Tiny houses in Catalan Pyrenees (Cerdanya)

La Cerdanya is a wide, sun-soaked valley high in the eastern Pyrenees, split down the middle by the French–Spanish border and ringed by peaks near 2,900 m. It claims some of the clearest skies and most hours of sunshine in the whole range, which is why mountain holidaymakers have come here since the railway arrived a century ago. Stone villages, cow pasture and pine forest fill the valley floor; the Cadí-Moixeró range walls it in to the south.

The small stays here are casetes (little Catalan houses), wooden cabañas and compact mountain cabins, tucked along the Segre river and in the hamlets around Puigcerdà and Bellver. It works in both seasons: hiking and cycling the GR trails and up to Vall de Núria in summer, skiing La Molina and Masella in winter. Bring a car — the valley is spread out — and expect cool nights even in August at 1,200 m.