Physiotherapist / Masseur-Kinésithérapeute

Again more snow in Les Gets, more than some of the higher resorts now, (guess that will be global warming too).

It never fails to amaze me how, every year I visit clients who have not taken out any holiday insurance when coming on a ski holiday!  Its not always young skint students who don’t want to fork out another £40 for insurance, but people from all walks of life.

Just to fill you in on some of the facts here.  If you hurt yourself (or someone else hurts you!), on the piste, if drastic you may need the helicopter to take you down to the bottom of the piste and an ambulance to a hospital some distance, that you have to pay right away and well over 500 euros, most Insurance companies will reimburse all, but you need to pay at the time, whilst lying there in agony.

If, hopefully, you have just a small injury, but unable to walk/ski down, you will have to pay directly the skidoo guy/doctor, usually around 100€, right away and make  sure you get a receipt for your insurance.

If, you are able to get down to the bottom of the piste, but need an ambulance to get to the Doctor’s surgery, I heard recently it cost 480€, to go what would be a 15min drive!!

At the Doctor’s you may need an X ray to determine if anything is broken,  medication, splints, crutches etc, there will be little change out of 200€ for all that.

I understand that many credit card companies offer annual holiday insurance as part of their credit cards and often this covers up to 17 days skiing.  I am sure for one week skiing you can find cheap insurance on the internet now.

So really think before you decide not to take insurance, even if it cost 100€, that would be hardly the price of a knee brace on a ski holiday!

Another option is to buy insurance when you get your ski pass, the Carte Neige, I think per day it works out at around 5€ extra and it covers the helicopter and all.

P.S. for those of you who think your E111 will cover everything, think again, the E111 is for emergency treatment, hospital, operations etc, it will not cover, helicopter’s, ambulance and Dr bills and definately not Physio, sorry.

P.P.S When skiing, remember to take your credit card, E111 and insurance card/info, you never know and remember nice underwear, I was glad I had be decent things on when I broke my let in 2004.