During President’s Week Break, the Michael W Travels family visited Spain (Barcelona) and Andorra.
This was a relatively short trip and we found out that this was possibly the worst time to fly to Europe. It also didn’t help that Hotels.com screwed up our reservation in Barcelona.
After spending a couple of days in Barcelona, we drove around 2.5 hours to the small country of Andorra which is located in the Pyrenees Mountains between Spain and France.
Winter sports like skiing and snowboarding are popular as is shopping. Since we’re not skiers and weren’t really looking to make any purchases, we wanted to check out some of the sights around the country.
While attractions in Barcelona are on the pricier side (around 12€ for adults), most museums in Andorra that we read about cost a reasonable 5€ per person to visit.
I was surprised to read about a way to save 50% on museums by simply purchasing a Museum Pass (PassMuseu).
The pass is available for sale at all participating museums and costs a very fair 2.5€. It’s cleverly designed to look like a passport and you even get stamps inside at each museum you visit! The pass also includes a short description of each participating museum.
The way it is that when you purchase the PassMuseu you are then entitled to a 50% discount at three participating museums of your choice. If you plan to spend a few days in Andorra or visit on more than one occasion, the pass is good for one year.
How much can you save?
To break down the math as to how much you can save, I’ll show what we saved during our visit.
We visited three museums which each had an entry fee of 5€. We purchased the pass at our first stop for 2.5€. This made the entry fee to all of the museums we visited (including the first one) 2.5€ each. In the end, it cost a total of 10€ per person to visit three museums in Andorra.
Our overall savings were 5€ per person. Since kids were free, we saved 10€ by purchasing the PassMuseu.
Even if you’re only going to visit 1-2 museums it pays to purchase the pass. If you visit one museum, you get to decide whether or not you visit another with no extra fee added on. If you visit two museums, you still save 2.5€ (basically a free beer.).
There are 20 museums offered at a discount through PassMuseu. To make it easier to decide where to go, a handy map is included showing where the museums are located.
For such a small country, Andorra happens to be home to some interesting yet small museums. Many close in the middle of the day, so we had to pass on one museum which was at the top of our list. 
Which museums did we visit?
- Casa de la Valle
- Museu de la Miniatura
- Museu del Tabac
Overall, we were happy with the choices we made. If you’re traveling with little kids, Casa de la Valle probably won’t be of much interest but the other two will.
The one museum which I really hoped to visit which we missed out on was Casa Cristo, an ethnographic museum. Maybe next time!
Final Thoughts:
If you’re visiting Andorra and plan to visit a museum, I highly recommend buying the PassMuseu. You’ll break even just for purchasing it and save money as long as you visit two museums.
The pass also makes for a really cool souvenir to take home from this tiny country.
