Welcome to the Pyrenees. You make your own way up to the mountain village of Soldeu, on your own schedule rather than ours, which means you can fly in when it suits you and take as long as you like getting here.

Most people fly into Barcelona and take the direct bus, which climbs into the mountains for about three and three quarter hours and drops you in Soldeu. See the FAQs below for the routes and the reason you should book that bus in advance.

Check in, then the rest of the day is yours. Wander the village, look up at tomorrow’s ridge, and start quietly wondering whether you brought enough socks.

• Accommodation: 4-star hotel in Soldeu, breakfast included

Your first hike starts from the hotel door. You head up through the narrow streets of Soldeu and straight into pine forest on a long, steady climb on a good path, the kind you settle into after ten minutes and stop thinking about.

Then the trees stop, and the meadows start. In early summer they are red with alpine rose, which is one of those sights that makes people who do not normally photograph plants suddenly photograph plants.

Lake Siscaro is where you stop for a picnic and possibly a nap. Afterwards comes a short, steep pull to the Pas de les Vaques at 2,593 m (8,507 ft), the high point of the day, with the surrounding mountains laid out around you. The descent back to Soldeu runs through alpine meadow the whole way, with the village appearing and disappearing below you.

• Hiking today: 12.5 km (7.8 miles), 925 m (3,035 ft) ascent, 4 to 6 hours, medium
• Accommodation: 4-star hotel in Soldeu, breakfast included

A five minute transfer drops you at the Incles Valley car park, and then you climb gently beside the river through meadows carrying an almost absurd number of different alpine flowers.

Lake Juclar comes first, then the Col de Juclar at 2,450 m (8,038 ft), the high point of the day and the moment you cross into France. Snack at the top. You are now in a second country, on foot, before lunch.

The path down is narrow and threads past three more lakes in a row before the climb to Lake Fontargente, the biggest of the day and the best picnic spot on the whole tour. One last short climb, then the descent back to the car park.

Not feeling the full distance? There is a shorter option up the same valley to Lake Querol: 8.8 km (5.5 miles) and 600 m (1,969 ft). You decide in the morning, with a coffee, which is how these decisions should be made.

• Hiking today: 14.4 km (8.9 miles), 825 m (2,707 ft) ascent, 5 to 7 hours, medium
• Shorter option: 8.8 km (5.5 miles), 600 m (1,969 ft) ascent, to Lake Querol
• Accommodation: 4-star hotel in Soldeu, breakfast included

Pack your bag properly this morning: you change hotels today, and your luggage travels while you climb a mountain. A fair trade.

A 20 minute transfer takes you to the Ransol car park, and from there you climb through pine forest to the Coms de Jan mountain hut. The views from the hut are the first real reward of the day, and you will be surrounded by marmots, who are very loud and entirely unbothered by you.

Keep climbing and start watching the sky. This is bearded vulture and griffon vulture country, and they come close enough that you stop mid-climb to watch. After about 6 km of steady ascent you reach the top of Pic de la Serrera at 2,905 m (9,531 ft), with the Sorteny Nature Reserve spread out below.

Not in the mood for the summit? Cross the col instead and drop straight into the valley. Either way, the descent through Sorteny is the loveliest downhill of the tour, and a transfer meets you at the car park to take you to your hotel in La Massana.

• Hiking today: 10.2 km (6.3 miles), 913 m (2,995 ft) ascent, 5 to 6 hours, medium
• Optional: skip the summit of Pic de la Serrera and cross the col into the valley
• Accommodation: 4-star hotel in La Massana, breakfast included. Luggage transferred for you

Today is the easy day, and it is the one people describe first when they get home. A 30 minute transfer takes you to Lake Engolasters, and from there a virtually flat path leads into the hidden valley of the river Madriu.

You are now in the Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley, Andorra’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site. It covers 4,247 hectares, a little more than 9% of the entire country, and it is the last place in Andorra that no road reaches. Everything in here arrived on foot or on a mule.

Along the river you pass vaulted stone shepherds’ huts, terraced fields and paved tracks: the working remains of a communal land system four Andorran communities have run together since the 13th century. UNESCO inscribed it in 2004 for exactly that, 700 years of people living well in a high mountain valley without wrecking it.

You follow the river the whole way to the Font Verd mountain hut, which is exactly the oasis it sounds like and the right place for a long picnic. The water here is glacial and gin-clear, and if one person in your group swims, everybody ends up swimming.

You return to Lake Engolasters on an ancient stone path, and a transfer takes you back to La Massana with plenty of daylight left.

• Hiking today: 11.2 km (7.0 miles), 540 m (1,772 ft) ascent, 3 to 4 hours, easy, in the Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site
• Accommodation: 4-star hotel in La Massana, breakfast included

This is the one people book the tour for. A private transfer takes you from your hotel in La Massana to Arinsal, and from there the trail climbs 1,340 m (4,396 ft) to the roof of an entire country.

You go up through forest, then out into proper high mountain terrain, past the Comapedrosa refuge and the dark water of Estany Negre, and finally onto the rocky ridge to the summit at 2,942 m (9,652 ft).

And then you are standing on the highest point in Andorra with the Pyrenees running away in both directions and, on a clear day, most of the country laid out below you. There is a real moment up there. People go quiet, then start taking photos, then go quiet again.

Your transfer is waiting in Arinsal to take you straight back to La Massana, so the only decision left is where dinner is.

• Hiking today: 14 km (8.7 miles), 1,340 m (4,396 ft) ascent, 6 to 7 hours, difficult
• Accommodation: 4-star hotel in La Massana, breakfast included

Last hotel change, so pack your bag for transport one more time. Then a short transfer takes you up to Arcalis, in the Ordino valley, for a finale that knows exactly what it is doing.

It is a steady 4.5 km climb to the top of Pic de Tristaina at 2,876 m (9,436 ft), and the payoff is a 360 degree view with the three Tristaina lakes glittering in the bowl below you. After yesterday, this one feels like a victory lap with a view attached.

You descend to Arcalis on a high mountain path, and a transfer takes you to your last hotel in Escaldes-Engordany, next to the capital, Andorra la Vella. It has a spa, which after six days and 5,315 m of climbing feels less like a hotel facility and more like a reward ceremony.

• Hiking today: 9.1 km (5.7 miles), 772 m (2,533 ft) ascent, 4 to 5 hours, medium
• Accommodation: 4-star spa hotel in Escaldes-Engordany, breakfast included. Luggage transferred for you

In 6 hiking days you covered 71.4 km (44 miles) and climbed 5,315 m (17,440 ft). You reached a high mountain lake on five of those days, crossed into France and back on foot, and stood on the highest point of an entire country.

Breakfast, then the bus back down to Barcelona, and a slightly smug silence for most of the journey. Andorra is small. It does not feel small from up there.

Our Andorra hiking tour runs from 1 May to 30 October. The high mountain trails are at their best from mid-June to the end of September, once the passes are clear of snow.

Mid-July to early September is peak season: wildflowers at their best, all the high passes normally open, daytime temperatures of 18 to 25 C, clear lakes and the best wildlife spotting. May to early July is greener and quieter, with waterfalls at full volume, though a snowy winter can leave patches on the highest sections. Mid-September into October brings autumn color, cool hiking temperatures, quiet trails and usually stable weather, with the first snowfall possible on the highest peaks towards the end of the month.

You stay 7 nights in 4-star hotels, every single night: 3 in Soldeu, 3 in La Massana below Comapedrosa, and 1 in Escaldes-Engordany next to Andorra la Vella, where the last night is at a spa hotel. Breakfast is included every morning. There are no huts, no hostels and no dormitories on this tour, which for a hiking week at this price in Europe is unusual, and it is the thing hikers comment on most.

Rooms are doubles or twins as standard, and hotels may vary depending on availability at the time of booking.

Your luggage is moved between hotels for you on the two hotel-change days, so you never hike with more than a daypack. Four of the six hikes start and finish at the same hotel or at a trailhead we transfer you to and from.

In your daypack: water, lunch, warm and waterproof layers, sun protection and a first aid kit. Above 2,500 m the weather can turn while you are eating your sandwich.

We grade this tour Moderate to Challenging. Across 6 hiking days you cover 71.4 km (44 miles) and climb 5,315 m (17,440 ft).

Our local partner in Andorra puts it plainly, and so will we: this is true high-mountain terrain, and some previous mountain experience really helps. It is not technically difficult. There is no scrambling, no ladders, no cables and no exposure you have to talk yourself through. What it does ask for is sure footing on rocky ground, a head for a long climb, and the fitness to do it again the next morning.

One day is easy (11.2 km and 540 m in the Madriu valley), four are medium (9.1 to 14.4 km with 772 m to 925 m of ascent) and one is difficult: Comapedrosa, 14 km with 1,340 m of ascent over 6 to 7 hours. The trails are well marked mountain paths, rocky in the upper sections.

You should be comfortable hiking 5 to 6 hours with 900 m of ascent on consecutive days before you book. Your free custom training plan (€300 value) is built to get you there, and if you are not sure whether you are ready, ask us. We will tell you honestly.

Every local transfer described in the programme is included: the trailhead transfers on days 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, and the transfers to your hotels after the hikes on days 4, 5 and 7.

Getting to and from Andorra is not included, and you make your own way to Soldeu, which keeps your travel schedule yours rather than ours. Andorra has no airport and no railway station. Almost everyone flies into Barcelona El Prat and takes a direct bus: see the FAQs below for the two routes and journey times, and book your seat online in advance.

Day 5 of our Andorra hiking tour goes into the Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley, the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Andorra, and one of the reasons we built the tour around this particular week.

It covers 4,247 hectares, a little more than 9% of the whole principality, with a further 4,092 hectares of buffer zone around it. UNESCO inscribed it in 2004 as a cultural landscape: a high Pyrenean valley where people have harvested mountain resources for millennia under a communal land-ownership system that four Andorran communities have run together since the 13th century.

The detail that makes it feel different underfoot is the simplest one. It is the last place in the country with no road into it. You get there by hiking in, past vaulted stone shepherds’ huts, terraced fields, paved mule tracks and the remains of Catalan forge iron smelting, and the valley is exactly as quiet as that sounds.

You can read the full inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage Centre site.

Breakfast is included every morning at your hotel. Lunches and dinners are not included, which is deliberate: you eat where you want, when you want, and you are not waiting for a group of 14 to decide.

Most days you will want a picnic, because the best lunch spots on this tour are Lake Siscaro, Lake Fontargente and the Font Verd hut, and none of them has a menu. Your hotel can usually sort one out if you ask the night before.

Travel insurance is not included and we strongly recommend it. Make sure your policy covers hiking above 3,000 m, mountain rescue and trip cancellation, and remember that day 3 crosses into France, so a policy covering only Andorra is not enough.

Not sure what to get? Use our Adventure Travel Insurance Finder and get a tailored recommendation in under 60 seconds.

You book your Andorra hiking tour online and a 30% deposit holds your dates. The balance is due 40 days before you hike, and we start reserving your hotels as soon as the deposit arrives.

Questions before you book? Contact us. We like these questions, and we would rather talk it through now than have you guess.