Sauze d'Oulx, Hotel La Torre

la torre is not a 4 star hotel,3 star at best.Everything is in need of an update,the rooms were shabby, but the food was okay.the ski bus was very good,it only carried 8 people but it was very regular,and dropped you right outside the lifts and your hotel door.Most misleading of all is your check in time which is supposed to be 10am.However we arrived at midday and were told our rooms would not be ready untill 4pm.Worst of all there was only one member of staff on reception to deal with 20 new arrivals and man an empty bar,so we could`nt even grab a drink at the bar while we waited.We had to leave all our luggage on lobby floor unattended while we went into town in search of food and drink.The health spar is not in the hotel as it would like you to believe it is accross the road,and after your free visit it is expensive.At night we saw violent brawls always at a bar called the cotton club.All said and done the skiing was excellent,an intermediate heaven of open wide well groomed runs,even if the lifts were a little slow and outdated.

For : nice food and lots of it! There were 4 courses every night, and we were particularly impressed with the pasta dishes. A short walk to the bars, cafes, hire shops, etc in the town centre. Free hotel minibus for travel to/from the slopes - also the ski bus stops right outside the hotel. One spa visit included in the price. We thought it was fairly good value, but maybe we were lucky and got a good deal.

Against : The rooms need updating - decor, bedding, bathrooms have all seen better days. By UK standards it would be more like 3 star. It is a tough uphill walk to the nearest ski lift, but much easier walking back to the hotel.

The resort is good, and the ski area is huge. Some of the lifts are very dated and the signage is almost non-existent... but the skiing itself is excellent, and stands up to comparison with the big name resorts in Austria and France. It's also a short transfer to Turin airport.

The Sauze d'oulx Hotel does not have a health Spa/ gym inside (as you are led to believe), it is across a car park and has a charge of 5 euro per session.

The Hotel is not 4* standard, and in desperate need of upgrading, it reminded me more of a Hostel. There is one mini bus that takes 8 people at a time to the ski lifts, it's a 10 minute round trip and so you can be queueing an hour before getting on to the slopes. It actually doesn't take that long to walk to the lift but is all up hill.

The place itself is very expensive (5 euros a pint, 2.50 for a can of coke, 1.50 for a packet of fruit pastilles, even in happy hour its still 4 euros a pint!!!).

If it wasn't for the fact that the Snow was fantastic (with some good open runs for the intermediate skiier, however, very badly sign posted and we did get lost twice!!!) it would have been one very disappointing holiday, but the novelty of having so much snow made up for the Hotel and Resort's short comings. However, we will not be returning again as it was too expensive, not worth the money for accomodation and disappointing!!!!! (they don't help themselves in terms of encouraging you to return!!!)