| Reviews: 2 |
| Nottinghamshire |
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  4 of 5, "The Milky Bars are on me!" 23/01/2011 @ 18:45 |
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| Price Paid |
| £560 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Neilsons (via Hays Travel) |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
First time for me on a snowboarding holiday and Sauze appeared to have it all for a budget price.
We flew out of Birmingham in to Turin, staying at Hotel Assietta (http://www.albergoassietta.it/), which was a nice cozy hotel in a great location in the resort. As soon as we started climbing up the mountains during the transfer it began to dump and this carried on all night, meaning an awesome powder day for our first day, sadly it didn't snow again the rest of the week. The slopes covered by the snow cannons weren't too bad and the piste bashers did a good job on the majority of runs, but some of the lesser used did turn to sheet ice towards the end of the week. All in all the riding was great, the amount of runs and off piste available is insane; but from our mixed skill group I'd say it's more a beginner to good intermediate resort, although none of my group got bored with what was available.
The snowpark in Sauze is small (1 drop box, 1 drop rail & 4 kickers) but fun. Difficult to find though as the entrances aren't well signed (actually a lot of the runs aren't well signed thinking about it). Best way to find it is to ride the 4 man P. Rocca chair up or the 2 man from Sportinia and then follow Blue 13 down and it's hidden on a corner, you can also get in to it from Red 12a. If you want more there are other parks dotted about all over the Milky Way...if you can find them.
Nightlife is great, the atmosphere in all the bars is so chilled out and fun and there's a bit of something available for everyone.
I loved my time in Sauze and would return again. |
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| Strengths |
Amount of runs available.
Snowpark.
Nightlife (Especially Paddy's Bar).
Cost, for the package deal itself.
Slopes are pretty quite during the week. |
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| Hot Spots |
Paddy's Bar. Great place to end you day on the hill (happy hour) and to start your night off.
Orso Bianco, great bar/restaurant at Sportinia to hit up for lunch. |
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| Weaknesses |
Restaurants, the menus were quite poor and boring.
Expense, a bowl of chips was 3.5 euros and a pint 4.5-6 euros.
Stupidly busy on most runs and lifts at the weekend when the locals flock there.
Racist Italian men...just remind them who helped them in WW2 it soon shuts them up. |
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 5 of 5 13/04/2005 @ 13:27 |
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| Price Paid |
| £600 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Neilson |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
good reception from our reps, info about weather, what was happening etc. which was always a bit helpful!!!
stayed at the savoia debili, opposite the shuss bar :), which was always good as we didnt have 2 go wondering around the whole resort for our hotel after a couple of drinks!!!haha:P.
didnt snow while we were there, it stopped the day before!!!so by the end of the week the slopes were getting gravelly and icy, some runs were closed because of this.
food great, absolutely loving the pasta :D!! forgot what its called, but there is a little pizza place just a bit further down the hill past shuss which makes amazing pizzas for one euro! great if your staying 1/2 board and gettting hungry 2 hours before dinner!!
sportinia lift gets PACKED veeeery quickly in the mornings, so better to go earlier in the mornings, or totally avoid the "rush hour" by going at around 1030ish
when i say early, i mean about 830ish, especially if you want to avoid that nasty walk up the hill to the sportinia. this is because of the buses.........they get so busy!!!!i think i must have waited around 55 mins for a bus that would fit me on, 6 of them drove past with no intention of stopping!!!
button lifts - careful, they can carry on for 15 mins or so!!!
blue runs - bit like green
red runs - some should have been blue
black runs - closed went i went hunting for them!!!!
off piste - veeeeeeery good!!
nightlife - loved it!not a raver,but couldnt call me quiet either, but it was enough to satisfy me! girls,try to avoid paddys unless you seriously want some sweaty overweight guy perving over you.............. eugh |
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| Strengths |
nightlife, but be careful of tickets that say 1/2price drinks and the barstaff charging 3/4s, because"to them, thats half price"
slopes
food |
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| Hot Spots |
| shuss |
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| Weaknesses |
buses in the mornings
barstaff sometimes arent too friendly
button lifts |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
somewhere in switzerland (lol)
poland/russia
lavignio
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| 5 of 5 05/03/2005 @ 12:06 |
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| 0 of 1 people found the following review helpful: |
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| Price Paid |
| 500 inc passes |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| neilson |
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| Times Visited |
| 2-5 Times |
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| Review Detail |
| this is the second time i have been to sauze. we stayed in the derby hotel again wich is a great little hotel. the snow conditions were not great but we made the most of it. big area of runs but we mostly went off pieste because the snow was better. we found a few kickers on the 4th day which was good fun. nightlife was good inc bar crawls school discos etc |
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| Strengths |
lots of runs
good food
good nightlife
snow is normally good |
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| Hot Spots |
derby bar is great for chilling out.
village bar good food and free nuts.
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| Weaknesses |
| not much snow when we were there |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| chamonix |
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 3 of 5 24/01/2005 @ 13:54 |
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| Price Paid |
| Er £250?? for 6 days |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Panorama |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Just come back from a week there (mid-jan 2005). Unlucky with the snow as it hadn't done so since Boxing day.
Its a fairly low resort and predictably many, 40% maybe, of the pistes were closed. Attempts to get higher up were marred by really vicious winds.
High winds also had the effect of closing the lift link to Sestriere.
There are loads of runs just in Sauze and most are okay for boarders. Not too many flats to get across. However its cursed by evil poma (button) lifts which are a nightmare so that could rule out many runs for the inexperienced.
Many of the lifts are noticably old and the arrival of the 2006 Olympic freestyle event will probably not change this. The freestyle slope is at the bottom of town, well away from the slopes so newer lifts will not be necessary for this event.
Maybe because of the lack of snow or lack of people trhe pistes were well flat and didn't get too mogully through the day. A lot of the resot is north facing so suffers less from the effects of the sun.
Sauze's rep. as party central is nowadays undeserved I think. There are some good bars, "Shuss" I particularly liked and the Bar/Tabac in Jouvenceaux is great for a cheeky half before 8:00pm. Paddy McGinty's was a mud swilled mess by the time we got there, expensive Guiness and a forced atmos. Its Italy fer gods sake not Cork! Ditto the Crowded House.
Stayed half-board at the Hotel Martin in Jouvenceau, down the (steep) hill from Sauze. A bit out of it and only served by the town red-bus (Lina Rosa) till early evening I think. Very slow lift from Jouvenceau but no faster then a bus upto the main sportinia lift.
I hired via Skirental.com from Clataud sports, which is a planet 2000 franchise. They were really helpful.
If thers a link problem try hiring a mini bus from your hotel and driviing over to Sestrieres. We got over for E20 return each. |
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| Strengths |
Attractive hill town. VERY attractive hill girls.
Fantastic pasta.
Sheltered tree lined runs for much of the way.
Potentially lots of off-piste for when it really snows.
Access to huge extended ski area.
Social scene not mental if you like the quiet life.
Reds are not too red and blues are more like greens. Not many Blacks.
REALLY fast transfer from Turin airport. If you went via Turin rail instead of your package operators coach it shouldn't take much more than a couple of hours. |
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| Hot Spots |
| Shuss bar, any small italian bar-tabac. |
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| Weaknesses |
Prone to high winds or just unlucky this time? I dunno.
Bit low to weather the lack of snow.
Lifts bit creaky.
Way too many button lifted areas.
Link out of resort too susceptible to high winds.
Not a massive town. Depends on how you like your apres.
Steep walks if you're not right in the middle of things.
Almost at one end of 'Milky way' so there's a lot of travelling to do to get to rest of it. |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
5th year away, done Deux Alpes, Alpes d'Huez and Morzine/Avoriaz.
Morzine closest in feel for me. |
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| 4 of 5 28/07/2004 @ 14:25 |
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| Price Paid |
| 350 |
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| Booked Trip Through |
| Lunn poly/neilson |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
| Went in febuary 2004, nice little village with a few bars and 2 clubs. they did not have many shops for snowboarders but i did not need to buy anything anyway. we stayed at the derby hotel which was really nice with a bar down stairs. when we got to the snow on the second day we were spoilt for choice. lots of runs in all directions and the lifts are no way as bad as everyone makes out. the first day me and a mate had a crash on the snow and i ended up dislocating my knee. this kind of held me back for the rest of the holiday but i still enjoyed myself. |
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| Strengths |
the milky way is massive.
no waiting for lifts |
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| Weaknesses |
not much in the town area
did not snow when i was there |
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| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Chamonix |
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