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The Advice Thread

Foreign currency.
For the last 5 years or so we've taken cash and its been fine but its a bit tricky to gauge how much you need. When we went away in August we took less cash and used our debit cards for purchases and to obtain currency when we ran out. The fee for yhe the transactions for our banks to change was more than I expected.
Is there a method or maybe a card you can get which you can 'load up' with the currency you need, then when you come home change it back into Sterling with no or minimal charges.
 
sycophantia said:
Foreign currency.
For the last 5 years or so we've taken cash and its been fine but its a bit tricky to gauge how much you need. When we went away in August we took less cash and used our debit cards for purchases and to obtain currency when we ran out. The fee for yhe the transactions for our banks to change was more than I expected.
Is there a method or maybe a card you can get which you can 'load up' with the currency you need, then when you come home change it back into Sterling with no or minimal charges.
Click to expand...
I’ve use revolut, the others mentioned are probably the same. Just load GBP on there and it auto changes to whatever currency you are buying at the real time exchange rate.

Can even go to an ATM and take cash out but there are limits on the free version. Only an issue if you travel a lot (work abroad, live abroad, etc).
 
sycophantia said:
Great, cheers guys, I'll look into the Chase and Starling accounts.
Click to expand...
Dunno if it’s offered or managed by the same groups over there, but my Amazon Prime card (I know! Evil) is managed by Chase and it was a great gateway into their system.

Opened an account with them a year later and haven’t looked back. Banks are obviously evil but so far they’ve done me right.
 
I have a Halifax Clarity credit card for use abroad. No foreign transaction charges for purchases.
 
Anyone been skiing?

Always passed me by when younger as seemed very expensive and would always prioritise a summer holiday, but it’s something I’ve always fancied and just booked a week in Jan, so off for the first time. Will need to have lessons but not sure whether to have them out there, or here, dry slope/snow dome, and how many?

Have heard the odd person say dry slopes are not much cop, and the nearest snow dome is miles from here so am leaning to lessons out there, but Christ they are expensive and whilst I appreciate some will be needed don’t want to get fleeced or waste half the holiday in a ski-school unnecessarily.

Not exactly anticipating hammering down red runs after half an hour’s instruction, but would prefer to have the minimum possible and then poodle around on the nursery slopes building confidence as you go. Just wondered if anyone knows what is a realistic minimum a beginner would need before being capable enough of going out gently on simple runs on their own?

Have always had reasonable balance and well into skateboarding etc when younger, so not suggesting I’ll be any good, but fairly confident I won’t be hopeless, if that makes any sense.

With the time, cost and safety issues to be carefully balanced it seems a tricky one to gauge just right?
 
Do you know anyone who can ski? When I went for the first time we spent a morning doing the basics with my mate. Then once you’ve done that it’s just building confidence.
 
Going in a group of 3 couples. The 2 guys are very good, including snowboarding. One of the ladies is fairly good I think, and my wife and the other lady only been once years ago so are not far off novices.
PuntsWolf said:
Do you know anyone who can ski? When I went for the first time we spent a morning doing the basics with my mate. Then once you’ve done that it’s just building confidence.
Click to expand...


Advice from the guys is just to book lessons but they don’t seem to factor in the specifics mentioned and I reckon they’re keen to hit the slopes from the off without fannying around with a beginner. The lady that is decent might be a good shout for a bit of early guidance to be fair.

So did you effectively ski with no formal lessons at all?
 
EpsomWolf said:
Going in a group of 3 couples. The 2 guys are very good, including snowboarding. One of the ladies is fairly good I think, and my wife and the other lady only been once years ago so are not far off novices.


Advice from the guys is just to book lessons but they don’t seem to factor in the specifics mentioned and I reckon they’re keen to hit the slopes from the off without fannying around with a beginner. The lady that is decent might be a good shout for a bit of early guidance to be fair.

So did you effectively ski with no formal lessons at all?
Click to expand...
Zero lessons. Literally just turned up, got out the appartment, put gear on and practiced doing a basic loop on the roads (paths, whatever they are that join up all the slopes) round the resort. Did a couple of loops and as soon as you can master the snow plough and turns at slow speed then that’s it. Then just hit the slopes and ramp it up. Just like riding a bike, just doesn’t hurt when you fall.

I have no idea how much lessons cost, and can’t see how different they’d have been than my mate telling me what do, but the main thing is I’d have just been on my own for a few hours I guess which wouldn’t have been a fun start to the holiday.
 
Ta
EpsomWolf said:
Anyone been skiing?

Always passed me by when younger as seemed very expensive and would always prioritise a summer holiday, but it’s something I’ve always fancied and just booked a week in Jan, so off for the first time. Will need to have lessons but not sure whether to have them out there, or here, dry slope/snow dome, and how many?

Have heard the odd person say dry slopes are not much cop, and the nearest snow dome is miles from here so am leaning to lessons out there, but Christ they are expensive and whilst I appreciate some will be needed don’t want to get fleeced or waste half the holiday in a ski-school unnecessarily.

Not exactly anticipating hammering down red runs after half an hour’s instruction, but would prefer to have the minimum possible and then poodle around on the nursery slopes building confidence as you go. Just wondered if anyone knows what is a realistic minimum a beginner would need before being capable enough of going out gently on simple runs on their own?

Have always had reasonable balance and well into skateboarding etc when younger, so not suggesting I’ll be any good, but fairly confident I won’t be hopeless, if that makes any sense.

With the time, cost and safety issues to be carefully balanced it seems a tricky one to gauge just right?
Click to expand...
Take lessons on snow, dry slopes are not the same by any means and hurt like fuck if you fall, and you will.
 
EpsomWolf said:
Anyone been skiing?

Always passed me by when younger as seemed very expensive and would always prioritise a summer holiday, but it’s something I’ve always fancied and just booked a week in Jan, so off for the first time. Will need to have lessons but not sure whether to have them out there, or here, dry slope/snow dome, and how many?

Have heard the odd person say dry slopes are not much cop, and the nearest snow dome is miles from here so am leaning to lessons out there, but Christ they are expensive and whilst I appreciate some will be needed don’t want to get fleeced or waste half the holiday in a ski-school unnecessarily.

Not exactly anticipating hammering down red runs after half an hour’s instruction, but would prefer to have the minimum possible and then poodle around on the nursery slopes building confidence as you go. Just wondered if anyone knows what is a realistic minimum a beginner would need before being capable enough of going out gently on simple runs on their own?

Have always had reasonable balance and well into skateboarding etc when younger, so not suggesting I’ll be any good, but fairly confident I won’t be hopeless, if that makes any sense.

With the time, cost and safety issues to be carefully balanced it seems a tricky one to gauge just right?
Click to expand...
 
Well you're on a winner to start with as you csn skateboard. I was a roller skater, speed and jumps and everything about skiing was the opposite for me especially the turning and of course stopping.
I had one lesson, and was so pissed off having crashed a million times and knocked the whole class over, when the lesson ended (it was on the nursey slopes), i just stayed, carried my skis up the hill and skiied doen to get the feel for it, after an hour once i got it right, i stayed another hour and had a ball.
Been hooked ever since.
One tip, exercise your thighs like fuck, that's where the pain comes in, oh and crashing of course. Be careful on ice til your well into it, and stay away from trees!
Then fuckers hurt 🤣
My girlfriend told me it was the best fun you can have with your clothes on, she was right.
Where you going by the way ?
 
PuntsWolf said:
Zero lessons. Literally just turned up, got out the appartment, put gear on and practiced doing a basic loop on the roads (paths, whatever they are that join up all the slopes) round the resort. Did a couple of loops and as soon as you can master the snow plough and turns at slow speed then that’s it. Then just hit the slopes and ramp it up. Just like riding a bike, just doesn’t hurt when you fall.

I have no idea how much lessons cost, and can’t see how different they’d have been than my mate telling me what do, but the main thing is I’d have just been on my own for a few hours I guess which wouldn’t have been a fun start to the holiday.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that.

Have been thinking of winging it but the wife definitely wants to have lessons, so I’ll book in for one morning sessions at least, I think she’s keen to go two.

Cost is 85 euro per 3 hour session in a group, 150 for 2 sessions. Looks like around 80 euros per HOUR, EACH, if booking privately 😳.

Thanks for the insight though, good to read that with a bit of common sense and good fortune I’ll be able to get up and running fairly quickly without the cost and time restraints of ski school eating away too heavily.
 
pavlosmacwolf said:
Well you're on a winner to start with as you csn skateboard. I was a roller skater, speed and jumps and everything about skiing was the opposite for me especially the turning and of course stopping.
I had one lesson, and was so pissed off having crashed a million times and knocked the whole class over, when the lesson ended (it was on the nursey slopes), i just stayed, carried my skis up the hill and skiied doen to get the feel for it, after an hour once i got it right, i stayed another hour and had a ball.
Been hooked ever since.
One tip, exercise your thighs like fuck, that's where the pain comes in, oh and crashing of course. Be careful on ice til your well into it, and stay away from trees!
Then fuckers hurt 🤣
My girlfriend told me it was the best fun you can have with your clothes on, she was right.
Where you going by the way ?
Click to expand...

Thanks for that it’s really helpful, and apologies for the delayed reply.

Yes, looking forward to it, always enjoyed messing about on bikes, skateboards and anything that goes fast with a bit of risk so it should tick all the boxes.

Interesting you mention about thighs, they’re fairly strong because of the 80 mile or so a week mountain biking, but I thought skiing was tough on the knees? Mine are pretty fucked (running/football/cartilage operations) and it’s been on my mind that after a day or two of skiing it could all be over before it’s even properly started. No choice other than to see how that goes I guess.

Going to Austria, Mayrhofen. The others have been before and it sounds like a nice hotel and Mayrhofen appears to have really good apres ski, so if it all goes a bit wrong there’s always food and drink to turn to!
 
EpsomWolf said:
Thanks for that it’s really helpful, and apologies for the delayed reply.

Yes, looking forward to it, always enjoyed messing about on bikes, skateboards and anything that goes fast with a bit of risk so it should tick all the boxes.

Interesting you mention about thighs, they’re fairly strong because of the 80 mile or so a week mountain biking, but I thought skiing was tough on the knees? Mine are pretty fucked (running/football/cartilage operations) and it’s been on my mind that after a day or two of skiing it could all be over before it’s even properly started. No choice other than to see how that goes I guess.

Going to Austria, Mayrhofen. The others have been before and it sounds like a nice hotel and Mayrhofen appears to have really good apres ski, so if it all goes a bit wrong there’s always food and drink to turn to!
Click to expand...
Not ski related but we spent 4 days in Mayrhofen in August, nice little town, expect it will be packed during skiing season.
 
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