Who we are
The People Behind Sestriere-Online
Sestriere-Online has been helping visitors discover Sestriere and the Vialattea for more than 20 years, although our connection with the area goes back much further.
We’re James and Sinead, and we live here in the valley with our two cats, Skye and Luna. Skiing has been a big part of both our lives and continues to be today.
We’re out on the slopes throughout the winter, which means the information and advice you’ll find on Sestriere-Online comes from living here, skiing the area and keeping up with what’s happening across the Vialattea.
James’ story
James first came to the Vialattea in the late 1980s to work a winter season. One season led to another and, after qualifying as a ski instructor, he spent several years following the snow between the northern and southern hemispheres.
Eventually, it was time for a change. James returned to the UK and began a career in IT, but the connection with the mountains never really disappeared.
By the early 2000s, the internet was changing the way people researched and booked their holidays. James could see that resorts such as Sestriere and Sauze d’Oulx weren’t particularly well represented online, especially for independent visitors who wanted to organise their own trip rather than book a traditional package holiday.
Combining his knowledge of the area with the skills he’d picked up working in IT, he launched Sestriere-Online and SauzeOnline in 2005.
The idea was fairly simple: create useful websites where people could discover the resorts, find the information they needed to plan a holiday and book things such as ski hire, lessons and airport transfers before they arrived.
What started as a side project gradually became something much bigger. By 2009, the websites had gained enough traction for James to leave his IT job in the UK and return to the mountains full time.
Meet Sinead
Sinead’s introduction to skiing was through family ski holidays. Like many people who get hooked on skiing, a week or two each winter eventually wasn’t enough.
She headed to the Alps to work a winter season as a Neilson resort rep in nearby Bardonecchia. One season became three before she eventually returned to the UK.
The mountains hadn’t finished with her either.
In 2016, James persuaded Sinead to come back to Italy and help run the business. It didn’t take much persuading.
Today, we’re very much a team. We live locally and run Sestriere-Online and SauzeOnline from here in the Vialattea.
What Sestriere-Online is about
A lot has changed since the websites first appeared in 2005, but the basic idea behind Sestriere-Online hasn’t.
We want to make it easier to organise an independent ski holiday in Sestriere.
That means providing useful and accurate information about the resort and ski area, but also giving visitors a straightforward way to arrange the practical parts of their holiday.
Through Sestriere-Online you can book ski and snowboard hire, arrange ski lessons and organise private airport transfers. We work with local businesses and people we know here in the area, while remaining an independent, family run website.
Being based locally also matters to us. We’re here throughout the winter, so we’re able to keep the website up to date with what’s actually happening in the resort and help our customers when they need us.
More than 20 years later
Sestriere-Online started at a time when booking a ski holiday independently online was still relatively unusual. More than two decades later, that’s how an ever increasing number of people choose to travel.
The website has changed considerably since 2005, but our aim hasn’t: to help people discover Sestriere, plan their holiday with good local information and make organising the important aspects of their holiday as straightforward as possible.
And when we’re not working, you’ll generally find us somewhere in the mountains – although Skye and Luna usually prefer us to stay at home.