 Poster: A snowHead
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I thought I made my mind up with Ellmau but was looking at something else on a previous thread I had asked for help and Sauze D'oulx and the milky way kept coming up. (i was also wavering on the Sella ronda area but might keep that for next year).
My criteria is:
Nice cruisy area, lots of greens and blues to cruise around. we will be fourth week skiers.
Dont really bother at all with night life.
We have only ever stayed self catering but wouldnt be opposed to half board as long as there were choices for the kids (12 and 14)
would preferrably not have to walk far in our ski boots so either something that is almost ski in ski out or somewhere that has lockers available at the foot of the slopes.
we are intending going 26 Jan 2013.
the hotel i have deceided on is Hotel Schönblick in Ellmau, Austria. This works out half board at £1900 plus lift passes and ski hire. the accomodation is just across the car park to the slope down a red run.
If we stay self catering, we would need a town that has a supermarket.
We really just ski during the day and then spend the rest of the time in the apartment so if a town is small or dead it really is matterless to us.
Places we have been previously are:
Niederau, Austria
Les Saisies, France
Valmorel, France
I was recommended Sauze D'oulx a few times and what i was wondering was would it be possible to ski the whole milky way in one day on blues and easy reds? Ihave also been reading that although Claviere is a small dead town, it is only 10 mins walk to montgenevre and much cheaper? is this the case? When staying in the milky way do people just tend to get a whole area pass or just stay within their catchment and extend the pass on a co0uple days?
hope this makes sense.
Thanks in advance.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Haven't been to the Milky Way but we did stay in the Hotel Schonblick a year or so back on s last minute cheapy. So I can give you a bit of info on the hotel if that will help.
The Hotel Schoenblick is very convenient for the slopes, as you say just cross a car park and you join the side of the piste. As it is so handy for skiing its not so handy for the town as its up quite a steep hill. There is a bus service into town, I think about twice an hour or a hike down or a bit of a strain walk uphill back.
The hotel itself, our room was very nice. However the food had to be the worst Id had in a hotel. It was run by an older lady, I presume she owned it, and she did all the cooking with the help of one other. Meat was very tough and had obviously been cooked & frozen, everything was poor quality, I guess to keep costs down. She would.only do one or two boiled eggs for breakfast if asked. Once she had done a couple she would refuse to cook any more. All in all, very poor quality. But we had got a cheap deal. If we'd paid the full price I'd have felt pretty hard done by. As it was, one of the few times I've filled out the customer survey at the end, with comments on the poor food.
Hotel Schoenblick: good location for skiing, poor location for town, nice bedroom, awful food.
The skiing in Ellmau & the wider Ski Welt would be ideal for you I'd have thought, large area of blues and reds to explore 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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thanks cathy, I have read a lot of reports on the hotel and I realise it is on a hill, however, I would be gettign a taxi back if i did venturre back into town lol. Funny coz most reports were how good the food is lol. We arer more of a chips and beans family so if they served us typical german food we will be running a mile lol. Are the reds pretty easy?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Mind you, having said that about the food, it was March 2011 when we were there. Of course things could have changed since then. I'd be pleased if they had & perhaps people's feedback had made a difference. I know we weren't the only ones to complain that week.
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On looking I think I have narrowed it down to the hotel du col in Sestriere. for 1 week half board it works out at £2098 so what do you think between the choice of the 2 hotels for our requiremetns
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Stayed in the hotel du col twice it was the perfect ski in ski out hotel,food was great staff were very friendly.Downstairs is the main bar for the crystal activities in the resort.
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Ive just read a report about someone who stayed at the du col and they said that you really need to be an intermediate skier to accesss the links for the rest of the milky way, is this the case? I dont really like very steep runs.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Quote: |
We arer more of a chips and beans family so if they served us typical german food we will be running a mile lol. Are the reds pretty easy?
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polo99, it seems a shame to pay out for half board if you - and more particularly the kids - are not likely to enjoy it. If you go self-catering you can always go out to eat sometimes, and pick and choose something the kids will enjoy.
As for the difficulty of reds, remember that Les Saisies is generally known for its easy skiing - and when we skied together we did mostly blues IIRC.
If you go to an area reputed to be a bit harder, maybe not a bad idea to book everyone into ski school for half days?
Are the kids still wearing their mohicans? 
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No idea about Milky Way, but Elmau/Skiwelt should be perfect for 4th week skiers. Jnr and I got around fine as week 2 skiers a few years back.
Remember though that if you do as pam w, suggests and go into ski school it tends to be all day lessons in Austria.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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yes Pam, I can see your point about forking out for half board when the kids are picky eaters. I guess I was hoping they would have a go at what was on offer (again, who am i kidding lol) and if they couldnt eat it then we could go eat out. but given the locality of this hotel, i dont think that would be that easy.
Yes we did do nearly all blues, les saisies was really perfect for us in that respect, i just want to try somewhere different with the same great choice of easy runs as we had, i think we were a bit spoiled in LS. We will definitley be back.
That was our last ski holiday we had, but I have a feeling if I tell Jack to wear his helmet with his mohican still on, given that he is nearly 6ft now, he will problaby throw it at me lol.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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polo99, how about trying Les Gets? I'm sure there are lots of suitable spots in Austria too, but it seems such a shame to contemplate paying for 2 meals in an evening. Jack is nearly 6 foot? Wow. 
Closer to home, you could look at Crest Voland - I don't think you got there on your last trip? It's lift-linked to Les Saisies. Has a great range of easy runs, with good safe "off pistey" bits between the pistes for the kids to try, and it's the sort of place where you could happily let them go off on their own a bit, knowing they couldn't end up somewhere dangerous. Good choice of self-catering accommodation.
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I stayed in Sauze with no more than 2 weeks skiing (Stayed in Going nr Ellmau the year before). Loved the whole area! Back then (20 yrs ago...) the only way out of Sestriere to the rest of the MW was via a gondola to the top of Sauze. The MW has much better skiing IMHO, although I beleive Sauze is a bit of a party tonw these days. Sestriere shoyuld be fine. Did Sauze to Claviere and back in one day.
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You know it makes sense.
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Just back from Sauze'. Had a great time.
Sestriere and San-Sicario are easy to do from Sauze. Claviere is a bit harder as it requires a fair few lifts to get there; A cabin then 3 consecutive chairs (one slow). Return requires 3 consecutive lifts unless you want to do an endless flatish road which avoids one down-load on a chair. Mongenvre is several more lifts through Claviere. The standard pass covers all Italian areas, plus one day in Montgenevre.
We like to cover a lot of ground and although Claviere was nice wouldn't bother again. We got caught by several lift problems to get there and didn't get to France as a result the day we tried it. Sauze, Sestriere and San-Sicario had enough runs for us. Plenty of nice reds to go at (most of the blacks are steep reds anywhere else). I'll post a couple of vids on youtube later. If you do go, get the cabin down to Sestriere from the mid station as the red into town ends with miles of polling to do.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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martinm, the "number of weeks skiing" isn't much of a guide, really. Some folk are whizzing down reds after two weeks, some are still nervous about greens after two weeks. The OP and family fall between the two, I reckon, like most of us.
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Poster: A snowHead
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martinm, I found last week, they've moved several lifts since I was there 6-7 years ago the top lift now serves both Sestriere and SanSicario direct from Sauze'.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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That's handy - the SanSicario link was often closed.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| polo99 wrote: |
| Ive just read a report about someone who stayed at the du col and they said that you really need to be an intermediate skier to accesss the links for the rest of the milky way, is this the case? I dont really like very steep runs. |
We stayed in Sestriere a couple of years ago. It's a bit short of blue runs (only 1 or 2 if I remember rightly) and is mostly reds, which I recall being pretty tricky in my 3rd week of skiing.
The Milky Way area is "linked" but not to the extent that you can keep popping between resorts easily. For most people, it was a gondola into and back down into Sestriere. (Yes, I know there's a blue run down from the top of Mt Fraiteve into Sestriere, but we were warned that it doesn't actually take you anywhere useful.) Getting down into Sansicario is fine, but there's a nasty, long drag run to get back out.
Sauze d'Oulx was nice and although most of the pistes are red I remember them being fairly easy reds (compared to Sestriere). Likewise, Sansicario was nice.
The best day of skiing we had was a day trip by minibus to Montgenevre, where there are loads of cruisy blues and reds.
Overall, if I was going back to the Milky Way I'd probably look to stay in Sansicario or Sauze d'Oulx.
If loads of blues is what you're looking for, I'd recommend La Plagne, which is absolutely full of them, and you rarely have to ski the same piste twice, or possibly Flaine. Both resorts have loads of self catering apartments.
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Polo
I can't remember if I replied to your last thread on this issue. However I would strongly recommend giving Montgenevre a go and skiing Claviere from there. You would find plenty of cruisy runs (a couple of greens, several blues and there are a few not too difficult reds too). You would also have the option of a day in Serre Chevalier (I think there is a bus link). There is a good choice of self catering accommodation in Montgenevre.
Le Hameau des Airelles apartments are very good value, ski to and from the door from one side of the building and there is a nice outdoor pool. There is a supermarket, takeaway pizza place and ski hire shop right next to the apartments. The apartments are modern and well equipped. If your kids are teenagers I'd go for one of the larger 2 bed apartments.
Haven't been to Ellmau so can't advise on that.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Just back from sauze (hotel gran baita). In good conditions the whole area is very forgiving cruises, easy to get sauze->sansicario and back. The hardest runs imo are the home runs back into sauze, which get scraped and icy and have some narrow points. I wouldn't bother going to claviere/montgenevre - too many lifts and too little skiing, there is plenty to do without them.
I suspect either would work perfectly so just go on price/nice hotel 
aj xx
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Have been to both and not too impressed with either. If its long cruisy motorway blues you want I would choose Cervinia over those two and if weather is right you can get across to Zermatt which is excellent.
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