(Ex-pat Brit living 1hr north of Toulouse)
Took the family to Saint Lary Soulan last weekend, it was the first time skiing for any of us in the family, thus I cannot compare it to any other resort.
The village is quite small and friendly, and seemed to be very family orientated (particularly smaller/primary school aged children). Quite a few restaurants, although the vast majority are either Pizzerias or Creperies, although we did also find one British style pub and a Tapas bar, and a few more expensive traditional French restaurants, plan to eat early (1830) in high season, as they get full very quickly, or wait until after 2100. Many ski-hire shops with a vast range in hire-prices.
Ski-passes at Saint Lary Soulan also allow use of the 2 'tele-cabine' lifts from the village. The new tele-cabine is much faster (shorter queues), however, the older tele-cabine arrives directly in front of the ski-schools, both arrive at St-Lary 1700. A very busy 'half' of the resort, which also has many very young children in sleds; whose main purpose seems to be the crash into debutant skiers. Parking is more abundant at the new tele-cabine station.
For those with a car, and not attending the ski-school collective lessons, I would recommend driving up to St Lary 1900, with good parking at the top (private lessons with ESF can start from St Lary 1900). There is a rather old, but adequate, tele-cabine to take you up to Col du Portet (about 2200m) with some good but sparsely used, blue and red runs starting from there.