help understanding Alps skiing/how hard it is to stay a bit away from sites and drive/park at resort

A snowHead

We recently moved from Canada to Scotland and I'm struggling to plan our first trip to the Alps given I have no experience there.

The plan is to spend a week with my 10 year old, staying in our campervan, plus Mom and the 7 year old are going to fly down for half-term (which starts Feb 7th here). So one week for them and two weeks for us. One of the weeks will be in Laax, given my son is hugely into freestyle.

We can rent a very nice, large studio in Laax, walking distance to the lifts, with hot tub and indoor pool for £1100. I'd prefer to spend the week in Laax with just my son though, as we don't mind roughing it away from restaurants, skipping lunch stops during the day, etc., and it would be nice to be able to go out with the family and do other family-type things without feeling we are bleeding huge amounts of money.

I've looked at the Dolomites, but am struggling to find any accommodation for under £2000. Not much point in going all the way to Italy to save money on food if the accommodation is so much more expensive. On the other hand, I've seen airbnbs for £600 in villages in the Aosta Valley, not lift served but under 15 minute drive to resorts there.

Two big unknowns that I'd love some help with:

- realistically how busy are the main resorts in the Alps in mid-february? People say there are lift lines but I don't know if that means 10 minutes or 30 minutes or 60 minutes. I'm asking to get a sense of whether it would be good to prioritize smaller, non-internationally-known resorts. E.g. we can get a flat in Trun (25 minutes to Laax) for under £1500 for two weeks. Son and I could spend a week in Laax and the whole family could spend a week skiing the many small resorts nearby, with a day or two in Laax as well.

- if one is driving anyway rather than flying, how hard is it to stay in a cheaper place and drive to lifts and park? Obviously ski-in/ski-out is ideal, but I'm really wondering about parking/traffic. Is it a total nightmare or does that tend to be a reasonable option? Am particularly wondering about this for the Dolomites, as I think that would be my first preference for the family week but the accommodation cost in the villages served by lifts is just a bit much for us.

thanks very much for any advice.

A snowHead

By coincidence saw this recently
http://youtube.com/v/s4cMii-0dYE .

February is high season but generally that means busy pistes not stupid lift queues. I would say a 10 minute queue would be about the worst you will find (maybe France is worse but not been in a while) and even that would be unusual. There is the odd place where you will hit big queues on the main lift heading out of the village in the mornings but this can usually be avoided by going to a less convenient lift.

Sadly skiing is expensive and the cost of accommodation has risen significantly in recent times. I would suggest the "Dolomites" (the description covers a huge area so difficult to know where you are looking but I suspect you can find places a bit cheaper than £2000 though you have left it very late) is a much better place to visit than the Aosta valley hence the difference in prices.

You might find it is not so easy to get parking for a campervan near the lifts, most parking is aimed at locals doing day trips and I have seen signs saying cars only. No idea how much of an issue this as never driven one. I can see this is a common thing in Canada but less in Europe though there are sites. Perhaps worth asking about this seperately.

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@notatschool,
Welcome to snowHead

A bit difficult to answer some of your questions as the answer will vary from resort to resort.
Driving and parking can be a reasonable option I have done it many times , but it does vary from resort to resort. It is many years since I've skied in Flims /Laax and stayed in the middle and don't know what the parking is like.

Again with lift queues this varies massively from resort to resort and can vary year to year for the same week depending on when holidays relating to Easter time such as Fasching fall.

Very generally speaking at busy times you can expect queues from the bottom to access the mountain to be quite long and sometimes bottle neck lifts up a mountain between areas to be long but other wise OK.
By long I would hope that most are less than 30 minutes to access the mountain but at peak times can be busier. The worst I have encountered in recent years are lifts to access the Sella Ronda from Canazei and Campitello during Danish holidays which were over an hour at peak,to put this in perspective from Corvara they may be 5 -10 minutes.

My memory form Flims /Laax is that they weren't bad but it was over 20 years ago that I went though it was at New Year when queues tend to e long,

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Mid-February is school half-term time, so is always going to be busier. Here's the link to the European School holidays, and Fasching week (Germany/Austria) will always be very busy in Austria. I'd avoid France for the Paris half-term week.

https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=167136&highlight=school

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Laax is ace.
Gets busy in Feb so the Crap Sogn Gion cable car can have a bit of a rugby scrum of a queue in mornings.
Tip - consider using the Télécabine that heads towards Falera instead.
If driving Falera can also be a good place to park.
Laax/Flims plenty big enough to keep you occupied for 2+weeks.
Freestyle scene is impressive/daunting. Plenty of rippers to keep one’s ego in check wink

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Thanks everyone.

I knew mid-february would be busy, the issue is that 'busy' and 'long waits' don't mean much without a comparison. E.g. at Tremblant (where we usually ski) 15-20 minute waits for a main lift on weekends are pretty normal so encountering something like that wouldn't drive us crazy. On the other hand skiing Lake Louise last year we mostly skied straight onto the lifts, or at most 3 or 4 chairs filled ahead of us, and if one is used to that then a 10 minute line up would seem terrible.

It sounds from the replies as if it wouldn't be that busy compared to what we are used to.

Prices will take some getting used to. I just looked at the Lake Louise Inn (pool and hot tub, <5 minute drive to LL resort, free parking at the resort or free shuttle, no ski-in/ski-out accommodation anyway because it's a national park) and it's £800 for the half-term week booking it today. That's about 1/3 of what I'm seeing for places in the Alps.

After all it is free

@notatschool, as people have said, you're looking at a peak week AND booking very late. So, the perfect storm! The Aosta valley might be a good destination. If you stay in Aosta you can get a lift up to Pila and easily drive up to La Thuile or (slightly less easily) up to Gressoney. Aosta is a curious place - lovely centre, great restaurants, proper Roman ruins and big, unlovely, sprawling industrial/commercial surroundings. But it's right on the motorway which has great advantages. Including the unlikelihood of meeting significant snow. I don't think the big free car park at the bottom of the lift has height restrictions but I was in a car when I was there - you'd obviously want to check that (and any other car parks you might use). People here will know as lots of people have been to Aosta. there should be accommodation available at reasonable cost, compared to the alternatives!

Going to any of those alpine destinations you need chains or snow socks if you don't have winter tyres (and it's wise, even if you do).

Lift queues are really unpredictable but I SUSPECT you'd do better in that respect in Aosta than in Austria or the Dolomites. The scenery in the Dolomites is uniquely spectacular, but you'll enjoy anywhere in the Alps. And you'll cope better than most of us if it's cold. Do let us know how your plans progress.

thanks. My van is under 2 metres high and often classed as a car (e.g. with DFDS ferries) so I think access to car parks shouldn't be a problem (where they exist/aren't already full).

I take the point about peak weeks and booking late, but when peak weeks last for 4-5 weeks, and that comes pretty close to mirroring the snow-sure season, there's perhaps a question about whether it's just the usual cost versus a true peak season rate. (E.g. does one have to commit, six months in advance, to a week when it might just be raining to get a Lake Louise mid-February-booked-4-weeks-out price?)

I have a better understanding of why on a few occasions I've met Brits on a chairlift at Tremblant or Lake Louise who said they were there because it was cheaper than the Alps, even including overseas flights. That struck me as bizarre at the time and I'm still not sure it could be true all things considered.

In any event, I didn't mean to complain about Alps prices, more to try to get a sense of how important lift-side accommodation (which is the expensive kind) is. If you're flying and especially places where the buses are bad, it's important, but if you will have a car anyway it's harder for me to assess. It looks possible to have a pretty cheap ski holiday, even in Switzerland at peak season booked one month out, *IF* it's actually easy to find parking by the lifts and it's not total chaos driving/parking.

We tend to ski from first chair to last chair and are pretty shattered at the end of the day so typically have no desire to go out for dinner, or spend time (aside from a rest day) in a town centre. This would make it easy to be a 20-30 minute drive away, if parking wasn't a problem. Back at the flat before 6pm, then easy dinner and crash.

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@notatschool,
If driving to the Alps make sure your campervan will be legal in the countries you are driving in - rac.co.uk is good for this. viamichelin.co.uk will help with route planning & give an indication on costs involved (fuel, tolls etc).
If you are trying to keep costs down perhaps avoid Switzerland. Consider the resorts in Andorra.
You may be able to find some late deals with the UK tour operators. Look on alpineanswers.co.uk heidi.com igluski.com
Another source of cheaper skiing is UCPA, check out their UK arm,
action-outdoors.co.uk
Whilst aimed at the 18-44 market they do family holidays and take older people. They offer all in holidays (accommodation, 3 meals per day, lift pass, kit hire & tuition) in France, but you have to sort out your own transport to & from resort.

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@munich_irish, thanks, that's an interesting video. I wonder though if he is partly trolling in an effort to drive engagement/clicks/shares. E.g. he marvels that in Europe some major resorts have runs of over 1000 metres vertical, when there are many such runs in North America too. (Europe has runs with more vertical, but he should have used real examples of that, not 1000 metres of vertical, which just invites rebuttal.) He also seems in my mind to way undervalue the off-piste/non-groomed terrain in North America, which has the huge advantage of being avalanche controlled and patrolled. Also no mention of extensive tree skiing in North America, and the very reliable and longer seasons.

Alternatively, I wonder if he is really comparing East Coast US skiing (which is where he is from), plus major high-end US west coast resorts that he googled (e.g. for prices), to Europe.

One thing I think he misses is the way the IKON pass can make US/Canada skiing very cheap. At Tremblant we paid about £550 GBP for an adult pass, and about £100 for our kids. That gave us unlimited skiing at Tremblant plus skiing (unlimited or up to 5 days depending on the resort) at loads of other places, including Revelstoke, Lake Louise, Banff, Chamonix, Kitz, Dolmiti Superski, Zermatt, tons of world class resorts. The IKON pass has its haters but it's not really fair to compare ski pass costs by looking at day tickets since the business models are different.

I'm super looking forward to our February trip although I harbour the slight worry that it will all feel too civilised/urbanised/built-up. You know the way Europe tends to be, just because of the density of people. E.g. hiking in the Alps in the summer is awesome but it's totally different from the Rockies in terms of being so built up/subdued-by-man so to speak. When you're hiking in the Rockies a grizzly bear could come out of the woods at any point, and similarly skiing somewhere like Kicking Horse you're surrounded by thousands of square miles of empty wilderness, and the ski resort feels like a small frontier intervention, like a little outpost of civilization in the wilderness. I suspect you just don't get that feeling in the Alps (but I don't know).

snow reports

@notatschool, Cheaper does exist but you need to book a good way in advance many folk already booking for next year though probably best wait until summer. Booking now generally means only the more expensive or less ideally placed options are available. Most Austrian, Swiss & Italian areas (not so sure about France) have excellent public / ski transport so being away from the lifts without a car is no big deal (certainly different from north America).

As to weather, no issue it is less reliable than it was. However many places have plans in place. The Dolomite areas have led the way with snow making (mostly as a consequence of a cold but dry climate) and other places have similarly invested so you can be pretty sure of skiing from Christmas until the end of March. There was an issue a couple of years back where a rain storm swept into the western alps just before Christmas which washed away the snow from many of the French areas, this was unprecedented but whether we shall see such again?

As to the costs of the alps versus north America, no experience of that but the American bod's YouTube linked in my first post suggest alps a good deal cheaper and better (though he is running a business for north Americans coming to Europe). I suspect it is more of a difference experience thing. Day lift passes are definitely cheaper here (though have gone up like everything else, larger areas generally around €75 / day ). Food is probably cheaper & better. Also less "packages" in the alps as the skiing isnt owned and run by a single company.

I just looked at my nearest big area in Austria (SkiWelt) and there are apartments for 2 adults and 2 kids for the week you are after from €525 up to €1800. Do note a lot of places wont be on AirBnB or Booking.com

@munich_irish.

thanks. My impression is that costs at the big US resorts are truly crazy, that's for sure. It's also striking to me that a week of ski school at Laax in $witzer£and costs a lot less than at Tremblant in Quebec, even though Quebec tends to be much cheaper than the US.

I've been trying to use the local portal to search for accommodation at Dolomiti Superski but to no avail, despite entering my dates it shows me every place and I have to click through to each one to see whether they actually have availability in the week we're looking at.

Is the site you're looking at the accommodation page here? https://www.skiwelt.at/en/

I was originally interested in Austria because of the traditional villages, and I remember now that I did ski one day in Austria way back around 2000 and speak German half-decency so it would be appealing to go there again.

You know it makes sense.

@notatschool, Laax to the Dolomites is quite a trek, it wouldn't be my obvious pairing.

Why not stay in Switzerland, it doesn't tend to have problems with crowds in the UK half term? When our daughter was in school we went to Lenzerheide (not that far from Laax) a couple of years, it has a decent range of skiing including a link to Arosa on the same ski pass. I happened to notice that there was a camper van site by the Churwalden lifts, though you would need some very good insulation. But you would probably do better staying further down the valley in the pleasant town of Chur, the lift pass includes both the regular bus to Lenzerheide and the mountain railway (spectacular, but slower) to Arosa; whether there is a campervan site there I don't know but accommodation will be reasonably priced.

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

A snowHead

@notatschool,

1.You are leaving it very late to book this, so availability will likely be limited to things that are overpriced or inconvenient, which is what you're discovering. Accommodation next to lifts during peak weeks gets booked out fairly quickly and generally costs a lot more. I'm sure you will find something though.

2. Is your van fully winterised? Winter tyres fitted?? If not, just fly and rent a car for the 2 weeks. That might even be the best option anyway! wink

3. You will open up a lot more cheaper options if you're willing to commute. It's perfectly possible to do, some areas have large free car parks next to the lifts, but not all. If your van fits into a car space (VW Transporter style) you should be OK. The inconvenience will really come into play in bad weather when you have to dig it out, clear snow off it every morning, drive along snowy roads, etc.

4. Switzerland is pricey for most things if you're paying in £. Laax is a popular resort, so will be tricky to find something cheap there. Have you tried the Riders Hotel?
Italy can be cheaper, but if you're looking at premium spots on the Sella Ronda, you will pay premium prices for accommodation, esp this late.

5. Which dates are you hoping to go? The week with your son, is it the week before the Feb 8th-15th week?

A snowHead

@notatschool,
Just some random thoughts:-
Have you and family got your GHIC cards. If not apply free via the nhs.uk website. The cards offer some medical cover abroad.
Check the small print of your ski insurance with regards to freestyle and off-piste cover to avoid nasty/expensive surprises.
otp.co.uk may be able to help with accommodation in Films-Laax.
Where are you plan to cross to the continent in your van? Newcastle to Amsterdam or Hull to Rotterdam are alternatives to the Kent ports to the French ones.
After Laax, consider looking at the Western alps. As they on your way back to the UK, it would shorten your return drive.
Do you have to go at half term, or are the school Easter holidays an option for you?
And have you been to any of the Scottish ski areas yet? snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

As a fellow Canadian, currently on a European ski trip, a few comments:

You have to factor in currencies when looking at the hotel prices. With the Canadian dollar so weak right now, it's going to look cheap when you put it into £. Trust me, it's not cheap if you are earning and spending Canadian dollars...

I'm sure you can do better on prices than what you are seeing. We've done month long trips 3 years in a row now. We've been able to average about 150 cad per night for full apartments by doing what you are thinking and not getting ski in ski out properties.

We can do that because parking is easy. Sometimes paid, but often not. We actually prefer staying central and driving to different resorts each day. They are so close to each other, you can hit a lot of resorts on a trip. Distances aren't like Canada.

Since you mentioned Austria, and a willingness to drive, I would suggest basing in Landeck. From there you are short drives to a huge number of resorts, including Ski Arlberg, Ischgl, See, Kappl, Serfaus-Fiss Ladis etc.

I can't really comment on mid February business levels, because we always come in January. But from what we see, the horror stories of how busy European resorts are is unfounded. I have very little patience for lines, have LL as my home resort, which as you said is great for lack of lines, and still rarely get agitated by the lines in Europe. Also, remember the run time is generally longer here too, so the ratio of line time to ski time is totally fine.

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Point was, I don't think it's ever as bad as the horror stories we here about Europe skiing in Canada. And since he's Canadian, I'm guessing that's what he hears. I realize February would be different than when I come.

And trust me, if they are used to Tremblant, they are used to long lines and crowded slopes...

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@notatschool, the site I checked was https://www.skiwelt.at/en/accommodation-list.html .

I get the thing about wilderness, there is not much of that left in the alps these days. When a bear turned up in the Bavarian alps and started to rummage around in the bins outside various mountain huts the politicians got in such a tizz they decided it had to be shot! Even so in the eastern alps most ski areas are above villages not so many high altitude monstrosities as found in France (there are a few in the east too). Especially if you ski tour you can get away from the crowds (though do make sure you have avi protection sorted even if that is not a guarantee of safety). Pretty much deserted areas can be found adjacent to the busiest areas eg in the Dolomites and Arlberg.

From your description of the resort in Canada it sounds much more like one of the smaller areas in the alps which are often mainly of interest to locals and are a lot cheaper. Somewhere like the Sella Ronda area is probably better compared to one of the larger & expensive N American spots.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Here's a nice small villagey spot in the Beaufortain. Some terrific ski touring in the area, as well as downhill.

But not recommended in the French school hols!

https://en.areches-beaufort.com/

Practically no British skiers have heard of it, or visited.

After all it is free

@notatschool, OK, I've come up with a suggestion for you... snowHead

Skyscanner is showing flights Edinburgh-Bergamo 1-15th Feb at £71 return (plus usual Ryanair extras, so travel light if you can). The flights are late so you might need a night near airport then stunning drive up Sunday am past Lake Como to Livigno. Hopefully EDI is doable, perhaps your Mrs can drop you off, then park for a week when she comes out. If you can fiddle with the flight dates you might get cheaper, though accommodation is often Sat-Sat.

Car hire is from £80 for the 14 days, but I'd recommend paying a bit more for a well-known company. Alamo had a Corsa for £149 on booking.com. Obviously you can go bigger for more.

Livigno is a freeride resort, a bit of a drive up from the airport (just over 3h), but nowhere like as far as driving from Scotland! Shocked

https://powderguide.com/en/magazine/spotchecks/freeride-skitouringcheck-in-livigno

This apartment 300m from lift is £656 for the week https://www.booking.com/Share-UT5zCQ

Drive down to airport on Sat 8th to pick up Mrs and 7yo and drive up to Dolomites (maybe overnight near airport if it's a late flight).

This place for 4 at Alba is £1015 for the week, very short drive to two fast lifts with huge car park, one to Sella Ronda, one to a quieter area great for kids

https://www.booking.com/Share-LiTKbF

There is cheaper stuff further down the valley near Pozza or Moena, but won't be as conveniently located. But take a look and come back for advice.

Drive all 4 back to airport the following Saturday 15th, stop off at Lake Garda or old town of Bergamo, evening flight home to Bonnie Scotland! Cool

Fiddle about with dates on accomodation, check out Airbnb too, you might only need 6 nights in each resort with the overnights near Bergamo. A lot will only be 7 days Sat-Sat, but might be worth boking it still even if you can't use the first night, though be sure to inform them!

I reckon this will be a lot cheaper (and comfortable) than driving your camper down, if you count up all the hidden costs (fuel, ferries, food, road tolls, breakdown insurance, wear & tear, site hook-up fees etc). It can be illegal to drive in Switzerland, Germany, Austria in winter without proper snow tyres anyway. Let the plane take the strain! wink

Somewhere like this place by the lake might be good for first night: £71 B&B https://www.booking.com/Share-xCnEi32 About 50mins from airport, so about 2.5 hrs next morning up to Livigno.

This place on the way up to the Dolomites on 8th, £111 for 4 with breakfast. A modern business hotel, but very handy for the autostrada, I've stayed there overnight myself: https://www.booking.com/Share-qgwLyv

About 1.5 hrs from airport, so under 2 hrs up to Alba next morning.

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Just a quick skimming look to show you what could be done...not necessarily personal recommendations for all those accommodations I've not actually stayed in, but the basic resort ideas are what I would be considering taking into account what you were looking for, a week freeriding with no.1 son and a family week in the Dolomites, so please do some more research to find something that would work personally for you and your family snowHead

It would be better to get flights earlier in the day, but choice seems a bit limited from Scotland. Sad

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@notatschool, Laax wont be as busy as a lot of places (France Austria etc) at Feb half term just because its Switzerland. Switzerland can be expensive, but self catering will knock out some of the big costs. I have skied at Flims / Laax at half term, its busy but not bad, and as its a big resort there aren't big bottlenecks.

As mention above, its would be similar time to drive to Falera as Flims from Trun, which is a very small quiet village but gives you (what was a fairly archaic short chair lift) access into the system above Laax and avoids the worst of the "home-run" at the end of the day.

I have also done a Feb half term in Aosta Valley driving to different resorts, which worked very well, again not too busy either compared to the big French resorts, no issues with parking.

Equipment hire is noticeably more expensive in Switzerland, than Italy (but you may have your own?) as is eating out if you are watching the ££budget. The Dollies are more popular than such as Aosta valley with more of the ig tour operators, so would expect that to be busier, but no first hand experience of that.

snow reports

@notatschool, I have done a driving and parking week 3 times and it is typically a great solution with the following pros and cons.

Pros
- Cheaper, larger accommodation in a proper village with cheaper supermarkets etc
- The car park is usually very close to the lifts so you avoid a long walk
- Resorts have multiple entry points so you can look at the piste map and park exactly where you want to start
- Traffic and queues while driving and parking can be easily avoided by getting out a bit earlier in the morning, parking and getting a coffee while you wait for the lifts to open
- Choice of resort when you can target the best snow conditions

Cons (may not apply to you)
- Obvious impact on apres (sounds like not an issue for you)
- Effort of driving
- Cost of parking
- Cost of petrol
- Needing to park close to your accommodation each day after skiing, I would strongly recommend accommodation with off street parking
- Need for organisation rather than just walking to the same lifts each day
- If you want to drive to multiple resorts then daily ski passes get expensive, this can be mitigated by buying a multi resort pass such as the Innsbruck Citi Plus pass.
- Not so fun getting into boots and gear in a car compared to a boot room.

From what I have read on this trail you are planning two weeks, 1-8 Feb and 8-15 Feb?

School holiday info is taken from this thread (already shared by someone else)
https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=167136

Both 1-8 Feb and 8-15 Feb look like good weeks because the UK and Paris are not on holiday so queues will not be too bad I'd expect and you'd be ok in Laxx in either week.

Check out this hostel https://www.galaaxylaax.com it might not suit but has always been on my bucket list, I think it's directly above the freestyle park in Laxx (you'll need to check). They have availability for Sunday 2 - Friday 7 Feb but not the weekends so you'd need to stay down the mountain at either end.

I'd recommend considering staying close to Innsbruck and buying the Innsbruck City Plus Pass for a week if you like the sound of trying out multiple resorts.

Hope it works out for you Smile

@notatschool, I've spent the last 2 February half-terms in Flims / Laax and we drove down last year so it sounds like a similar trip.

The drive was very pleasant. We just cruised along the motorways and played car DJ where the choice of song goes around the occupants of the car. My children listened to a lot of classic rock and I'm now word perfect on Olivia Rodrigo.

We stayed in an apartment in Flims that was 15 minutes walk or 2 minutes on the free ski bus to the base station. We thought the car would be useful during the week but we didn't use it once. It sat where we parked it until the day we loaded it all up again. The free ski buses were so reliable and the town was compact enough that we walked everywhere.

The slopes are pretty busy in February. There weren't many British but the local schools have holidays so all the Swiss are there. The main crunch times on the lifts were just before 10am when the ski schools were getting going. We were dropping our children off for their lessons and then getting caught with all the other parents and the ski schools all trying to get up the mountain. If you are able to catch an earlier lift then this isn't as much of a problem. Once you're on the mountain and away from the learner areas then there are some busy lifts but never more than 10 minutes. The further you go from the base stations then the quieter the lifts become.

We were in Grand Massif over New Year a couple of weeks ago and the queues there were worse than February in Flims / Laax.

The Flims / Laax resort as a whole is fantastic. I'm going back without the children later this month. It's got some great pistes and also some really good free-ride 'pistes' that are marked up on the maps. The mountain restaurants are also super efficient. You order from QR codes and it comes almost immediately to your table. You can have a hot meal and be gone again in a few minutes.

It's true that Switzerland isn't cheap. I'd say it's good value though because the overall experience is great.

edit: spelling

You know it makes sense.

Just realised that I misread Freestyle as Freeride in my earlier posts...I guess I'm not down with the kids! Laughing

So Freestyle is snowparks, jumps, rails and boardercross, etc??

Livigno has the largest in Italy with 60 structures along with some smaller ones including a big air bag...

https://www.mottolino.com/en/winter/snowpark/

https://www.skiresort.info/ski-resort/livigno/test-result/snow-park/

Seems it's pretty set up for that too! snowHead

The fun needn't stop in the Dolomites with a fun park at Belvedere at the top of the lift from Alba...there used to be an air bag there too...I remember contemplating it once, then thought better of it!! Laughing

https://www.visittrentino.info/en/guide/winter-sports/snowpark/dolomiti-park-canazei-belvedere_md_923

A total of 8 fun parks scattered across the Val di Fassa ski areas

https://www.fassa.com/en/ski-lifts-slopes/snowparks

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

@notatschool, I came across this group on Facebook which seems to be full of very useful info on skiing from a campervan, where to stay, how to book etc etc https://www.facebook.com/groups/152867802030600

A snowHead

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

When I first read the post I assumed campervan meant the ability to sleep/stay in it as well, and I was going to Suggest the Colfosco or Canazei camp sites as places to stay in the Dolomites to keep costs down.

If, as @luigi suggests, it's just a form of transport, I'd be inclined to go flights and hire car as the best option.

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many years ago i drove from Greece till Hintertux for 4 days of skiing...through Ex Yugoslavia...so you are not alone...

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Does your youngest need ski school or also a competent skier, just not so keen as the elder sibling?

If you don't need ski school staying out of resort and driving in can be a very good option as you can often pick 'unpopular' chairs/gondolas as your morning uplift point. Purely as an example in Morzine the world and his dog will be trying to get into central Morzine and up the Pleney gondola as it's both obvious and where almost all ski school runs from, queue a good 15min queue to uplift morning rush hour. If you don't need to be there though head around to the Nyon gondola and you might have it to yourself!

Half term you'd still want to either get to the gondola early (before all the parking goes) or leave it late and work out somewhere you can park, then walk/bus to the gondola.

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@luigi said "Does anyone else think that driving a campervan all the way from Scotland to the Dolomites via Switzerland for this two week trip and not actually needing to sleep in it for half the time is madness and a false economy, when flights and car hire are so inexpensive in Italy?? Esp as half the family will be flying there anyway?? Or is it just me?? Shocked"

not everything is about money. Staying in a campervan with my kid is in many ways a better experience than staying in hotel/apartments. It's somehow very different. It's hard to explain but it's a combination of the closeness it enforces, and the way it requires a certain kind of simplicity. E.g. we will go back to the van, shower, have dinner, then lie there reading books for a couple of hours, maybe listening to some music too, then sleeping in a familiar bed. I haven't used the camper skiing yet, but I've done many mountain days in Scotland in the autumn with them and when you just park up in the van and make a simple dinner after a hard day's activities, it's bliss. I also want my kids to have some experience of 'roughing it', not just staying in hotels, eating out, and so on. I also think you understand space and place better when you move between them by land or water, not just flights. Not sure if that makes any sense to you, but with flights it's mostly like stepping into a teleporter, whereas by land or whatever you sort of understand their connection better. So all this was part of the thinking.

But that said, I think it's likely to be cheaper from what I can see. The ferry from/to Newcastle is about £350 return on the dates I'm looking at. That cuts out a huge amount of the driving. Amsterdam to Switzerland is coming in about 10 hours of driving, although of course that depends a lot on traffic, stops and so on. I didn't do that close a comparison on prices, because it's not just about money, but eyeballing the cost of flights, with all the bags (we'd prefer our own boots and skis, although rentals are pricey anyway), plus car rental, the extra week of accommodation (most of which is in Switzerland!), it adds up. E.g. when we are at Laax it will be about 50 CHF a night for camping, and we'll have breakfast and dinner in the van (probably skip lunch or just have something in our jackets, we like to ski all day). If you compare the cost of that to staying in a hotel and paying for meals, or renting an apartment, it's a huge savings. I would easily drink 30 to 40 CHF of coffee each morning in Laax, for example (that sounds like a lot but when a single espresso is 6 CHF, it's not really!).

Also, part of the point of the trip is to see just how hard/easy/fun/shite a campervan trip is in winter, which we haven't done yet (maybe I will find it much worse than I think, or better, or about the same). This is important because if it's good, I'd want to plan a longer trip, e.g. 3 to 4 weeks, another winter. But I wouldn't want to plan that without giving it a try for a week.

Help!!

help understanding Alps skiing/how hard it is to stay a bit away from sites and drive/park at resort

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