TR Sauze d'oulx

A snowHead

We are a family, 3 kids 11,12 and 15. We have skiied half term for the last 2 years- previously been to alpbach and vaujany. 3rd week on the snow for the kids, I've done a bit more.
Its always a challenge picking somewhere for half term. We picked sauze because of the short transfer, good value accomodation and big ski area. I booked fliht and accommodation last june.

Travel- ryanair 6.55 am flight on friday from stansted. we paid 200 each. all on time and ok.
There was much discussion on here beforehand about car hire- our experience was excellent. Car booked through angus, it was with firefly which is the hertz brand. I had to ring up and change the driver the day before as i had my licence stolen. no problem and no charge. We landed at 9.50 and were driving away in a ford focus at 10.30. Easy one hour drive had us in Sauze before midday. On the return we dropped the car back no problem. 90 pounds hire 16 in fuel and 10 tolls. This would make sauze brilliant for weekends from a travel point of view.

accommodation- booked through air bnb. We had a huge 3 bedroom apartment right in the old town. It was owned by a family from Turin and was obviously a much loved place. It was absolutely beautiful, parquet floors, antiques, crazy old ski photos, 2 big bathrooms etc. All for 800 pounds -total result.

ski rental- I booked through eydallin sport. attracted by the free storage and free helmets for kids. The shop is directly at the piste and we had our own numbered sections to keep our stuff. The shop was a 5 minute walk from the apartment. This is by far the most convenient skiing we have had with no carrying of skis at all. (Never done ski in ski out). I thought the equipment looked a bit old and my (Superiour) skis were exactly the same as my sons cheapest kids skis. I dont know enough to complain but it was a big shop so i am sure it would be possible to get good stuff if you knew what to ask for.

LIft pass- no family deals or kids discounts over 8 years old. This made it the most expensive set of passes I have ever bought at over 1000 euros for the 5 of us.

Skiing- We were on the slopes by 1.30 on the first day which was a real bonus. There nothing like the first few turns of a holiday! We loved the wooded slopes and the snow was fantastic at first. It snowed hard on friday night and all day Saturday- All good we can ski in the snow. By Sunday the snow was in piles on the slopes with big icy patches in between. By Monday it was tretcherous, by Tuesday just frankly unpleasant. My son is a nervous skier and lost alot of confidence. On Tuesday night they pisted the slopes, the sun came out and we had a fantastic couple of days. I particularly liked piste 46 down to sestriere - probably wont appeal to most snowheads but it was one of those ones where you just stand on your skis and admire the scenery! We found plenty of very quiet skiing for half term. There were a few queues when the sun came out but nothing longer that 5 mins. this was fantastic. I'd say beginners should go elsewhere as most of the pistes are red. Not having the easy slopes for variety made the skiing feel quite relentless and my nervous child really felt it.
The timings of the lessons and the extremely slow lifts made exploring quite difficult. We generally had a pick up at 1pm. This didnt really leave enough time to get anywhere in the afternoon as it took forever to get up out of sauze and the last gondola back up from sestriere was a very early 3.45. We ended up racing to catch it 2 days in a row.

lessons- go for the sportina school who seem to deal with the brits. I booked a private lesson from one of the others and the poor guy had not one word of english. I went with the sportina one after that. the younger 2 hate groups so had 2 hour lonbg private lessons. They had an oldish guy called Nani and adored him. He recognised them and called out to them when he saw them for the rest of the week. The oldest joined a group for 3 days- they put all the british teens together and she had a blast.

eating - The main shop was ok but rammed every day. We ate at sugos which was just what we wanted. big portions of pasta served quickly to a tired family. We booked at assieta for a birthday and yes (thank you fellow snowheads) the wild boar was fantastic. We missed the lovely bread you get in france for making sandwiches for lunch.

Overall- it was a skiing holiday! we had a fantastic time and theres lots to like about Sauze
BUT the state of the slopes was frankly unacceptable. Everywhere else I have ever skiied has pisted their slopes every single night. I thought I was relaxed about slow lifts but it was actually a pain especially when the weather was bad. It did feel real, not like a ski factory and we loved the tree skiing, but the infrastructure is a downside and the passes are not cheap to make up for it.

A snowHead

Excellent report -- Thanks..

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Surprised to hear about the slopes. was their last march and they were pisted every night. agree with slow lifts comments but we had blue sky and sun so it never bothered us much

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TR Sauze d'oulx

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