Holidaying in the winter? You need to read this
Let’s be honest, when it comes to summer holidays, it isnt hard to find a great destination at a great prive, especially with ton special offers and deals available from thousands of tour operators offering the latest and greatest destinations, but putting together the perfect winter holiday presents far great challenges and are just generally much harder to plan and ultimately enjoy.
You’ll have heard a ton of stories from friends and relatives about nightmare summer holidays too, from half finished hotels to finding half eaten animals in the bread pudding as well as a paddling pool passed off as an olympic sized swimming pool, yet you might not have heard the misery of a badly thought out winter holiday in the alps.
With a summer holiday, you at least have the sun to look forward to, but you might not be so lucky if things go wrong on a skiing holiday for example, especially with temperatures as low as minus 20. Yes, ok, you could just take out travel insurance to protect against most things on your winter holiday, but the weather isnt usually one them, so make sure you get good weather reports and select a destination which has few eather warnings and plenty of sunshine.
If you fail to get the right place, you could be facing a week of terrible weather and a loss of ski time, unable to venture out on to the slopes and that winter sports and ski insurance you started won’t be of any help at all. Without tempting fate, what happens if you sprane your wrist or worse break a leg? The good news is you will probably be covered by travel insurance, if you took it out, but thats small consolation to a ruined holiday and will impact your work when you return, so make sure you take plenty of rest, dont take on major challenges too soon and learn at your own pace. It’s easy to think you can take on major challenges quickly, especially if you are new and learn fast, but dont be tempted. And as hard as it is, dont be goaded by your friends in to something you arent comfortable with, it might not be nice, but its better for your limbs if you decline.
If sunnier climbs are what you are after during the winter and you intend to do something a little more adventurous like bungee jumping or rock climbing or even a bit mountaineering, the whatever you do, make sure you take out specialist adventure travel insurance. It differs from standard travel insurance by covering the more riskier things in like like rock climbing and bungee jumping and you will then have peace of mind to try new things, safe in the knowledge that if anything untoward does happen, everything will be taken care of.