MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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ANyone taken a caravan / motorhome to the alps in winter for a skiing hol?
I've seen a few sites that are open in winter and close to valley lifts, just wondering what its like, any tips / advantages / disadvantages?
How much cheaper did it work out with ferry / fuel / site costs?
thanks
Done it a few times. I did a whole season in a caravan in 2007!!
It became a bit of a pain in the arse so we've not bothered for a few years, plus my sister moved to the Pyrenees so it's a lot easier for us now.
Camping le giffre in Samoens is a great site that is right next the the gondola and dead easy to drive to.
Advantages were it was cheaper to go for a month or 3 weeks. We used to get the hull zebrugge ferry when you could get them on Tesco points!! Tolls are more with a caravan though.
Disadvantages, well if the weather is shit I.e. rain, it's not good. Cold and snow is ok, it's suprisingly easy to heat a caravan. You end up opening Windows when cooking.
But when it's just rain and slush outside its difficult to get things dry and sitting out in an awning becomes a nightmare.
Bluebird skies and fluffy snow, the caravan is great though.
were you able to use the caravan water supply, eg with an insulated cover on the fresh and grey water containers, or did you just use site facilities for everything?
not actually got a caravan / motorhome yet but its something we're considering, just looking at how easy it is to use for winter hols.
You can get 'winter packs' for motorhomes - they have heaters for the water supply/grey water that kicks in and keeps it all from freezing (will even dump water if there's a frost and the gas and mains are off, for example).
I'd imagine the same is available on a caravan although most caravans use those external fresh and grey water tanks rather than onboard so you'd need to find a way to insluate them and any pipes under the unit that lead from sinks and showers to the grey water container.
We didn't use the caravan water supply as it just froze up, so just used the site stuff. We didn't have a fancy van!! When we were away for the season temps got down to -20 overnight in January.
Keeping beers chilled is a doddle though!!
When we use our caravan in winter, we use an old anorak on the fresh water barrel, with the pump up a sleeve. For the waste water, use a bucket, if it does freeze you can still empty the ice block out.
This is in UK though, not -20 temps.
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