In preparation for the 2019/20 season, we’re starting early with a bunch of upgrades to the Winterized website that are going to make it more usable on the road, and for planning your motorhome ski trip.
If you’ve been keeping track of the Winterized activity in recent months, you’ll know that we’re doing a complete winter campervan conversion this summer in preparation for the new season. You’ll be able to keep tabs on that as we go – you can subscribe to our YouTube Channel here and if you stick your details in the box at the bottom of the page, you’ll get a disaster-by-disaster account.
In the beginning
When we started Winterized a few years ago it was mainly as an excuse for something to do on duvet days stuck in the motorhome. Pulling together a bit of updated information on motorhome skiing, how-to and where-to.
You can find the full backstory starting here but to precis – we quit our jobs; snaffled a motorhome; set out on the road; regretted it immediately; cursed and swore about ‘British craftsmanship’; pulled on our big-boy pants; did a bit of manning up; and had an awesome season touring the Alps – a decade’s worth of weather in 5 months. A decade’s worth of drama in 5 months and despite having only been together a few months when we hit the road, we survived. Against all odds.
After we’d ironed out the worst of the issues we had, we managed to get a lot of aires covered in our winter road trip – some of which you can see video tours of here and across the website.
And then you came
After we came to terms with the fact that we didn’t invent the concept of motorhome skiing, we started to rally the troops. We discovered a lot of like minded people lurking in the dark corners of the huge motorhoming and #vanlife facebook communities and we started to congregate in ‘Motorhome Skiing and Boarding’.
The best bit about the Facebook Group is that there are loads of very knowledgable people there – many with vast experience in winter motorhoming and all that entails.
We also get a lot of feedback on the website – which is great – it gives us an opportunity to develop it when we get a chance in a direction that provides more utility for you guys and hopefully, makes it a useful resource for anyone considering a motorhome skiing trip. By the end of this summer and autumn, we hope it will also be a place where people thinking about building their own winterized van can come to check out how to, and how not to do it!
Your reviews – hugely welcome!
Finally, you can have your say! There’s now a function on each winter aire and campsite where you can put forward your own views. It’s a simple process, no logging in or giving your details – just some stars and a bit of blurb where you get to say your bit.
The rules:
- Please only post a review if you’ve actually stayed at the place DURING THE WINTER MONTHS. The reason we set this site up in the first place is to make it very specifically usable for people in the winter – a lot of things can be very different summer to winter – access, facilities, spots….
- Please read the post first – let’s not repeat a load of stuff if possible
- Significant updates – If you have significant updates (i.e. it’s closed or something critical) please do email us at [email protected]
Directions and Planning
Long overdue, now, as well as GPS and our own location maps, we have two new options for each aire and campsite.
‘Plan your route’ allows you to make plans, geolocate, select personal preferences (e.g. avoid tolls) and see a full list of written directions using Get Directions. If you’re on the road, you can just click Google Maps to take you to the familiar!
Facilities
Now you can see also the main facilities available at each park up, aire or campsite, at a glance.
The Future
Hopefully you can see that we’ve moved on from a self-indulgent travel diary to something a little more useful and boy is it a huge job! We’re aiming big and hopefully in time, as well as campsites and aires, you’ll also be able to search all the useful stuff from launderettes and bars to pharmacies and supermarkets in each winter ski stations and resort across Europe we feature.
If this is a bit of you, stick your email address in the box below and we’ll keep you up to date with what’s going on over the summer and as we travel through the winter.
