 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi, is there a camping ground or place to park a moto home overnight near or in one of the villages in Les 3 Vallies in the winter months.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yes in Les Menuires and also in Le Raffort just below Meribel.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Thanks for your answer. Have located those parking areas on a maps app. Four of us are flying into Geneva from NZ in 2023 and renting a motorhome to travel to Les 3 vallees, La Plagne, Les Arc, Val d’Isere, Chamonix, Verbier and Zermatt. Any suggestions for either freedom camping or pay camping sites in these other ski areas as close as possible to the lift systems. Cheers Michael
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Les Menuires but be careful with your dates, the aire is often full, a good time to arrive is the day the French school holidays end.
Check out winterised.com for more parking locations. There are nice Aires in St Gervais Les Bains and the Portes de Soleil too. Some ski resorts tolerate a bit of overnight parking, some will only allow stays in designated aires and caravaneiges.
May also be worth picking up the book All the Aires - South, it's not especially expensive and some of the aires are not well known.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Moiki12, There's a newly-refurbed aire at the foot of the Serre Chevalier lift station in Le Monetier-les-Bains. Couldn't get much closer to the lifts. Also a privately owned site in the Village of Villeneuve in the same ski area.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Also: The La Plagne aire is ski in ski out, but it should be pre booked and is on the pricey side (€22/night).
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@Moiki12, out of the two, the parking site at les menuires is the more convenient one for skiing, as it is in walking distance from the centre of town, and near enough ski in and ski out. whereas, Le raffort is a satellite village of Meribel, further down the mountain towards Moutiers and you either need to use the Le raffort bubble, or the (free) intervillage buses.
the only thing i would add, is that you cannot seem to pre-book the les menuires parking site, so will be taking a risk that it is full when you arrive.
Full disclaimer, i have not used either of these sites, but have worked in Meribel and regularly stay in les menuires, but am planning a trip in a few years time in a mobile home and have looked into these sites.
FWIW, the campsite most people rave about is the one in bourg-saint-maurice, that is close to the funicular to access les arcs directly.
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Excellent. Thanks for the advice. We intend to arrive on 4 January which I see falls outside the French Christmas holiday period so hopefully we should have little difficulty finding a place to park.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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A few other things to consider: if it's a rental motorhome is it properly equipped for the Alps - you absolutely must have snow chains or snow socks that fit it as a lot of these resorts are high and well inside compulsory chainage areas when there's snowfall. Ideally it would have both winter tyres and snowchains.
Heating is obviously a must, it's generally pretty easy to find LPG for either fillable tanks or to replace a cylinder. A lot of people also take generators as a backup particularly if they don't have much solar capacity. It is possible to get snowed in from time to time.
If the motorhome has underslung water tanks be aware that the pipes tend to freeze overnight.
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Yes, aware of the need for chains etc. We have our own motor home in Christchurch NZ and use it in the mountains for skiing. We have used an Indie camper a few years ago and will be hiring an Atlas or similar. Indie provide chains. But thanks for the advice. I used to ski guide for a British chalet company in La Plagne in the 1980’s and lived in Plagne Village so know the region well. However don’t know the parking places in the region
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Cool you'll be set up well then - mentioned it because we hire out our own motorhome and people vary in how prepared they are!
Definitely recommend winterised and the aires book for solid recommendations on parking, a bit more reliable than park4night.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Lol, we have been using park4night when we tripped around Europe in the summer of 2019. Found it to be excellent and now that you have mentioned those parking places, I’ve located them on p4night. Still, will get hold of those books. Cheers
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There are 5 car parks in Val Thorens 2300, P0, P1, P2, P3, P4. P2 offers covered and uncovered parking, with the uncovered parking offering accessibility for motorhomes.
P0: Maximum Height 2.20m
P1: Maximum Height 1.85m
P2 (Covered): Maximum Height 2.14m
P2 (Uncovered): No Maximum Height
P3 (Uncovered): No Maximum Height
P4 (Uncovered): No Maximum Height
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You know it makes sense.
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Thanks for the info Ricky B. Getting some great info from the messaging on this site. Cheers Michael
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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There's a huttopia at Bourg. I've not used it yet.
I've also capfun campsite site at the far end of La Clusaz. It's a great site and it has an indoor swimming pool as well  La Clusaz "tolerate" a bit of wild camping......we arrived late and camped in our T5 in the empty Balme car park and had an amazing nights sleep.....woke up to a full car park of skiiers and had to wake the kids up. Capfun have a couple of sites in the Alps.
Not quite 3 Valleys but other options
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Poster: A snowHead
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Hello, thanks so far for the valuable information. Whilst it is a fair way off that we trip to France and Switzerland to ski, we figure that those who respond to me are/have recently parked up in or near the ski areas we intend to visit.
Mapsme has useful info and the recommendation to purchase a copy of aAll the Aires will give us ideas. In the meantime any ideas re Verbier and Zermatt? Cheers Michael
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Moiki12 wrote: |
| Excellent. Thanks for the advice. We intend to arrive on 4 January which I see falls outside the French Christmas holiday period so hopefully we should have little difficulty finding a place to park. |
Arriving then would put you in the middle of the New Year week hordes.
Try asking on the resort specific threads in 'Snow Reports' for parking data.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You would need to book for that period. I know you can book at La Plagne.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Moiki12 wrote: |
Hello, thanks so far for the valuable information. Whilst it is a fair way off that we trip to France and Switzerland to ski, we figure that those who respond to me are/have recently parked up in or near the ski areas we intend to visit.
Mapsme has useful info and the recommendation to purchase a copy of aAll the Aires will give us ideas. In the meantime any ideas re Verbier and Zermatt? Cheers Michael |
Zermatt is car free. There's campsites over in Lauterbrunnen though or down in Interlaken etc and train up. I think theres a campsite in Tasch as well but not sure if in winter or not. No idea on Verbier sorry.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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We’ve stayed at the La Plagne Villages site a few times and love it, great access and hook up. You can’t stay in Val D’Isere as far as I’m aware and heard they are quite strict at moving Motorhomes on, but you can stay in Tignes Les Breviere as ski across to Val D. This is just a basic car though (and free), you can dispose of waste and get water from the village but you need to be self sufficient on power.
Friends have stayed somewhere in Switzerland but not sure where.
Re La Plagne (afaik) they allow half the pitches to be booked in advance and keep half the pitches to be used on a first come basis.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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We stayed in the Huttopia in Bourg SM mentioned above, when it was privately owned . Its not near the funicular up to the ski area but they had a shuttle bus that took you to the funicular and back. The site has the advantage of being at 800m so not too cold, and walking distance to a supermarket.
There's also a good campsite in Samoens within walking distance of the airport lifts.
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Thanks for all the helpful advice. Cheers Michael
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