Andorra covers 468 square kilometres of mountainous landscape and twisting rivers and has a population of 68,000.
Nearly twothirds of the population are of Spanish extraction, and Catalan is widely spoken.
The climate is temperate, with warm summers and very cold winters, although a sweater can come in handy yearround.
As with any mountain area, you can expect rain, or snow in the winter, at any time.
For a small place, Andorra packs a big punch.
In June alone, 20 festivals or cultural events take place, ranging from the exotic-sounding 'night of the Andorra fire vella', where dancing around bonfires is the order of the day, to 'the market of the sea', selling secondhand nautical equipment - an eccentric event to hold in a landlocked mountain retreat.
The centrepiece of Andorra's gastronomy is traditional, mountainstyle food alongside pica pica, a local equivalent of the ubiquitous Spanish tapas.
Culinary life in Andorra has been spiced up with an influx of Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian and Japanese chefs so almost anything goes.
The Andorra Tourist Office website will fill you in on events, activities, and the local gastronomy.
Andorra is not a full member of the European Union (EU), but receives some of the perks of membership and so enjoys the best of both worlds.
For example, Andorra is treated as an EU member for trade in manufactured goods (no tariffs), but as a non EU member for agricultural products, thus escaping the rigours of the Common Agricultural Policy.
Andorra is also a duty-free zone.
Although the currency operating is the euro, Andorra doesn't have the chore of minting its own euros, relying instead on Spain and France to supply the cash.
One downside of Andorra's not being in the EU is that your European Health Insurance Card won't be accepted here, so taking out your own health insurance, especially if you plan to ski, is vital.
The property market in Andorra has experienced a boom over the past three years, with prices rising by an average of 16 per cent a year.
In Andorra, foreigners can own only one property on a plot of land no larger than 1,000 square metres.