 Poster: A snowHead
|
Us: Group of 5 - a couple of experienced skiers, plus two less experienced boarders and an 11 year old
Tour Op: Crystal
Accomodation: Hotel Gran Baita
Conditions: Superb - big dump before arrival, two light topups mid week.
Transfer: Usual horrible o'clock flights, followed by surprisingly good service from crystal - a set of experienced, cheery and coherent reps at airport, on coach and in resort and proffered 'deals' for lift pass and equipment were actually decent for once including a reasonable fx rate etc. After a couple of awful crystal experiences I was impressed. A delightfully short transfer from Turin leads to a slightly odd arrival in resort - due to the narrow streets you get dropped in a carpark and walk up to the various hotels, hoping your luggage sucesfully follows you within the hour (it did  ) so we trudged off uphill to the Gran Baita - not the best experience after several hours travel but hey at least you get to see a bit of town.
Hotel: Gran Baita is just off the main square - great quiet and yet close location. Like everywhere it's a hike to the lifts, but that was expected (see ski hire notes) and without our ski gear was just fine. Outside looks good, evidently recently redone - likewise a very swish reception and bar create a great first impression. The corridors and restaurant in contrast have a slight 'school trip in the 80s' air to them, might be the colours, or the dim lighting - but we all definitely felt like we had gone back in time slightly! Rooms are also in a slight timewarp and seriously lack plugs but compensate by being HUGE with excellent brand new bathrooms (jacuzzi bath!) and immaculately clean. Breakfast is average but the four course dinner is pretty good and the staff are all excellent, super friendly and welcoming. Overall, very happy - we had no problems all week and would happily return or recommend to others.
Town: Pretty and pretty lively - some reports complain of noisy revelry but we found it to be appropriately lively and varied, something for everyone from paddys irish bar through to stylish late night cafe bars with decent prices. Everywhere we tried seemed pretty good, so would suggest you just follow your instincts!
Slopes: Good overall, just enough to keep to high mileage skiers happy for a week but crowded at the weekend and a little nasty getting back into town. If you can face the draglifts the runs to the left of town on the pistemap were our favourites, lovely long sweepy reds through the trees back to the clotesII lift and start again! That area is MUCH bigger than it looks on the map. We also enjoyed the gran pista all the way to jovenceaux which has lots of piste-side trees to play in, and the runs down to sansicario are lovely, although the queues to get back up are not! Also the black coming back from sansicario to sauze is a favourite as is the blue to the sestriere gondola mid-station. Queues were more of a problem than crowds, on the weekend the high lifts were horribly busy ~20mins each and we found the trick was to stay low (snow a bit hard, but better to be skiing than waiting!) and use the jouvenceaux and sportinaI lifts a lot. It wasn't worth trying to get to claviere/montgenevre - too many lifts and not enough skiing 
The run grading is optimistic/artistic, several reds are very blue, as are a couple of blacks and in the good weather we had the entire area was within the reach of any basically competent intermediate. Pisting is good - to the extent moguls are marked on the piste map and appear to be meticulously removed from all other runs! Despite this I wouldn't recommend for nervous intermediates or beginners - the runs back to town have some very narrow spots, are crowded and as its low get very hard and skiddy. We were fine, but passed more than one set of rabbit-in-headlights stuck folks who looked like it was all a bit much, in less good snow conditions I imagine these home runs can rapidly become a serious downer on your holiday.
Oh and the map is pants, especially for sestriere, after a couple of days we stopped trying to use it much and just relied on a sense of direction and the not-too-bad on piste signage - it's hard to get into too much trouble as all the runs are pretty easy and the area isn't that big.
Ski hire: We hired at Clautaud sport - very friendly with surprisingly good skis for only E55 (or really quite nice ones for E80 - mine were brand new) Way better than the crap we usually get offered as 'basic'. Then carried them up the hill and stored with the less friendly and massively more expensive guys at the bottom of the clotes lift E25 for the week but so worth it! With hindsight I think using this site: http://www.sauzeonline.com/ would have saved me the walk and about E10 - they offer 25% off the rates for the place at the clotes lift - saw the poster when we got there!
Overall: Better than expected, lovely town with nice slopes - would return on late deal, but not with beginners, nor booking a long way in advance as it's a resort that needs good snow - or for you to be more focused on the quality apres than quality skiing.
Any specific questions let me know!
aj xx
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
hi aj - just checking were you in sauze for xmas - we are thinking of going hotel martin this xmas - note your comment about not booking too early! we are two ad two childfren aged 13 and 15 with about 8 weeks skiing - previously all in scheffau austria xx
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
zarazag, we are staying at Hotel Martin, Jouvenceux in 2 weeks time. Will try to report back our findings.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
| Quote: |
We were fine, but passed more than one set of rabbit-in-headlights stuck folks who looked like it was all a bit much, in less good snow conditions I imagine these home runs can rapidly become a serious downer on your holiday.
|
is there an option to download in a lift?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
