Publicación: Mountain Magic
Sección: Destinations Pyirenees

The perfect Pyrenees

It’s a 20-minute drive up the final stretch of the valley, a narrow, rutted, twisting road between near-sheer walls, not made any easier by the tipper trucks racing in both directions. When you get to the end it opens out on a small lake, a classy 19th century spa hotel and a ramshackle clutch of buildings.

And it’s hard to believe that this is the biggest private investment tourism development in Europe. A far cry from the quaint mountain resorts one might expect from the Spanish Pyrenees. Yet Panticosa Resort, in the Aragon region, up valley from the little Panticosa ski area, speaks volumes, about expectation in the mountains today.

The spa hotel is now a 5-star destination, historic on the outside with swish modern, wood-class restaurant. Waters were taken here back in Roman times but it was in 1827 that the spa was bult. Now a national artistic monument, the revamp includes a stylish casino; by the time it’s finished in several years it will feature a massive palacio thermal, a pair of 4-star hotels, an apartmen hotel, villas, a hotel for professional sports altitude training (it’s at 1,636m) shops and more restaurants.

More than 3.000 beds in what will be an awe-inspiring place, even if the road may find it hard to cope. ...)