I recently spent my ski holiday in Sauze D'Oulx. I have to say that I thought it was very good, not excellent, but very good. The slopes were empty, which was a massive bonus, as there was no waiting for lifts and you could go hell for leather on the runs. Not sure if this was a direct knock on effect of the credit crunch, but to be honest I was not complaining. However, the consequences of this were that the town was also pretty quiet, so the apres ski was a lot more subdued than I have usually experienced. But then the apres ski is always what you make it yourself!

Sauze D'Oulx is part of the milky way (via lattea in Italian!) ski resort, which is a massive area that stretchs all the way across to Montgenevre in France. We did attept to get there one day, got quite far, over to Claviere, which is beside Montgenevre, but time was against us. We did ski though Sansicario and Sestriere and the skiing was great.

Some other reviewers criticised Sauze D'Oulx as not having enough difficult runs. Granted there were no cliff face double black diamonds to contend with but there were plenty of runs to get the speed up on and go flying down! There is over 400km of runs to keep occupied with in the whole milky way and I know I only scratched the surface. The snow conditions were fabulous, especially considering we were there at the beginning of March. Very few bald patches and in fact it snowed heavily again when we were there.

Sauze D'Oulx used to be synonymous with lager louts and was supposedly a real party town. I have already said that it was quieter than usual here, but to be honest I am not sure where the partying would have gone on. Yes there are a lot of bars, but clubs were conspicuous by their absence. We drank in Paddy McGintys and the Lounge was good for watching the football. Also a few other bars that I can't remember their names!

We stayed in Jouvencaux, a smaller village that is basically joined on to the side of Sauze D'Oulx. We stayed in the Etoile des Neiges hotel and would thoroughly recommend it - Fabio the owner is a star. They also own a pizzeria of the sam name which has some of the nicest pizzas I have ever had. Was 45 euros a night for bed and breakfast.

We flew into to Geneva, hired a car and drove down to Sauze D'Oulx. The drive took about two hours. I would recommend doing this in the future, rather than doing it through a company. We then had use of the cars which were very handy. We also just walked into one of the two hire shops and got ourselves skis, poles and boots for 15 euros a day - these were the intermediate level skis. Advanced were a little more expensive. Also just walked up to the little hut at the bottom of the run (our hotel was right beside the lift in Jouvencaux) and bought our ski pass which cost 170 euros.

Overall I would recommend Sauze for great skiing, no queues, wide open runs. It was a little disappointing that the bars were not packed, but then maybe that was a good thing- no queueing there either! And it is a ski holiday after all....