Sauze d'Oulx reviews

Really cute town, and very good restaurants both in town and on the slopes. Generally very sunny weather. The slope area is large, some lift systems may appear dated, but they work well even if they are not always all opened at the same time. Generally, we really like the location.

Nice villages w good food and nice staff. Really good forest skiing. Ski system, Via Lattea, disaster. System under dimensioned for the number of people in the area. Haven’t seen such old lifts in ages. Super unfriendly and rude staff. Ski system closes down if the winds get just above average. Don’t know if it’s because the lifts are so bad or if the staff is just lazy and want to leave early. We will never return.

Easy access to lots of freeride areas.
Possible to find powder 3 days after snowfall.
Cozy village

- The most outdated lift system I have encountered in the Alps. Grossly undersized (risk of long queues) and sensitive to the weather as the Italians like to close at the slightest wind at the top.
- The system is marketed as large (as it is connected to Via Lattea) but in reality you can easily get stuck in the Sauze part as the connection to the rest of the system depends on a crappy two-chair lift and a button lift (which in our case was closed 4 out of 6 days due to wind)
- Narrow slopes in Sauze where you get tired of giving way to the countless British skiers
+ cozy village
+ good food on the slopes

Unfortunately, I can not recommend if you want to get the most out of the Alps in terms of skiing.

Really nice village with very good varied skiing. Large system, did not have time for the whole in a week. The village was very nice with cozy wine bars and good restaurants. Nice Hotel Farau.

Little snow in January when we were there. Many good restaurants on the slopes and the village is very cozy.
Will gladly return if there is more snow.
Messy ski system if you want to ski in the whole system

Was in Sauze'd'Oulx week 12 2024. Went with relatively unknown Skilink who lived up to expectations and maintained the same level of service as other colleagues in the industry. Everything around worked perfectly. Extra plus for short transfer from the airport.

First, it can be stated that Sauze'd'Oulx is not a ski resort for absolute beginners and families with small children. After jumping off the first morning lift (Clothes), you have to take a red slope directly to get to the "hub" of the Sauze ski area = Sportina. There is nowhere where you can have a soft start with a couple of children's slopes or so. But if red slopes are not a problem, the area around Sauze is very nice with skiing both in forest and open countryside. Long nice red slopes where the red may not be as red as in Sweden, but still good slope and, as I said, these are not slopes suitable for the pure beginner.

Have read that many reviews comment on the old lift park, and that's right. For example, there should have been a substantial 6-chair lift over to Sestriere (today an old 2-chair) and also the Clothes lift up and down to the village should reasonably have been an 8-chair. Now we were there week 12, so we had no problems at all with lift queues anywhere, but on the sports holiday they said that the queues were unpleasantly long in the morning and at the 2-chair lift to Sestriere.

There is very nice skiing in Sestriere and Sansicario so it is definitely worth getting over. Here there is blue cruising, children's slopes as well as the blackest cliffs. More to choose from. However, Sestriere is much more exposed to wind than Sauze, so there were two days that the gondola down to Sestriere was closed for a short time due to strong winds. Back then it was quite calm and perfectly fine in Sauze. Big difference despite small distance between.

Can also be highly recommended to use the validity of the lift pass on the French side. Montgenèvre
offered incredibly powerful views and probably the best maintained slopes of the Via Lattea. We went with the travel company's arranged bus trip. It is possible to ski t&r Sauze/Montgenévre but we understood that it is quite noisy and becomes more lift skiing than skiing. Apparently takes about 4 hours t&r if you are a really good skier, most of which time is spent on the lift. Said not to be worth the work.

The village of Sauze'd'Oulx itself was unusually cozy and had an old part from the 15th-16th century. Lovely to have a real village that you can stroll around in after skiing. Plenty of restaurants and bars, but maybe not après ski like in the biggest hang-out spots in Austria like St Anton, Saalbach or Ischgl. On the other hand, we were there after high season. But of course there is still a clearing for those who want it. For example on Assietta or Derby. As is often important where you live. The village is very hilly, the air is thin at high altitude, and it may be wise to choose an accommodation close to a lift.

As a whole, a very pleasant destination, but probably not for those who don't like/ride red slopes.
Of course, the judgment is affected by the fact that we got 5 ½ "sun-and-blue-sky-days" out of 6 possible...

Nice village with outdated lift system
We were there v9 2023. Then it hadn't snowed here for 4 weeks, so we were lucky that 20-30 cm fell during the week.
Many slopes and lifts were not open/pisted, perhaps due to the lack of snow or for other reasons. The lifts seem to be from the 80s and 90s and in many chairlifts there is no room for legs that are reasonably long. No hoods on the chairlifts and only a few cabins. According to rumors, an English company will have bought the lift system before Corona and now you don't know what will happen.
The slopes in Sauze and SanSicario provide (when the snow has arrived and they have been pisted) pleasant and varied skiing in forest sections. If you go over to MontGenevre on the French side, you can get some nice high alpine skiing.
We ourselves got some nice off-piste skiing after the snowfall.
Summary a nice ski resort with potential. If the lift system was upgraded and they got more snow cannons it could be good.
If you want more modern and better places in Italy, you go to Cervinia or Canazei

Week 8 -2023. Flew with Nordlander via Turin. Excellent service.
Cozy village. But. The lift system is dated. 45 minute (disorganized) queue for the first lift from the village in the morning is not fun. The same every day. In Austria, they had installed an 8-chair lift with heating a long time ago.
Further up several long button lifts. But on the other hand, the button lifts went faster than the old 2-chair lifts 😄
Some of the best pistes were closed off for club training all day.
Hardly saw any Manchester at all.
We took the lift over to Sestriere. Equally huge lift queues there.
Anyway several good pistes for carving, Olimpia down to San Sicario was great. And there was even a modern, fast chair lift.
Easily accessible off-piste in good snow conditions. Nice restaurants on the hill.

If you are looking for piste skiing, there are better places.

Sauze d'Oulx is part of the large ski area Via Lattea, ie there is skiing for all types of skiers and with the opportunity to reach into France. The French part consists for the most part of the blue piste, ie it is mostly aimed at families with children. On the other hand, there is a more alpine area on the "way home" to Italy which is really good with off-piste opportunities and since it is mainly families with children, it is basically untouched. In Sauze there is also good off-piste close to the piste in the upper area but also with opportunities for good forest skiing without having to traverse too much.