The base is a functional cluster of buildings at the pass. Jaca down the valley is a real town with a cathedral and a Saturday market, and it makes a better base.

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The highest resort in the Spanish Pyrenees, above the mountaineering town of Benasque, in a valley ringed by three thousand metre peaks including Aneto, the highest in the range. Benasque is where you want to sleep. It is a stone town with an old quarter and a proper Saturday life, and hotels and apartments there sit a short drive below the lifts. The base station itself has far less to offer. The skiing is sunny, quiet and mostly intermediate, with trees lower down and open terrain above, which suits families and improvers well. Strong skiers should look at the ski touring, which is what this valley is really known for. The Aragonese cooking is worth the trip on its own and worth reserving for rather than assuming. A snowshoe walk into the Posets Maladeta park fills a spare day.

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The closest ski area to Madrid, in the Sierra de Guadarrama about an hour from the capital, sitting inside a national park. That location is the whole point, because it makes a day on snow possible from a city that most people associate with anything but. The area is compact and mostly gentle, with a good learning zone, and it is where a great many Spaniards first put on skis. Parking is limited and sold in advance, so book it before you set out on a weekend. The pine forest and granite of the Guadarrama make an unusual setting, and the walking and climbing here are well known in their own right. Segovia with its Roman aqueduct is on the other side of the pass.

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A large, high, treeless area in the Tena valley of the Aragonese Pyrenees, close to the French border, and one of the biggest ski areas in Spain. Wide open sunny bowls give a great deal of intermediate cruising and strong beginner areas. Weather is the variable here, because when the wind comes off the Atlantic the upper lifts hold, so build a spare day or two into the week. The base village is modern and plain. Sallent de Gállego a few kilometres below is a stone village with a square and places to eat, and it makes a better base if you have a car. The après scene is lively and Spanish, and dinner happens after nine as it does everywhere else in the country. The thermal baths at Panticosa are in the next valley.

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One of the oldest ski resorts in Spain, in Catalonia's Cerdanya valley, linked by lift to neighbouring Masella to form a large shared area. It is reachable by train from Barcelona, which almost no other resort in the Pyrenees can claim, and that makes it an unusually easy trip if you are already visiting the city. The skiing is sunny, tree lined and mostly intermediate with good beginner terrain, a solid park and reliable snowmaking. Weekends fill with day trippers from Barcelona and midweek is calm. There are hotels and apartments at the base, but far more character in the valley villages of Puigcerdà and Alp, and a long lunch somewhere doing Catalan mountain cooking is part of the point.

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A ski area in the Cerdanya valley in Catalonia, linked by lift to La Molina to form the largest area in the Spanish Pyrenees after Baqueira. The terrain is wooded and mostly intermediate with a good vertical and a long descent through pine forest, and Masella is the quieter and more traditional of the two sides. Night skiing runs here on certain evenings, which is unusual in Spain. The Cerdanya is a broad sunny valley split between Spain and France, with a strong Catalan identity, and Puigcerdà and Alp below have places to eat that are worth the trip.

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Europe's most southerly ski resort, above Granada, and high enough that you can ski in the morning and be on the Mediterranean coast by afternoon. The terrain is wide, sunny and treeless with an enormous vertical and reliable snowmaking, running late into spring, and it suits beginners and intermediates well. Wind closes the upper lifts more often than people expect, so keep an alternative plan. The base at Pradollano is a steep cluster of hotels and apartments. Staying in Granada forty minutes below and driving up is the far more interesting option, because the Alhambra needs booking weeks ahead and the city is one of the last places in Spain where a drink still comes with food.

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