I intend travelling to Europe in my VW Camper to go snowboarding. Do you have any advice?

Angela Hayes

Danny Burrows replies: Camping in the mountains, in the winter, is a really bad idea. Not only are the majority of campsites across Europe closed for business during the winter months, therefore limiting your chances of finding general amenities, but also the discomforts of sleeping in a VW van are significant.

They have virtually no heat insulation and in essence act as large refrigerators in the cold. I knew a couple who had intended to spend a season sleeping in a camper van in Tignes, but once they found that the only way of keeping their orange juice from freezing overnight was to sleep with it, they were soon looking for alternative accommodation.

There are cheap ways of spending time in the mountains without freezing to death in some desolate car park: there is a string of youth hostels across Europe providing affordable accommodation as well as numerous privately-run chalets that specifically cater to the less flush boarder-type.

Here are some useful contacts: for budget accommodation, the International Youth Hostel Federation (01707 324170); for snowboard-specific chalets, www.montblanclodge.com, www.boardnlodge.com; for summer snowboarding camps in Austria www.spc55camps.com, in Norway www.snowboard.no, and in Italy www.big-a.it.

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