Sleeping in the car Val Thorens

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@jedster, hence why I said go to a campsite with facilities....Tesla has plenty of space and tech to play games/watch videos etc etc.

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

And I doubt a campsite would let you pitch just a car.

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Has to be a wind up, can afford a Tesla but can’t afford £100 for a room.

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@jedster, I've also taken my 2 wild camping at the ages the OP is talking about. Although we didn't sleep in the car we were in a small 2 man pop up which didn't take up a large amount of room, the amount of stuff you need to bring is quite substantial. I have a large SUV and it was stacked to the rafters. (I'm in the Middle East - so I mean gigantic by European standards). I just cannot fathom adding ski kit to that or ever doing it in a model 3.

I have slept in my car whilst camping many times and I would never contemplate sleeping in it with both my kids. 1 of them maybe. My son likes to rotate in bed like a clock so he will never get to try....

After all it is free

Wild camping is an entirely different thing to sleeping in a car in carpark in the middle of winter in VT. Toileting aside, can use bucket and loo bags which dispose of into a normal waste bin, there's showering, drying wet gear, eating and entertaining the kids. Younger ones will get bored of long hours in the car. Add in day of weather where it isn't possible to get them out into the snow, and it really wouldn't be worth it for 3 nights.

@crazy_dad, it's great that you generally want to give your kids adventures and experiences. But like others I think this might be going a bit too far. At their ages they probably won't even appreciate, and may not even remember, that they have been to a top ski resort.

If you are still set on it I recommend trying out a similar long weekend somewhere near London first. Camping in the car, perhaps in an underground car park that permits overnight stays, in say November so you get similar damp and battery conditions. Doing something adventurous outdoors during the day.. But close enough to home, or a 24-hour service station, that you can abandon the plan if the kids get miserable.

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I did a week in Engelberg in my Transit Custom in April 2023, with an awning on the side. I thought given it was late April it would be fine. I was wrong!

It happened to be a relatively cold week and snowed down to village level. I came back to this one evening.

Being in the van was fine, I slept in there ok, albeit with no heater to keep me warm, but I just wore more clothes in bed.

The issue was all the rest of the time. Eating and cooking in the awning was cold, I was also doing some remote work which was also cold. Going to have a shower made you cold. Going to wash up the items from dinner made you cold.

Having to get dressed inside a van not being able to stand up was a pain.

All these things means I wouldn't do a ski trip in a van again unless it was a proper motorhome. The thought of a week with 2 kids in a Tesla would be awful Laughing

That said, I might sleep in the van for 1 night in the car park in Täsch the night before the speedtest next April, but for 1 night it'll be fine Laughing

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Of course it could be done. People live with kids for months, years, in this sort of situation - but without an expensive car. I contribute to UNICEF to help them. I've slept in a car, not infrequently. I even fixed up small curtains for our Multipla (Velcro), and made a mattress which just fitted the back (with the back seats out). We had an experimental night outside my son's once, as it seemed a better alternative to their leaky Lilo. It was fine until OH needed to pee. It was pouring with rain, which wasn't ideal, but the worst thing was that the vehicle was new to us and fumbling round in the dark I couldn't work out how to switch off the courtesy lights. So his efforts were illuminated........ We spent several nights in it in French motorway aires. In summer!

But I've never camped in a car with small kids. We had an old Toyota Hi-Ace camper when we lived in Scotland and even camping in that, with kids, was a challenge. Transitioning between everybody being out, with wellies and wet clothes, and being in, with everybody in their allotted sleeping places (there were 5 "berths" but of course they took up the entire vehicle except the two front seats, where everything else had to be piled). It was an operation needing a LOT of organisation. One Friday night, after we'd headed north when I got home from work (stopping in Marks and Spencers in Kilmarnock to pick up some nice food), listening to the rain my son, then about 11, asked plaintively "Mum, we live in a house with five bedrooms and two bathrooms. Not far away. Why are we sleeping in a rusty van? Naturally I told him it was an adventure. That was my answer to most complaints. Laughing

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@Origen,

I've done something similar in a 22ft sailing boat which we had on a mooring on Ullswater.
My dad originally tried sleeping four of us aboard. We didn't have a loo so rowing the dingy to the shore shower block in the rain in the middle of the night was something to try to avoid. Easier for me than my sister!
It was very cramped and steamy when the Lakeland rain set in.
Very quickly my parents opted to move to a B&B and leave me and my sister with more space (we were probably 13 and 11) and we seldom did it for more than a long weekend. In summer. It was of course utterly goregous to wake up on a still, sunny morning and drink tea in the cockpit surrounded by beautiful Lakeland hills. I'd say quite a lot more attractive than a VT underground car park but hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

The op's idea is bonkers.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I say go for it! Marriage Darwinism at its finest. I reckon the divorce papers will be signed and processed, and access to the kids denied, before the first snowflake has landed in resort.

A snowHead

Just driving there alone with 2 kids that age is going to be a challenge.

A snowHead

Don't worry about your of teaching skills - there's not a lot to learn as a 3 year old in the first couple of days, just put them on a safe, flatish patch of snow - just let them play around and have some fun. they'll figure out how to stand up, shuffle along etc.
Your problem is only one person supervising - its just not doable - must be 1:1 ratio. Its impossible - you'll need 2 adults. As someone else said already, and I can confirm - they'll be knackered and uncooperative after 2 or 3 hours, so you'll have plenty of time to drive down to a cheap B&B in Moutiers Please tell us how it works out.

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Even in the south of France, never mind ullswater I do not want to see turds floating by when I’m in the sea.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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@davidof, I've got a great picture of a mate on an offshore race droop hiking off the pushpit with a loo roll around the guard rail.

Help!!

Sleeping in the car Val Thorens

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