So Nomadic mat wrote an article about why we travel, more specifically why he travels. Its  not a simple question, why we travel,  when I started this blog I though allot about the reasons for travel. The truth is their are so many reasons for travel and these are always individual. Do i think that this article from Matt is condescending? No i don’t. However I do feel that he has written a article that is based on a presumption, the presumption being that everyone loves to travel. Yeah of course the majority of people do, however if you neglect to see the minority their is always the chance that you will come across as condescending. Even for those who like to travel there is part of them/us that knows they could not do it indefinitely.

I have often thought however that Matt has a very unique view of travel and travel writing. A way of expressing his journey and making you think. His view on the 9-5 and passion for what he does really made me think….. what am I doing here,  I need to travel, I need to see the world for my own reasons. Does Matt think his Nomadic lifestyle is superior to the 9-5, maybe….. but that’s his opinion and if he can make people choose something different or to think about something differently by expressing himself through his blog then why not.

Long term travel, snobbery and judgmental blogging on Gadling makes me think about the choices I have. How do I write, how does the way I write come across. Is what I’m writing what I am really trying to say, what am I actually trying to say anyway? At the moment I have no real idea what I am trying to say, but what are you thinking?

My blog posts often feel like a jumble of what I’m thinking. I started this post asking a question of the travel blogging community. Is this space on the web on the where the travel blogging community hang out polluted with condescending, arrogant and judgemental people, of course its not. That conclusion may have been obvious to some of you and to be honest I knew it too. It made me think though!

How do I write about my journey through travel?

I don’t know! But it will be my thoughts, sometimes in there rawest form and sometimes it may not be what I truly mean. I don’t want to have to think about it all to much, this is my space and I can do what I want with it.

Thanks for reading.

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So progress on the Round the world trip….

The round the world trip has been shortened and expanded all at the same time. We are now looking at doing 4/5 months in South America to get us started. Yeah, i know straight in at the deep end. I don’t think i would have it any other way though. Going back 3 months the trip in South America was a 3 month deal. I must have been mad, the more planning that i am doing the harder it is to get it into 5 months. The reason for the 3 month deal was that i though i could take that time off work and go back, due to the money of course.

I could not tell you when i started to think about it but the decision for CHANGE came while hanging out at the park stage at glasto. 4 years in my current position is plenty for the experience i need, looks good on my CV and bla bla bla. It really does not matter about all that, its done, time to jump in with both feet and live life, see whats out there and have some real experiences that i can value, a life i think you call it. So….. 4/5 months in South America, back to the UK to scramble some cash together and the rest of the world awaits me….

I got lost in the money worries, i don’t want my trip to be about money, the last four years have been about money. I have worked to pay for this trip and tried to save the money i need. Where am now…. out of dept, harah… That happened a couple of months ago and the first thing i have realised is how easy it is to save once you are in + figures. Four years spent getting out and its taking me 7 months to get the cash together for South America. Couple of factors on that for those of you who have read my saving to travel around the world post. Firstly their is no interest, well their is but its coming to you rather than being taken away. Secondly and most importantly i think is the fact that you can see the money going up, every day you work buys you another day on your trip, that money is actually going to be spent on a bed in a hostel or a bus journey into the unknown. What a difference it makes to know that….

Its time to make this blog a travel blog. I place to sift through my thoughts about travel, a place to share what i am doing and hopefully in the coming months get  bit of feedback from seasoned pros…. thanks for reading..

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Something that I have never really though about are may expectations of my travel journey, of course I have had them, thought about them, but never holistically. My expectations have always been about the countries or the places which I want to visit, never about the journey as a whole. I suppose to a certain extent one of the the many reasons for putting this travel blog together is to try an make sense of my expectations. I have been piecing together the reasons for wanting to travel and I am sure this is having a huge effect on my expectations of travel, writing down and telling the world some of my own reasons for travel helps me understand why I want to and what I want to get out of travel. What is exciting is that these expectations will change prior too, during and after a journey around the world.

What are expectations in relation to RTW travel?

[ad#Samll Square - Align Right]A map of our future? Imagination? A plan? These points are all related to expectations but go no where in defining them, the dictionary definition goes some way to explain but is that relevant to my journey around the world, I found it hard to see the connection?  What I know is that they are is individual, no two of us will have the same expectations of travel. An expectation unless voiced is also our own. They are of course altered and influenced by the people around us, their opinions and their own expectations of what we are doing contribute to them but they are ultimately,  always our own. We look forward to what we are going to do, we naturally think about the effect it is going to have on us, in terms of travel this best describes our expectations, doesn’t it?

Expectations are not unique to travel, we have them in everything we do and some times they can even shape how we view an experience. If we have high expectations of something it often makes the experience its self seem less impressive or in the worst case can make these experiences seem a little dull or not worth it because we have built them up so much. On the flip of the coin we may have low expectations and exceed them. The latter is always the best in my opinion!!

I try to minimize my expectations of travel?

Why, because their is a danger that my expectations could develop into pre concieved ideas about that country and alter my experience once there. If this happens what is the point of travelling around the world in the first place. I could get a bunch of travel guides, history books and blogs together, take a read and I already know everything there is to know about that country. Everything that is except experiencing it.. .  Maybe that’s it, maybe that’s what make an expectation. . . In order for things to be an expectation we need to experience them. The expectation played an important role in having that experience, holding with it a certain amount of curiosity, a curiosity that we need to investigate and have the experience.

Will my trip around the world live up to my expectation?

The list of expectations which I have in my head is huge, far to big to list. As a journey which is going to take a year to complete my expectations are open to my own interpretation and are continually changing as my RTW trip gets closer.  They are focused on the return, I am going to embark amazing life altering trip around the world and I don’t know how I am going to change during that time. Will I want to travel more, will I want to settle down with 2.5 children. I Like to think of myself as living for the moment, whats important to remember is that these moments make up a life time. Every experience you have changes the person you are, not massively, subtly and most of the time in ways you do not even notice. The more I think the less I have expectations about who I am going to become, its more an excitement about becoming that person. I expect to be different is suppose. . . I believe I will be and welcome the change, without change life would be a little dull for me . . . so how can my trip fail to live up to my expectations, a bit of a cop out I now!
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Keeping my travel expectations in check. . .

If you could call the above my one big expectation of travel then there are a thousand more which I don’t have the words to talk about. A thousand more that my or may not be met. To focus on them would be a mistake, I am going on this trip to experience, not to meet my expectations. Does it really matter if we do or don’t meet our expectations. No, the point is that we have experienced and if we are able to take something away from that experience we grow as a result.

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Matt has some light reading to start you off, Aparnetly there are 8 types of backpacker, What type of backpacker are you?

Katie Sorene presents 25 Signs that You’re a True Citizen of the World | Travel Blog – Tripbase posted at Travel Blog – Tripbase.

Countries

Liz Wright presents Travelogged: The Best Views in Istanbul posted at Travelogged, saying, “This isn’t from a RTW trip, but it’s good advice for if you’re stopping in Istanbul on your way around the world.” One word about the pictures, WOW!

Chris presents The Tricycle Diaries – an Idea becomes Reality posted at nomad4ever. A journey through bali, what a way to explore a country.

One Family presents Cancun Trip Report posted at One Family’s Blog, saying, “A frugal family trip report to Cancun, Mexico.” This blog has some fantastic travel tips for all over the world.

oneyeartrip.com presents one.year.trip: Top 10 Offbeat Things to Do in Tokyo posted at one.year.trip.

Money

[ad#Samll Square - Align Right]Surbhi Bhatia presents The Financially Unstable Student’s Travel Guide posted at The Viewspaper » The Viewspaper.

Ray presents Paying Credit Card Currency Fees While Overseas posted at Money Blue Book.

Tim Leffel presents The State of the Travel Dollar, Summer 2009 posted at Tim Leffel’s Cheapest Destinations, saying, “A rundown on where the U.S. dollar is worth more than last year for travelers.” Well worth thinking about this if you are going on a short trip, not alot you can do about it if your going round the world though.

Planning

Keith Jenkins presents  http://velvetescape.com/blog/2009/06/ten-tips-for-planning-a-rtw-trip/ posteded at Velvet Escape. This post is a fanastic starting point for anyone planning to travel around the world. Broken down into 10 sections talking through where to start and things to think about once you begin your journey around the world.

Gregory E. Rouse presents Trail Tips – How to Cut Pack Weight posted at Wilderness-Trails Blog, saying, “The only problem is you have to carry everything on your back; first aid gear, food and cooking utensils, clothing, tents, etc… Not only do you have to carry it, but how are you going to fit it all into your backpack?”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of rtw travel journey using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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CLUN GWYN FALLS, The Brecon Beacons, Wales

Its fair to say that apart from a few weeks of great weather in June the UK summer has resumed as normal. Here in Wales is certainly no exception, it has been raining pretty much non stop here for the last 3 weeks. Yesterday we decided that it would be great to go and check out some of the waterfalls in the Brecon Beacons and I always like to go our for a walk when its really quite, who cares about a little rain. So glad we did, the waterfalls where wicked. Apologies if they don’t look quite so good for you but I only had my little phone cam with me.

This is the normal flow of the river

A big diffrence, it was so load

See my gallery of the Brecon Beacons for more of these pictures.

Location of these waterfall in the Brecon Beacons

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I understand that this is not the normal find of travel blog, this blog is about my trip around the world. That journey began when I started this blog. Or maybe even before. This blog is a process for me, my post about saving to travel around the world is a great example of thinking things through with my blog. I have also started a blog carnival about planning a backpacking trip around the world. It’s not only about my journey around the world but also about what I need to do to start the journey of a life time. I have had a particularly busy week and worked very hard and for long hours. In this post I am asking myself 2 apparently simple questions;

1. Why do we work so hard?
2. Is working so hard really worth it?

Firstly doing this amount of work is almost contradictory to the way I want to live my life and the things I want to do. I am certainly one of those people who work to live and not the other way round. This is of course why I want to travel around the world. Living is about getting the things you want out of life, for me and allot of others out there the things I want I believe I can find in travel.

We do what needs to be done

[ad#Samll Square - Align Right]This I think allot of travellers may be able to relate to. I am sure there are people out there who have either got themselves into or have fallen into some real tight spots when they have been travelling. In order to get out of them you have to do whatever is necessary. Working as a manager of luxury hotel I have to do whatever is necessary to ensure the guests have the best experience possible. Its getting out of tight spots.

If someone is off sick, I have to work. If a lock is broken on a guests bedroom door I have to climb a very steep ladder at 11 o’clock at night to go through a small window and open the door, then fix the lock and go home 2 hours later than I was planning. If the guest wants something we don’t have, or just wants something, I have to try my hardest to get it for them.

I know what you’re thinking; you don’t have to do any of those things. You’re absolutely right, I don’t. The point is I can do, so why not do those things? If I did not try and give everything I do 100% would I be who I am? If I don’t put everything I have into all that I do, am I making the most from my life? Am I taking the most from my life?

Working long and hard benefits me

In the 21st century, a lot of people, not all, are looking out for number one. I do it, you do it, we all do it to varying degrees and in different ways! I try and make the most out of situations which are presented to me; I use situations to my benefit. I use everyday life as a tool for personal development while having as few regrets as possible; instead I like to view things I have done wrong or badly as missed opportunities which I am able to learn from. That way even the bad stuff it is not a wasted experience.

Everybody is different, which is great, as a bit of a thinker and a people person it gives me loads to try and get my head round. Getting back on track thought . . . . . there are so many people who will not do the extra. They see no reason too, after all what thanks are you going to get, who is going to notice. I like to think that what I am doing here and now will one day be useful to me. Going back to the crazy chain of events that occurred last night, I have now seen the inside of a door lock, I understand how it works. I’m not planning on being a bank robber but I am sure that will be useful. My 75 hours of work this week have given me something! (There have been a number of other things, this is just the example, 75 hours work and I know what the inside of a lock looks like, well worth it!!!!)

Its good for me to know that whatever I have learnt the long hours of work are not wasted, my life is not wasted.

To travel, money makes the world go round after all . . .

I was speaking to a friend, no colleague . . . .  you will understand my uncertainty about our relationship when I tell you what he said while we had a very nice glass of Australian Shiraz after a hard night work earlier this week

‘I need a better paid job, I need to get out of here because money is what makes the world go round, without money you have nothing. .  . I get shit money. . . ’

Money makes the world go round . . . money makes our modern, commercialized, self indulgent world go round, yes maybe it does. It would be naive and unrealistic for us to think that money plays no part in the world as we know it today. But do we have nothing without money?

I wrote this quote to return too during or after my journey, I wonder how I will change through travel…

I don’t work crazy hours to have money. Right now, this year, and for the last 3 years I have worked to travel the world. It’s taken longer than expected and it’s harder than expected! I do it for the dream, the dream of travelling the world, the dream I am going to live. Enough said . . .

There is an easier way. . . .

I was going to write a long paragraph in here full of tips tricks and bull shit to make your life easier. The truth is after the bove it doesn’t really matter. I am sure there will be a week over the next year where I do very little and get noticed for something I have done very well, this is not the place to write about it, right here and now . . .

This post is about why I work hard, why I do what I do. It’s so simple really.

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Saving involves not spending

Savings with Sadie has some interesting money saving tips for you Americans out there. How I save money has some great tips on budgeting and saving long term which is also well worth a read. Fantastic, we learn how to save money when we go out and buy our groceries, toiletries and every thing else we need. For me what so many of these blogs do not address are the impulses that we have (apologies if I have not delved deep enough), I’m not talking about the things we need – I’m talking about the things we WANT. How do we overcome these impulses? How do we use the budget that we have effectively on a day to day basis to manage our spending and save more money. I think about what I really want, I really want to go backpacking around the world!! There are so many ways of implementing the budgets we make, most are simple, some more complex and each person will go about it differently! I am not the most organised person so I have to find ways of controlling my impulse spending using simple reminders of what I really want.

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Take time to think about your long term goal

One of the things that really helps me is working on this blog. I spend between 10 and 20 hours a week writing posts, researching and developing my blog. For a start I am not out spending during this time but more than that it’s a thought process. This post alone is making me think about the things which I do to help me save money, it gives me an understand of where my money goes and how to save more. It enables me to stay focused on my long goal, to travel around the world. Focusing on that for a few hours a day means I never forget that I need to watch how much I spend. You do not have to write a blog, simply planning your next backpacking trip, reading other travel blogs and books will keep you thinking about your wanderlust.

I am also writing my travel blog as a diary, a place I can think through my journey around the world. During the research I am doing I am writing posts about my plan, my journey and the places which excite me. While I am planning my trip around the world I am finding out snippets of information which I can use on a daily basis to help stop me spending. For example, the traditional fish and chips which I had yesterday because I did not make a sandwich before I left the house cost around £5. That same £5 could be just over a day on the road in Vietnam or Cambodia, did I really need those fish & Chips yesterday? Suddenly I don’t remember them tasting that good!! The £80 on petrol which I have spent in the last few days driving around the UK could be a a good contribution to Bungee jump in Australia or New Zealand. Have not quite decided where I want to do my first Bungee Jump, all I know is i want it to be BIG. Taking the time to think about the money I am spending now in comparison to what it could get me in a year is a real eye opener and makes you think twice about spending it.  Just think of the stories and the memories that money could give you, there are endless possibilities.

Find a way to pay off your dept as quickly as possible

If your anything like me, a 25 year old graduate then you may have also enjoyed the banks throwing money at you while you where at university, thanks banks I ad a great time but you are delaying my travel. Credit and saving are interconnected. There is little point in saving money when you have dept. You are paying more money on your dept than you are making on your savings so it makes sense to get our dept paid off as quickly as possible and save later. This is painful, you feel like your money is going no where, the truth is it has already gone somewhere but it really doesn’t feel like it. I try not to think about what I have done in the past but what I can do in the future as soon as that dept has gone. I am in the process of clearing my dept, I have moved it to 0% and I am saving my self about £50 a month. I am travelling in a year so that £600 saving could be an extra internal flight in South America, or an extra month on the road in Asia or . . . . .  well, you get the idea. When it comes to dept, think about the future.

If your going to save make it fun!

[ad#Samll Square - Align Right]Lets face it saving sucks, you spend most of your time working hard to save. You then put it into the bank and watch grow, ok that bits kinda fun i suppose!! You cant go out and do things apart from the one treat a month you have allowed your self. Your thinking, how can I make saving fun? You make it fun by making it hard core, spend as little money as possible, work out how much money you actually need to survive (remember there is a mental aspect to survival too!). How cheap can we make the weekly shop? What can we do that doesn’t cost anything?

Weird moment – Climbing tree’s has just popped into my head. I’m 25!! But I recon this could be an afternoon well spent! You have to find a tree which is suitable and you like the look of, work out a route, then get down and get home safe. That sounds like an afternoon gone to me, could be quite fun too.

Set your self mini targets with mini rewards. If your going to hit it hard core but you like to eat well my guess is you will have a shopping budget of around £20/$33 per week for food. If you only spend £10-12/$15-20 a week for 2 weeks you are able to go out for a nice meal. Something like this is a great tip and will keep you sane when you are saving long term.

Dont buy anything you could live without

Make sure everything you buy you can use long term. Basicaly dont spend any money on something which is going to stay at home collecting dust for a year while you are travelling around the world. If its only six months until you travel and you need some new trainers, don’t spend £100 on some top runners, why not buy some good quality walking trainer/shoes which can go everywhere with you. Simple ain’t it?!

Sure you can quite easily over complicate saving. Big extensive budgets which tell you you can only spend 2 pence a minute or not go out for a month. Don’t get me wrong there is always a place for a budget. I find that its best to make it simple day to day,  try and make your life as cheap as possible, keep a record of your spending and just stop spending when you spend to much. Simple . . . . . ?

Saving to travel is not hard

For me impulse spending will never go away, I just try to manage it. Saving is not hard if you really want the money for something important, its not about what you cant have while your saving its about what you can have after, your future and the life you want to live.

Travelogue has some more tips for saving money when travelling, interestingly he has some very simular veiws to me. There is also alot more on his site too as he has been travelling for nearly 10 years, I will be taking some time to have a look around for sure.

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Travellers Recommended Reading

What i read about backpacking around the world, their are alot of travel stories and blogs which tell you you should always have something to read. There for I am going to keep a record of what I read. Not neciserially a book review, just to say I have read and I think it would be worth reading.

Mr Nice is an autobiography of Howard Marks. A Welshman from the valleys Howard Marks once had 45 ish different names, nearly a hundred phone numbers and made his money smuggling Marijuana. This is not a book about drugs although they obviously play their part, its a story of a man who travelled round the world thinking very cleverly about how to smuggle Marijuana from place to place. A very interesting book which includes alot of travel and well worth reading. Some very funny parts too!!

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The list of websites below aims to give you all the information you need about working a ski season in the french alps. You will find sites about ski resorts, websites with ski jobs and other information you might need for working a ski season in the french alps.

Helpful Ski Season Websites

Let me know if you come across anything else which would make a good contribution to the list, i have tried to limit it to 10 so that its easy to read but i m sure there are many more useful web sites out there for the future seasonaire.

1. Natives – In my opinion the daddy if your thinking about working a ski season. There is more information on summers and other countries but the roots of this site are in the alps. Very simple, give them your CV  and start applying to as many different jobs as you like.
2. Season Workers – Huge selection of jobs. Also covers working a gap year, backpacking, summer seasons etc.
3. Free Radicals – An agency focused on season work. If you have got some experience in the area or of doing season let this lot do all the looking around. All you gotta do it tell them what you want.
4. Ski Club GB – has the most ccomprehensive resort information i can find. Very factual, you would want more if you have narrowed down your options to a couple of different ski resorts but at the early planning stages this site offers every thing you need to know about ski resorts all over the world.
5. Snow Workers A bit more of an international feel about this one, why stay in Europe!!
6. Base Camp – Very good if you are interested in doing some training there is also some great information if you are thinking of being a ski bum for the season. Long lets, Equipment support . . . .  all in all a very useful site.
7. Over Seas Job Centre Perhaps the most comprehensive list of websites for working a ski season, if anything it is slightly overwhelming. Everything from recruitment agencies to small companies based all over the french alps. If my list is not given you what you are looking for then this is the next place to look!!

Hope these have helped, I am aware i could list all of the companies that work out in the mountains but I am sure you can find these yourself, its also a long way of going about it. Have a good season, let me know if you come across any more sites.

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Get a Job in the French Alps

Being a chalet host in the French Alps is not easy, it can be really hard work. The bloke you share a room with is a nutter, its minus 20, your guests this week are a bunch of wankers and your wine delivery cant gt up the hill because of the weather. Is it that bad really, no of course not. . . you wake up on your ONE day off and there is6ft of fresh powder and you know exactly where to go to get at least 2 lines of fresh snow before the punters recover from their hangovers, you have had an adrenaline pumped day on the hill and you head back to resort for a drink before you start work, serve up a pro dinner and head to the bar with your guests. Good day, well done!!

10 tips for the prospective chalet host

The tips below aim to give you an insight into what its like to be a chalet host and how you can make your life easier. The lifestyle is idyllic, if you want to go work abroad in the french alps you will have an amazing time. You meet like minded people and spend your days doing what you love, ressources for working a ski season.

1. Have a plan for your Ski Season – What do you want to get out of your ski season. Are you just going out to the mountains to work abroad, I hope not! Are you just going out to have a good time, better get some cash together then because the job will not last long. Knowing what you want from your ski season is important! Its is an image of who you are, you are going to meet a new people, you are going to have new experiences. Do you want more responsibility for extra money? Do you want to live in the french alps indefinitely, if you do or think you might like to then you may as well get started and be as career focused as possible by networking and seeing what opportunities present them selves. If you just want to go out their and have a good time boarding and work comes second think about the minimum you need to do to get the job done. Is their a easier job you could do, is their a job that will give me more time on the mountain. If you get yourself organised and work hard at the beginning I recon that being a host is one of the best Ski season jobs if you want to maximise your time on the mountain. Having said that their will be other options, especially in the first couple of weeks during training where you may be able to change jobs.
2. Working as a successfull chalet host means Prep Prep Prep – Having worked in hopitlity this came kinda easy to me. Essentially if you want any easy and stress free life when you working a ski season as a chalet host the way to go about it is to prepare everything you can as early as you can. The company you are working for will probably supply you with a menu for each day. Have a look through it and see what you can do the day before or while you are waiting for your guests to get out of bed. It you can save 5 minutes here and there it means you get more time on the mountain.
3. Apply Early or Be Flexible – Applying as early as possible has many advantages. It means you get to pick the ski resorts you want to work at and you have a higher chance of working at them. You also get to give preferences such as working on your own or as part of a team. However its also important to be flexible and prepared as all of these things can change when you begin your training, understand that you could be doing a completely different job in another resort. The advantage of all of this is that if you do apply late it is not the end of the world, people are always dropping out, changing job roles etc. Depending on the company you are working for your training could last up to 2 weeks, during this you will have plenty of time to work out if their are some opportunities to change roles.
   
4. Work for a company which offers wine to their guests – Check out the  packages your ski company offers. Do they supply wine to the guests, is the menu good? Not only will this help you in your interview and training but you will be able to get a sense of what freebie’s you will be able to take advantage of while you are working in resort. I used to drink 2-4 bottles of wine from my chalet a week, that’s a big saving not to mention allot of wicked nights.
5. Have a get it done attitude – This is especially important at the beginning of the season when its a little crazy. Working for some companies in the french alps is not as simple as cleaning, cooking and hosting. Setting up is a huge part of the process, smaller companies often have one base and rent chalets all over the alps just for the winter ski season. The logistics of organising staff, equipment etc can be difficult and time consuming, if you are able to help you will get noticed. You might have to take on a little more responsibility initially but you could end up getting payed and extra £100 a week by the end of the season, by which time there is a clear system in place and it nice and easy going, well worth the extra hassle at the beginning of the season.
6. Deep clean well at the start of the season – At the begging of the season the lifts are closed, their ain’t many people about so its a good time to get cleaning. If you get your chalet spotless at this point it will be alot easier to keep clean through the season. The time it takes you to clean a room might be 20-30mins, if you have to go around scrubbing under the sink when you could be out on the mountain you are going to be pissed off. It also means your guests will be happy…. see point number 7.
7. Be an enthusiastic HOST - The clue is in the job title. One of the most important thing for me about being a chalet host is being a host, sounds simple doesn’t it. There is of course another reason why this is so important, if you do it right and you  get tips. I was getting 100-200 euro a week, a nice contribution to my beer fund. Couple of quick thoughts on the best ways to extract tips be a good host; Be yourself ; tell them how much you like working in the mountains for the company you are working for ; get excited about things, I got excited about testing a snowboard so the guests i had that week bought it for me ; show an interest in what they have been doing, even if its the same old shit you have herd over the last 5 weks; get the basics right, cooking and cleaning; spend time with them, take them to the bar or take them on a personal tour of the ski area which includes a nice little cliff drop you found the other day.
8. Compare the packages your offered – There are just so many ski companies out there how do you choose between them. They all offer you different things, as a standard you will get accommodation, food, lift pass, ski or board hire, transfers to and from the resort you are working in and of course crap pay. The variations of these are whats important. Do you really want to sit on a bus for 24 hours to get to resort, look at companies which offer flights to and from resort. Do you want to live with your guests, great if they are a good fun loving bunch but can be a pain if you don’t get on with them all that well. One of the most import things is the lift pass, is it a full area pass or just for the resort you are in. If your working in Meribel you want a three valleys pass, can you negotiate? Also have a look at the price and the type of client the company is targeting. If the price is high the likely hood is that the accommodation and chalet you are working in are going to be top dollar, cheaper prices means you might get short changed on the accommodation and chalet you work in but you are likely to meet younger more up for it guests. Its also a good idea to ask what size of chalet you will be looking after is, I was on my own and looked after 12 people, this is not the norm, usually anything over 10 and there will be at least 2 of you.
9. Learn the cooking Basics – If you really cant cook then being a chalet host probably ain’t for you. All you really need is to have an interest in cooking and be willing to give it a go. There are plenty of course which you can go on to learn the basics, The chalet academy is one of the better ones, Simon the chap who does is a good bloke to and that helps.  In reality if your going to the alps to work a ski season you will be thought everything you need to know for cooking the menu which the company wants you to cook. All you need to do is pay some attention in training and you will be fine. This is great, no need to fork out extra cash, right!! In reality something always goes wrong, the training is shit and you get complaints the whole season, not cool. Or, you burn something and need to knock something up quickly and you have no idea what you are doing. This is why i would definitely recommend being able to cook something, have some quick fixes which you can always throw together in 10-1 minutes. This will really help you out.
10. Remember it will get easier – The first month is hard work. I ain’t going to lie, finding your routine, dealing with the hours you are working. If you have not skied or boarded before your body will be aching and you will feel like you will never be able to do that red which you keep bailing out on. It gets better, you start to get things done, instead of taking you 10-12 hours to do a complete turn around you get it down to 4 hours, your amazing on a board and the good snow is just abut to dump. Its time to start enjoying!!!

Ready to work a ski season as a chalet host?

I have by no means covered everything here and there is allot to think about to get the most out of working a ski season in the french alps. Its not hard and by just thinking about a few of the things above you can make your life allot easier. I am not going to be doing a season for a while so if your heading of this season then i can tell you, whoever you are, i’m jealous. I have left you with a bit of reality in the video below. . . . .

There is allot of toilet cleaning if you work for Mark Warner by the loos of it !!!!

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