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Ilheou-rako bidean, Cauterets

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Cauterets - Resort information

Cauterets
Resort elevation:
900m
Top elevation:
2450m
Base elevation:
1697m
Beyond the slopes: 

The old spa town has great facilities, including extensive shopping, a cinema, nine spa baths and a casino. There are also indoor tennis facilities and an indoor ice rink. Practical facilities include a doctor's surgery, dentist, post office, five banks, a photographers and hairdressing salons.

Excursions are organised to the religious pilgrimage site of Lourdes and to the Pyrenees National Park and there are cleared winter hiking routes, as well as snowshoeing excursions organised in the Pont d'Espagne sector, a few kilometers from the village, which also has its own small downhill ski centre and extensive cross-country ski tracks.

Family fun: 

There is plenty on offer for families in Cauterets and the resort has been awarded the French government's ‘Kids Station' award, in recognition of its efforts to provide the best holidays for families. On the mountain, the ski area is compact, and unintimidating with large, efficient and easy to use lifts, making it a pleasure to ski together. Families of four or more can purchase discounted lift tickets if bought at the same time for the same duration.

Baby facilities, such as changing mats and microwaves, are available to hire from the Tourist Information Office, Place Foch (tel: 05 6292 5050). Children from three months to three years can join Les Marmottes day nursery, Place Bordenave (tel: 05 6292 5701), whilst older children aged up to seven can join the Cirque de Lys, which offers fun learning and activities on the slopes.

La Verrière Enchantée, Balnéo Aladin, is an indoor activity centre for three to 13 year olds on three floors, with game machines, a mini-cinema and relaxation area for parents.

Also in resort, the cinema, ice rink and numerous thermal pools are a draw for families, and there's even a 1900s-style merry-go-round to enjoy on the Esplanade des O'Eufs as well as four ‘sweet factories' (shops offering demonstrations and tastings) manufacturing traditional boiled sweets, for which the area is famous.

Retail therapy: 

With a choice of more than 90 shops in Cauterets, the resort is one of the major retail centres of the French Pyrenees, and indeed has many more shops than most ski resorts.

There's a great choice of establishments, including many quirky outlets and long-established family businesses. L'Harfang des Neiges, 6 rue Richelieu, for example, sells local arts and crafts including paintings, sculptures, wood engravings and a local speciality: chalet shoes. A popular local product is boiled sweets, which were first made in the nineteenth century to take away the sulphurous taste of the spa water. Several shops demonstrate the production of such treats including Confiserie Marinette, 6 avenue du Mamelon Vert.

Splashing out: 

Take a mud bath with a difference at Les Bains du Rocher Spa, avenue du Docteur Domer (tel: 05 6292 1420; www.bains-rocher.fr), which offers a mud wrap using specially imported mud from the Dead Sea. The treatment means that your whole body is impregnated with the multiple benefits of Dead Sea Mud, cleaning, refining and purifying the skin and easing nervous or muscular tension.

Content Parent: 
Cauterets

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