As a compulsive planner at heart, I believe wholeheartedly in “lessons learned” after every experience. Now that I’ve returned from my week long adventure from skiing in France, I have some excellent tips to share.
1. Don’t forget a converter that is appropriate for your place of travel. And remember that if you go to multiple places, you may need multiple converters. UK and France do not share the same voltage systems. I bought one while in France for a mere few euros. It’s typically something you can find easily in a populated tourist area.
2. Ear Plugs are essential even when off your plane. Upstairs a whole army of Estonians decided to have a party til the wee hours of the morning. Without my trusty ear plugs, I would have been climbing the walls every time I heard them break out into song and dance.
3. Make sure you turn on your International calling plan on your cell phone before you leave. You never know when your airline *cough*BritishAirways*cough* might cancel your flight, and you might need to make a very expensive international phone call!
4. Be nice to everyone. By being polite and patient with your crew, they may help you out and go the extra mile (no pun intended) for you! We were especially nice to the woman printing our booking tickets on our way to France. She kindly upgraded us to the next class, allowing for more leg room and wider seats.
4. SmartWool = amazing. I did sink laundry only once. I washed my shirt that I wore onto the plane, so that I could wear it back again to go home. The ExOfficio shirt definitely carried a waft from being worn for so long on the trip in. Amazingly enough, the SmartWool base layer shirt, and my SmartWool ski socks had ZERO odor to them, even after wearing them for an entire week!! I brought two pairs of socks with me, and only ended up using one for skiing. Lesson learned here: I’m going to be buying a lot more smartwool in the future!
And lastly: Here is the highest skiable peak in Europe!!!!