J2Ski Holiday 11th January 2015 Sauze d'Oulx

One week. A great holiday in all honesty.

Can't come round quick enough. Great bunch of skiers and boarders of all ages.

I bought my train tickets today, from Paris to Oulx and back. It's the first day that the winter tickets for the French trains are available, and they usually increase in price rapidly. I'd already bought the return Eurostar tickets for St Pancras to Paris.

The Eurostar tickets to Paris cost me £69 return, and the tickets from Paris, Lyon station, to Oulx, cost me £48 return.

So the total cost of the train tickets was £117 return. The train journey from Paris to Oulx takes about 5 hours, and it's only about 10 minutes from Oulx to Sauze, by public bus or taxi.

So after booking a party of 20 into a small dated hotel in Sauze d'Oulx for a full week in January are you really going to have to pay for a bus/taxi from the railway station to the hotel yourself?

When you researched the options did you not notice that the Hotel Sauze is owned/managed by ABC Gestioni Srl http://www.gestioniabc.it/eng/home a company that owns/manages 7 hotels in Sauze, along with a taxi/transfer company, a ski hire shop, a ski school and some self catering apartments. In view of the size of the booking surely it would not be unreasonable to expect that they picked you up from the railway station FOC.

On the ABC Gestioni website they state that if you book more than 3 nights in one of their hotels between 6th January to 27th January you get a free lift pass. You didn't mention this when you suggested that the rest of us should book via Crystal.

If my calculations are correct that means only only 86 sleeps till sauze time ..... :lol:

SwingBeep (and everyone else),
Sorry, I should have mentioned that I will be ski-ing for 8 days again, like I usually do, and unfortunately the Sauze was full for my 1st and last nights, so I have booked into another hotel in the Jouvenceaux area of Sauze d'Oulx for these 2 nights.
Therefore I will be heading for this other hotel when I come off the train at Oulx, and leaving from it on my way back. Hence I can't ask the Sauze hotel for a free lift from the train station (although I must say that was a very good idea of yours!).

And we have asked for a quote from the Sauze hotel for return transfers from Turin airport for 13 of the group. They have quoted 640 euros, which is 49 euros per head, or about £40 per head.

Likewise, we have asked about ski lessons booked through the Sauze hotel. They have given us a price of 130 euros per person, reduced from 150 euros, for 3 hours per day for 6 days.

For ski hire the Sauze hotel has suggested that we book with Maison Clataud Sport, and explain we're staying in the Sauze, to get a discount. I am currently sorting out exactly how many people want to hire what, so that we can get the maximum discount.

And as you say, for the week we will be there the Sauze are doing an offer where you can have the 6 day Via Lattea (milky way) lift pass built into the hotel price, giving us a price of 480 euros per person for the half board including the lift pass.

This doesn't include flights or transfers, however, which is how we wanted it, so that people can make their own way to Sauze whether it's on the train, driving, or flying. And it also means that I can get there a day early, and leave a day late and get my 8 days ski-ing.

The reason I suggested anyone else who wants to come with us should book through Crystal, is because as soon as we decided we wanted to book the Sauze, and I let the manager know, he told us that we could only have 12 rooms as he had 'sold' the rest. We didn't want to start another chalet/hotel search all over again, and I discovered that Crystal still had plenty of rooms available in the Sauze (as in the Sauze hotel had clearly 'sold' their rooms to Crystal).

This seemed to me to be a very good solution to the problem. Those people who had already said that they were committed to coming on this holiday paid their deposits (200 euros per room) and we booked 12 rooms.

Since then 4 other people have asked me if they could come and they are now booked into 2 rooms as part of a package holiday with Crystal. As far as I can see, apart from the price, it won't make any difference whether they're booked through Crystal or directly with the hotel.

Trying to compare the prices of booking with Crystal or going DIY is actually quite difficult because, for example, the value of the euro, the flight prices, and Crystal's prices and offers keep changing.

I have just checked and at the moment this holiday is available with Crystal for the price of £439 per head for a shared twin/double room, down from £549, and they're also doing a 2 for 1 offer on equipment hire. And this includes flights and transfers. So this is a very cheap holiday.

As far as I know (I haven't re-checked this) the 6 day Via Lattea lift pass is £161 and standard ski hire is £50 with Crystal.

If anyone else would like to come with us and stay in the Sauze hotel they are more than welcome, but they will have to book through Crystal. Other than that, there are plenty of other hotels in Sauze so if anyone wants to ski/board with us let us know (by posting up on here) and we could meet up on the slopes :)

We are a mixed group aged from teenagers to, well, let's say 'seniors' ;)
We have boarders and skiers, at levels from those who've just done a couple of weeks on the snow to those who've been ski-ing/boarding for years.

We have booked nearly half the rooms in the hotel, with the 12 we have booked directly and the 2 booked through Crystal. The hotel has a total of 31 rooms. This is how they describe themselves, on their website:

The Hotel Sauze in Sauze d' Oulx is a typical 3 stars mountain hotel, located just 20 meters from the ski slopes of the Vialattea and 70 meters from the centre of town of Sauze d 'Oulx.
All 31 rooms have a balcony with view over the Valley of Susa or to the ski slope Clotes (the ski area of the Vialattea) that ends in the village...

The hotel management and our staff will be able to assist on requests as: Purchase Vialattea ski pass, ski lessons, rental equipment, Dinners in the mountains, Wellness, and much more...

RECEPTION & CHECK IN 24 HOURS

HEATED SKI-ROOM FOR SKI/SKI BOOTS

http://www.sauzehotel.com/eng/home

And here is the link to the reviews on Trip Advisor

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g194891-d3301609-Reviews-Hotel_Sauze-Sauze_d_Oulx_Province_of_Turin_Piedmont.html

AllyG has done an excellent job organising this ski holiday for 3 seasons now. Unless you have tried to organise a disparate group, who all have different requirements and come from all over the place (not just the UK), I don't think anyone can appreciate just how hard it is and just how impossible to please everyone.

There are compromises to be made but the last 2 holidays have been excellent, which may account for why many have returned and why we ran out of space so fast this year. This group is open to all but unfortunately the hotel would not let us have the number of rooms we wanted. This was not made clear to us before we settled on this venue and so is something we will watch for in future years. However this does not stop late comers booking through Crystal and getting virtually the same deal. So I cannot understand what all the fuss is about!

Considering there were a few doubters when this was first mooted, I think this group holiday has been remarkably successful. I, for one, have made many new friends and would encourage anyone to come along. It is daunting going on holiday with 20+ people you have never met but our experience has been a good one. I can thoroughly recommend it, especially for people looking for ski buddies, as we have a wide range of abilities and ages and include families, couples and singles amongst our number.

Long may it continue.