🇦🇩Andorra

You cannot get here without Schengen

• Andorra is in neither the EU nor the Schengen area.
• It has no airport and no railway. Every route in passes through France or Spain, both of which are in Schengen.
• So whatever you need to be in Schengen is what you need for Andorra, obtained from France or Spain - there is no Andorran visa to get.
• Andorra does not stamp passports and there is no immigration control on the way in.
• Your Schengen days keep counting while you are here, because leaving Schengen for Andorra is not recorded and you re-enter it on the way out.

The check that does exist

• There is a customs check leaving Andorra, on both the French and Spanish sides, and it is a real one.
• Andorra is a duty-free jurisdiction and shopping is a large part of why people come - alcohol, tobacco, electronics, perfume.
• Allowances are enforced and queues at the border on Sunday evenings are long precisely because cars are being searched.
• Know your allowance before you load the boot. Exceeding it means duty, and potentially confiscation.

Passport

• Carry your passport or national ID card. You will be asked for it at the customs post even though nobody stamps it.

• Andorra is not in the EU. It is in a partial customs union covering industrial goods, but tobacco, alcohol and food are outside it, which is exactly what the shops sell.
• Leaving Andorra is entering the EU from a third country. French and Spanish customs run checks at Pas de la Casa and La Farga de Moles, and the allowances they apply are the ones set for Andorra specifically, not the ordinary duty-free numbers.
• Tobacco is the item they look for. Cigarette prices are roughly half French ones, which is why the boot of the car gets opened rather than waved through.
• Andorra has no airport. Everyone arrives through France or Spain by road, so every visitor crosses a customs border twice.
• Check the current allowance with French or Spanish customs before loading up - it is a specific figure, it has been changed before, and the fine is calculated on the whole load.

One country, three forecasts

Andorra's national weather service issues its public forecast in altitude bands, not for the country: Andorra la Vella, 1500 metres, and Pas de la Casa. On the day this was checked - 23 August 2026 - that spread ran from 28 C in the capital to 15 C at Pas de la Casa, a 13 C difference inside a country you can drive across in an hour.

That is the single most useful thing to know here, and it is why the table above carries a warning of its own: it describes Andorra la Vella on the valley floor, and almost everything people come for - the ski areas, the lakes, the high passes - sits well above it. Read the numbers as the bottom of the range, not the average.

What the valley floor's year looks like

May to September averages 18-25 C by day in Andorra la Vella and is the stretch this page picks. It is also, unusually, the wetter half: May is the wettest month of the year at 106 mm and April the second at 96, and December at 60 mm and September at 61 mm are the driest. Mountain rain is convective and afternoon-weighted, so a wet month here means wet afternoons rather than wet days.

Winter in the capital is milder than its reputation - January averages 7 C by day and -1 C at night - because the capital is the warm end of the country. The snow that the season depends on falls above it, and by the same 13 C logic the difference between a January in town and a January on the slopes is the entire trip.

Your EU plan probably does not cover this

• Andorra is not in the EU or the EEA. Roam-like-at-home covers the EU, the EEA states and, since recently, Moldova and Ukraine. Andorra is on none of those lists.
• Some operators include it anyway. The rule does not stop a network extending its home-rate zone, and several do - but it is a choice each one makes, not a right you have.
• Check the country list in your own tariff before you travel, which is precisely what Andorra's own tourist office tells visitors to do. The bill is the wrong place to find out.
• Driving in from Spain or France changes nothing, and neither does being surrounded by EU territory.

One operator, no competition

• Andorra Telecom is the country's only operator. There is no second network to shop around, and no price pressure from one.
• Coverage follows the valleys. The inhabited floor is well served; the ski slopes and passes above are patchier.

What to actually do

• An eSIM bought before you land is the clean answer on a short trip, and avoids the entire question of what your home operator charges.
• Or turn data roaming off and live on wi-fi, which is fine for a day trip in from Barcelona or Toulouse.

eSIM

• An eSIM is live before you land and skips the shop entirely, which on a short trip is the whole argument for it.
• Check your phone takes one. Most flagship phones since 2019 do; most budget models do not.

Practical points

• Keep your home number reachable for two-factor codes. If you swap in a local SIM as your only card, bank apps that text a code to your home number stop working at the worst possible moment. A dual-SIM phone, or an eSIM alongside your home SIM, solves it.
• Wi-fi is widespread in cafes, hotels and stations.

Sockets in Andorra are Type C and F at 230 V, 50 Hz - the round two-pin outlet used in both neighbouring countries.

• A Europlug fits everywhere. Nothing changes crossing in from Spain or France.
• French Type E sockets appear in some buildings, and a Spanish or French plug works in either.
• British, American and Australian plugs need an adapter, which the electronics shops on Meritxell sell cheaply - one of the few things genuinely worth buying here.
• 230 V, so American 120 V-only equipment needs a converter.
• Both neighbours match, but not each other exactly: France uses the earth-pin Type E socket and Spain the Schuko Type F, and Andorra has both.

Language

• Catalan is the only official language - Andorra is the only country in the world where it is.
• Spanish, French and Portuguese are all widely spoken, the last because of a large Portuguese community.
• English is common in the shops and ski resorts, less so elsewhere.

The co-princes

• Andorra's heads of state are the President of France and the Bishop of Urgell in Spain, jointly. This arrangement dates from 1278 and is not ceremonial fiction - it is the constitution.

Power

• 230 V, 50 Hz, sockets type C and F.

Practicalities

• The country runs on the ski season and the shopping trade.
• Almost everything is in one valley along the Gran Valira.
• Andorra is not in the EU, so EU roaming does not apply - your phone will roam at non-EU rates unless your operator includes Andorra. Turn data off on arrival until you check.

The euro, unofficially

• Andorra uses the euro and is not in the eurozone. It has a monetary agreement with the EU and even mints its own euro coins.
• Cards work everywhere.

The duty-free question

• Andorra's consumption tax is 4.5 per cent - the IGI, the lowest standard rate in Europe, against 20 per cent in France and 21 in Spain.
• Alcohol, tobacco, perfume and electronics are the traditional buys.
• The savings are real and are why the country has more shops than seems plausible for its size.

And the allowance

• You are leaving a non-EU customs territory when you drive out, into France or Spain.
• Duty-free allowances apply and are enforced at the customs posts.
• Exceeding them means paying duty at the border, and the officers do search cars, particularly on Sunday evenings.
• Check the current allowance for the country you are entering before you fill the car - it is published by both French and Spanish customs.

ATMs

• Always refuse the machine's offer to charge you in your own currency. Dynamic currency conversion at an ATM or a card terminal costs several per cent, every time, and the offer is worded to sound helpful. Choose the local currency and let your own bank convert.
• Use bank ATMs rather than the independent machines in tourist areas, which add their own fee on top.

The bus

• The national bus network covers the whole country - it is 468 km2 and essentially one valley system - and is inexpensive.
• Routes link Andorra la Vella with Escaldes, Encamp, Canillo, Soldeu, Ordino and Sant Julia.
• Buses to the ski areas run in season and are the practical way up without a car.

Driving

• There is one main road through the country and it jams in the ski season and on shopping weekends.
• Parking in Andorra la Vella is in paid underground car parks, which is easier than it sounds.
• Fuel is much cheaper than in France or Spain - another reason for the queues at the border.

Walking

• The country is a hiking destination in summer with a good trail network and the Coma Pedrosa at 2,942 m.
• The GR11 crosses nearby and there are refuges in the high valleys.

No motorway, one toll, and two mountain roads in and out.

• Fuel is much cheaper than in France or Spain, which is one reason for the queues at the border on Sunday evenings.
• Winter equipment is required in snow - winter tyres or chains - and the Port d'Envalira at 2,408 m is the highest paved pass in the Pyrenees.
• The alcohol limit is 0.5 g/l, and above 0.8 g/l it stops being a fine and becomes a crime under article 268 of the penal code - up to a year inside, a ban of up to three years and a fine of EUR 300 to 3,000. A professional driver crosses both lines at 0.5.
• Andorra la Vella is a single congested valley road. Park in a garage and walk; the through traffic barely moves at weekends.
• The one toll in the country is the Envalira tunnel on the CG-2 towards France: EUR 8.10 for a car since January 2026, and free while the pass above it is closed by weather. Every other road is free.
• Neither France nor Spain charges a toll to reach the border, and the French approach over the Envalira can close in winter while the Spanish one stays open.

The numbers

• 112 works from any phone, free, with no credit and no SIM, and operators handle English.

If you need help

• Report a theft to the police and get a written record. No insurer will pay a claim without one, and obtaining it later from another country is close to impossible.
• A lost passport means the police first, then your embassy.
• Your embassy cannot pay your bills or get you out of jail, but it can issue emergency travel documents, contact your family and provide lists of local lawyers and doctors.

Before you need them

• Save 112 in your phone now, and write your accommodation's address somewhere that does not depend on a charged battery.

• Not every country keeps an embassy in Andorra. Several cover it from a neighbouring capital - check yours before you need to know.

• Almost no country keeps an embassy in Andorra. Consular assistance comes from Madrid, Barcelona or Paris, which matters if you lose a passport here.

• Mountain rescue is reached through 112, and Andorran rescue is not free - check your insurance covers it before skiing or hiking.