Skiing In Italy Forums

seagull

Mrs Seagull (Hannah29) has been on at me since we got back last week to write on here and let you all know about our skiing trip... So, here goes:

I left home in Bristol on the 7th February to head for the Caravan Club site at Gatwick - I had some business to do in Crawley the following day before heading for Dover. I was on my own (i.e. no wife and kids) since I was heading off a few days early (before half term) and they like fly and meet me somewhere en-route when we are travelling long distance. The Gatwick CC site is great if you like plane spotting as it is right alongside the runway and you can site and watch the planes taking off over the trees just a few hundred yards away.

Business meeting completed I headed off towards Dover and spent the night at the nearest Caravan Club site in Folkestone before an early morning crossing on the Friday.

I drove all day on Friday before sleeping at a motorway services near Strasbourg. My route on this trip is always the same - towards Dunkerque, the head inland towards Lille, then towards Charleroi, Namur, Luxembourg, Metz and Strasbourg.

On the Saturday morning I found a new service area just north of Colmar - this has only recently opened and has about 40 parking spaces for campers and a water and waste service point - If I had known about it this is where I would have headed for on the Friday night (now I know for next time) - I think this service area is call the Aire de Koningsburg or something like.... All serviced up I headed into Germany towards Freiburg - this is different to our normal route but I had three days to kill before picking up the family at Zurich Airport on the Tuesday.

Headed towards Lake Konstanz and found a great site in a village called Tengen so stayed here for three days and chilled out in the van (with a bit of walking etc.) until the Tuesday morning. The site was pretty expensive at about 28 euros per night just for the van and me but I was dead chuffed when I checked out on the Tuesday morning as the campsite owner gave me three nights for the price of two as "the weather was so bad"!!

On the Tuesday I headed for Zurich to meet the family - they were arriving on the 6.55pm arrival from Bristol (£140 return for wifey and two kids thanks to airmiles). Crossing the border into Switzerland was different to normal as our van is over 3.5 tonnes so we needed a different permit to drive in Switzerland. The normal square stick on ticket costs about 40 euros for a year but if your vehicle is over 3.5 tonnes you cannot get this "vignette" - instead it is either 25 euros for one day or 32.50 for a form that allows you 10 days driving in Switzerland in one year - bargain!!! cheaper that the normal vignette and we will not use all 10 days. I was early at the airport so I found a parking area and settled for a couple of hours (had a shower and watched "deal or no deal?" thanks to Teleco and Sky).

Picked up the gang on time and headed through Zurich and on the motorway south towards Chur and the San Bernardino tunnel. We planned to stop for the night at Heidiland services near Landquart - this proved a good plan as their are dedicated motorhome parking places for overnighting with excellent toilets and showers in the services building.

Valentines day came and we headed off early towards Livigno - the route takes us from Landquart towards Klosters - about 40km off the motorway and the road climbs from 500m to 1300m above sea level. At Klosters we were still below the snow line - unusual for the time of year. The road heads towards Davos and St. Moritz but we take the dreaded Vereina tunnel from Klosters to Schuz - dreaded as the tunel is a train tunnel similar to the channel tunnel only much smaller - you have to drive the length of the train with only a couple of inches clearance either side and we did this very slowly indeed - the first time with this van and by far the most difficult. The train through the tunnel takes 20 minutes and costs 70 swiss francs but save 4 hours of mountain driving when you are heading for Livigno so it is well worth it. From the exit of the tunnel you head toward Zernez and then begin the climb up to the border with Italy - there had been snow the previous day so the narrow, bendy mountain roads here were covered with packed snow and ice in places and we had a scary moment or two on this climb - I came very close to putting my chains on for the first time ever and, with hindsight, should have done. We made it to the border crossing and passed through the Munt La Schera road tunnel into Italy and through the duty free crossing before driving the last 7kms alongside the lake and into the ski resort of Livigno at about 10am.

Livigno is duty free and diesel is 65 cents per litre so we always arrive as empty as possible.

The distance from Calais is 1130kms.

The Euramobil 810 performed fine all the way and seeing as I drove no more than 100 kmh all the way I got 27 mpg which was very pleasing.

I must also thank my trusty TOM TOM 910 for its help along the way.

In Livigno we parked next to our friends in the Pemont camper park - our friends are season workers and currently in their 7th Livigno winter in a camper - they are now in a 2001 Hymer 694 which they have owned for 2 years after parting with their first Hymer, a 1993 644. On with the external silver screens (a must!!!) and off with the internal gaslow system (we use an external bottle using our BBQ point as an input) and we are ready to explore and sort out our skiing stuff ready to hit the mountain the next day.

12 days skiing followed - I skied most mornings with our 9 year old and our friends - we were also joined on occasions by some of the other English in the camper park who are also Livigno regulars and firm friends now (even if they are snowboarders!!!!) - If anyone requires information on the village, ski passes, ski hire, ski schools, restaurants, shopping (everything is duty free and many Milanese come in their campers just for the shopping) just ask away and we will answer.

A special mention for our 9 year old Pia who has mastered the mountain on only her 4th trip - she skied with me every day without a problem and made it down the most difficult run in the resort with style and grace a couple of times!!! She is now officially a star skier....

Hannah only got on her skis on the mountain once this year (her choice) as we had the little one (Rebecca 15 months) with us. Hannah spent her time around the van in the mornings and rode the lift up a couple of times for lunch with baby. There are a couple of creches in the village but they do not take kids until they are 3 years old. We spent the afternoons sledging, walking in the village and people watching - spending good family time together. In the evenings we ate out a few times and had some excellent meals in the van with our friends. We had lunch either on the mountain or outside the van on our "patio" each day - we had a bbq once and it was so warm on one day I even got my shorts on!!!

13 nights in the campsite was 22 euros per night including hook up. The site has excellent showers and toilets with washing machines and dryers and a bar. We used about 35kgs of gas that cost us about 90 euros whilst in the resort and this meant we could keep our hot water on permanently and our heating on 20 degrees during the day and 15 overnight. The camper was toasy warm at all times and being a Euramobil with a double floor we had no problems whatever the temperature - our friends have never had a problem in 7 winters and have been fine in their van at temperatures below -25 on a regular basis. We also had English TV in the van thanks to a Teleco system and Sky - this worked fantastically even though we were so far from the UK.

Skis and boots are not kept in the van during the holiday - there are lockers at the bottom of the gondola which are heated so we use there - save the walk in ski boots carrying skis every morning and night - the camper park is 10 minutes walk from the main lift, 2 minutes to the nearest and is only 5 minutes walk into town.

We left on February 27th and I dropped the gang off at Zurich airport for their flight home at 4pm - I drove most of the night and, after a brief sleep in the services at Luxembourg (exoctic eh?) I made Calais at 11am the next morning - diesel for the trip home cost me 95 euros as most was duty free (a full tank in Livigno, a top up near Metz and a full tank in Luxembourg) - just a bit of planning and knowing your route can save loads!!!

The into London to the CC site at Abbey Wood for a night and another business meeting on the Wednesday and back to Bristol the following morning.

Hope this is not too long winded and has some information that others find useful - we are now well used to winter trips and, with the knowledge and support of our full timing friends that winter every year in Livigno, consider ourselves pretty knowledgable about skiing in a motorhome - we are happy to share our experiences with anyone so feel free to ask and we will do out best to advise or help.

Seagull, Hannah29 (really 35), Pia (the skier) and baby Rebecca (15 months).

hannah29

Thanks for telling my age darling.....much appreciated Rolling Eyes

hannah x

drifterman

I really enjoyed that ,very interesting.We are about to embark on our first skiing trip in m/h and can't wait now.
Well done Seagull and no way not long winded

teemyob

Hello Skigull,

What an interesting read.

We drove to Annecy last year via Geneva in our 4.6t Eura. However, I was unaware of the exact motorway "vignette" and was lukcy enough to get through okay without one!.

Planning to go Skiing Easter time round the Alps somewhere.....

Not sure where though

Thanks,
Trev.

ruthiebabe

I've wandered in here with my morning cuppa, and had a lovel read, thanks! (meant to be doing some emails before work, but...) Anyway, thanks for posting that, it makes a good read and has useful tips in it. It's good to see that the band of knowledgable motorhome skiers is growing and I'm pleased that you had such a good trip!

Rapide561

Hi

You have the name right for the services in France. I seem to recall it is owned by the Carrefour chain and I too thought it would be a good sleeping point.

Glad you had a good trip and thanks for a good early morning read.

Russell

eddied

Still alive and kicking after the '29 and holding' slip of the keyboard are you?
I wouldn't have been!
Anyway, although not a snow person myself, found your post very interesting. thanks.
saluti,
eddie

artona · Moderator

Hi Gary

Nice report. I shall have to try that flying the family out myself. Quite like the idea of a few days with just the Tomtom 910 and the Euromoby for company even though I am sure I would miss Shona and Jess (Shona normally spies on my posts Laughing

).

Glad the 810 performed well, as you might know I have a vested interested Smile

.

Bit of friendly advice mate, now you have spilled the other half's age best be on red alert for the incoming Laughing

stew

hannah29

stew

we tend to fly out so we can spend maximum time in the resort....thanks to new school rules our daughter is only allowed 10 days out for holidays a year and we need the odd days for mh shows to get there at a reasonable time on a friday.

it also gives me a couple of days p and q without