It might seem strange to want to visit a country that has no naval access, no airport, or no train station. A country smaller than the city of Chicago and with less than a hundred thousand inhabitants, total. A country that didn’t get electricity until 1929.

It seems strange until you get there.

Andorra is a tiny, mountain locked community where you’d be hard pressed to find a seat with a bad view. The Pyrenees encase this tiny state like the petals of a tulip. The food is inviting, the people even more so and the scenery could compete with Alpine villages.

Andorra is also a place of conundrums. In a country with the second highest life expectancy in the world, you would not expect tobacco to be their top export, much less cigarette dispensers as abundant as trash receptacles. You do not expect a spa, a place to spoil your body, to be designed and dressed to the nines like a metallic, new age cathedral. You also would not expect an elevator built into the side of a mountain simply to allow easier pedestrian street access.

This is a place, not just for avid snow bunnies, not just for spa-goers, but for travelers. Real travelers.

People who want to go to a place with community pride seeping onto the streets. People who want to be able to wander in a local shop and have a slice of chorizo and garlic waiting for them or watch a local demonstrate how to make syrup from pine cones.

People who are looking for something different.