Foreign Perspectives

Foreign Perspectives
Travel, expat life and foreign politics. As featured on TV and seen on Reuters.

Isn’t heli-skiing expensive?

April 10th, 2008

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Actually, not nearly as expensive as you’d think. In fact, there isn’t a whole lot of difference in the cost as compared to a normal ski trip once you count up all the costs and you get a whole lot more ski time than you would on a normal ski holiday.

The big diffences are that heliskiing holidays are generally pitched at the luxury end of the market and can guarantee that you can ski every day. Even if the weather is too bad to take the helicopter up, you can get a fall-back option of a snowcat to take you up instead. Either way you’re on the slopes every day which you generally can’t depend on on a normal ski vacation.

Still not convinced? How about all that virgin snow that you’ll get to ski on? That’s one thing you can pretty much rule out on a normal ski trip. Don’t forget that the luxury element is carried through to the food and accommodation too. For example, Snow Water have a truly mouthwatering selection of dishes illustrated for their ski trips which you’re unlikely to find on offer on normal ski trips.

Heliskiing in British Columbia is a very appealing option with pretty much everything included in the pricing and, as we all know, it’s the “little things” that aren’t included which can really take the price of a holiday through the roof. In fact, although the list price of a heliski vacation is pretty much certain to be higher than that of a normal ski break, add all those little extras in and the bottom line isn’t all that different whereas the quality of holiday is, of course, completely different.

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Commercial haulage

January 25th, 2008

Commercial haulage is very much a specialised field as it requires a much wider range of transportation than normal house moves do.

For one thing, commercial items come in all shapes and sizes and therefore the capability of moving large items with peculiar shapes is just part and parcel of heavy haul trucking for commercial haulage firms. Whilst you might get away with using a normal house moving type company for most business moves, they get out of their league very quickly when you get into specialised moves involving the moving of heavy equipment, oversized or “odd” items and for these you definitely need a true commercial haulage firm at your disposal.

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Just how much do you really want to emmigrate?

January 22nd, 2008

Whilst moving from one European country to another is as easy, at least legally, as moving from one American state to another, it’s a whole different matter when you want to emmigrate to a completely different jurisdiction.

Aside from all the normal differences in taxes, social security and health systems that moving countries always entails, you add the complication of needing to apply for a visa, residence and work permits which adds considerably to the time that it requires to make the move as well as increasing uncertainty somewhat.

For example, take the relatively simple case of a British citizen wanting to move to Canada.

Canada is, of course, in the British Commonwealth so, in theory, that should make the move easier. However, even if you have a pretty much perfect points score for the move, it currently takes around four years from initial application through to the point where you have your Canadian visa and can actually move.

That’s a very long time and a great deal can change during it. For example, four years ago I had one son and now I have two. The second one would obviously need to be added to the visa application for a start and there’s the complication that he has even more nationalities than the first little guy.

Such a long lead time seriously complicates matters in other areas. For one thing, you’ll be working in your existing job and not know in advance how long. You may be wanting to move house too over that kind of time. It’s even possible that the visa categories which you’re eligible for could change too if, for example, you had an inheritance you might find that you could apply under one of the investment categories or perhaps you added a qualification (eg I picked up a university French diploma within the last four years which adds significant points to my Canadian application) or skills. The list is endless.

In fact, over that time period your life could change radically so you need to be really set on moving to a particular country if you’re talking of application periods running into years. Yes, of course, you should be that determined but over such a long period many things can crop up to change your mind even if you originally were really set on making that particular move.

And, remember, that’s just for a relatively simple move!

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