Nicole's experience as a chalet host in Austria

A few years ago it started to bubble up in me too: going away for some time to do vacation work abroad. I was looking forward to that! But during my studies I did not dare to take the step. Too much organizing, a new house and no nice minors were excuses I made. Until I graduated and thought: if I still want to leave it has to be now, before I get a 'real' job.

The Departure

And so I left at the beginning of December last year to Sankt Anton am Arlberg in Austria. I went to work for four months with my best friend as a chalet host. The excuses I used in my student days not to go abroad for vacation work no longer applied. In fact, everything was taken care of by the Dutch company renting out the chalets: from the round trip, to the ski pass and from the health insurance to the accommodation.

Working as a Chalet Host

Working as a chalet host involves managing a chalet, in our case a chalet for up to 14 people. In the morning we provided a nice breakfast for the guests, in the evening we cooked a three-course dinner and of course we made sure the chalet was kept clean. We were a bit unsure about that cooking in the beginning. Apart from cooking our one-person student meals, we had absolutely no cooking experience. Fortunately, we had two weeks of help from real cooks, who helped us a lot. So we came home with a lot of delicious dishes!

 

Free time

But of course, we didn't come just to do this vacation work. Fortunately, we had plenty of time between breakfast and dinner to hit the slopes. Our ski and snowboard skills improved a lot because we were on the mountain 5 to 6 days a week. Because we have also become very good at that. Together with our colleagues from the other chalets, we experienced week after week the best evenings in the Taps and the Krazy Kanguruh. At 8 p.m. the après ski tent closed and we still had to ski, walk or roll down the slopes. Hilarious!

I look back on a fantastic time in Austria. You manage your own chalet with this vacation work, therefore you have a huge amount of freedom in what you do and when you do it. And of course there is nothing better than being on the slopes every day and having the occasional drink at the après ski. In short: if you are thinking about working abroad, do a winter season as a chalet host in Austria!