Sauze trip 2022

Hi
We have been to Sauze probably half a dozen times so I will give you my take:-

Hotel Hermitage:
This would be bottom of the list of accommodation we have used in Sauze. The rooms and corridors are very small. The walls are paper thin so you can hear noise from adjoining rooms easily. The bathroom/toilet on our room had a flimsy sliding door (seen better in old caravans!) which offered little privacy. My guess is at some time this hotel was reconfigured internally very cheaply to maximize space use/occupancy. The room heating was very iffy (lack of heat) - we had to complain several times. The boot/ski room is small without boot dryers and no lockers to secure your gear. We always take our boots to room to dry unless accommodation has proper heated boot storage (hence the need for proper heat in room). Food is average - buffet breakfast - 3 course dinner. When we stayed you got a free bottle of wine per 2 persons with dinner. I think they also did free afternoon tea & cakes but we never get back for that kind of stuff. On the positive side is hotel location - right alongside the sledging bowl at bottom of slopes. You can get straight on the carpet lift which services the bowl alongside hotel and then very short walk to closest real lift. At the end of day you can ski/ride straight back to hotel building if there is snow.

Sauze resort:
Picturesque village especially old town. Lots of good places to eat and drink at very reasonable prices. Excellent apres ski (talking pre Covid!) with live music, happy hours etc. The Ghost pub near bottom of slopes is one of our favorites. There used to be quite a few discos/clubs but most of them seem to have closed in recent years.

Sauze ski:
The area lift pass gives you access to the whole Milky Way area which is all lift linked. You can even ski/ride over the border to Montgenevre in France (I think lift pass allows you one day there). Actually if you want to ski Montgenevre a better option is to catch the bus there then you get a full day (skiing there is quite slow). Most of the package operators offer the day trip.

The Milky Way piste map is fine and all the official pistes are marked clearly. Very easy to get around and clock up loads of kms. Good variety of pistes and small snow park. Usually little or no lift queues and outside the pistes next to town the slopes can seem quite deserted. Plenty of cozy mountain pit stops for rest and re-fuelling - again very reasonable prices. The lift system is generally good although there are a few on the left side looking out of Sauze which do not seem to open very often (not weather related closure) - I have heard comments that they only open them when it is busy / Italian holiday etc - bit annoying when you have paid for lift pass ;-). I don't think lift closure due to weather is any more common in Sauze than other alpine resorts. The year a young skier sadly died near top of system the police authorities closed that run for the remainder of season - this meant if you went to the top of system / over to Sestriere etc. the only route back was via a black run.

We have never used a guide in Sauze so cannot make any recommendations there. Unless you are going off piste I don't think you really need a guide. If your group are reasonable standard skiers/boarders it is easy enough to find your way around/explore. Just remember to keep an eye on the clock if you venture a long way from base. There is some good off piste if you get a dump of fresh powder :-) The SauzeOnline website/facebook post some good videos/snow reports and could probably advise you on guide.

I am sure you will enjoy Sauze (Covid permitting) it's definitely one of our favorite resorts. Hoping to book ourselves for 2022 but the latest news on Covid in Europe does not look good ... big sigh :-(

Hi I've been to Sauze a number of times and thoroughly enjoyed it. Huge areas to ski and a day trip to mongenerve France is a must. I get updates weekly in the season on YouTube on snow conditions etc. Apre ski pre COVID was was a few beers in the bars where free food was put on which done just the trick after a long day, enjoy

Thanks I will check out the web cams