As I settle back into life in Seattle, I wanted to quickly brain dump my journey to the Dolomites in particular, mainly as I aim to return (again and again). I feel so lucky to have been helped by a coworker who kindly sent me a list ahead of time to narrow down my search. Outside of that very personal gift of insight, I also found earthtrekkers.com to be an incredible resource. If you’re planning your own trip, I recommend digging in there as I’m not going to bother sharing many details of the hikes as they can all be found at much greater depth there.
Quick takeaways
For my future self to remember:
- It was worth it to rent a car.
- Some autostrades required cash/didn’t like your card.
- Rifugios were everywhere and you should try to stay in one in the future.
- Cell service was excellent 90% of the time.
- Have multiple ways to check the hiking path (photo of the map, physical map, google maps, blog posts).
- Always check weather before heading out and expect it to change frequently.
- Bring layers and hiking poles.
Time of year
June 13th to June 23rd. As the trip went on, I noticed just how many people began appearing and definitely would stick to June in the future, even if the weather isn’t as good.
Car info
I rented a car and drove to/from Venice. While expensive to do, I’m thrilled I did it and it made the trip much easier to plan. Ahead of the trip, I secured an international driver’s license from AAA. While no one ever checked for it, I was happy to have it having read of some horror stories of those who didn’t come prepared. It costs $30 and required a passport photo but my local AAA made it easier to pop in and snag. If you lose it, you can’t get it replaced so I treated it like a passport.
Ahead of the trip, I did some researching on what it would be like to drive in Italy and particularly in the Dolomites. I wanted to understand signage and get a sense of how driving the mountain passes might feel. These two resources were clutch in that regard:
https://mominitaly.com/driving-in-italy/
https://mominitaly.com/driving-in-the-dolomites/
I genuinely felt safe and mostly at ease the entire time, despite running into repeated situations on mountain passes where you have to navigate between numerous road bikers, cars trying to go around you, and motorcycles doing the same. I’m a confident, adept driver and that played to my advantage. There were a few moments of large buses doing sharp turns that left me with nowhere to go (and demanded that I stop). Outside of that, I appreciated having an understanding of the “autostrade” situation before I started driving (knew what the signs looked like, knew to keep my ticket, knew how to identify which pay option would work best, knew what to fill my car up with and the word for gas, etc). I wish I had done more research on how to fill up my car but inevitably figured it out with a good set of trial and error. You seem to pay ahead of time at a machine typically away from where your car is by selecting the number station you’re at and the type of gas you want.
Here are my quick notes that I read through a few times before driving away in the rental in Venice:
- The road signs on autostrade are green with white writing.
- Uscita (means exit) signs indicate exits.
- Blue, round signs with white writing indicate a minimum speed on certain lanes.
- Pompa di benzina – gas pump.
- Benzina – gas / petrol / gasoline. Fill car up with this!
- Can’t turn right on red.
- Drive 20KM slower when raining (for safety).
- Headlights must be on while driving outside of urban areas.
- ZTL stands for zona traffico limitato – limited traffic zone. It’s an area that’s off-limits to all vehicles without an appropriate permit (like residents, taxis, and buses).
- Try not to drive in the dark in Dolomites as it’s both not well lit and you miss the lovely views.
- Be prepared for cyclists and motorcycles. Wait until the timing is right to pass.
Cities
Val Gardena and Cortina D’Ampezzo. I can’t remember why I picked these two but I imagine it had to do with reading countless blogs and eventually landing on those two. Val Gardena has three sections and we stayed in Santa Cristina. I’d likely stay in the same section again as it seems to have been the quieter of the other two. I used airbnb in both places and had an easy time walking to/from town (10-15 min walks).
Hikes
I’ll keep this brief and include photos of each. Of note, I was floored at the Rifugios both in terms of how many there were and how robust they were. I hope to stay at some in the future and desperately wish the US had a similar setup. They are perfect for food, bathroom breaks, etc (if they are open).
June 13th: St Jakob’s church
Walked from airbnb (1 hour one way) rather than Ortisei as there are numerous ways to get there. The more common option goes from Ortisei. This hike is extremely easy and tame with epic views.
June 14th: Sasso lungo
10 mile hike with only a few areas that left me a bit uneasy. Despite a fair amount of elevation gain, this felt like a fairly straightforward hike physically, likely because of how dynamic and engaging each angle is.
June 15th: Patscherkofel hike in Innsbruck
Popped over to Austria to snag my companion for the rest of the trip and snuck in a 10 mile hike around Patscherkofel. I intended to only do a few miles but, after her flight was cancelled, I ended up just continuing on knowing I had hours to kill before her train arrived.
June 16th: Seceda
The gondola was supposed to go all the way to the top of Seceda, making for a very easy hiking day. However, it only went to the middle section and the rest of the way needed to be hiked. While a much harder day than expected for us, it proved to be awesome to hike up as the mountains slowly came into view rather than being spoiled all at once. All in all, we did about 7.5 miles total of hiking, including a long break at the top to nap.
June 17th: Alpe di Siusi & St Jakob’s Church
There was a mountain bike race in town, severely limiting our options, but thankfully already known about thanks to another deep dive on some blogs. To get around this, we decided to stick to something local and went for Alpe Di Siusi and, later with enough energy remaining, we snuck back to St Jakob’s church. Alpe Di Siusi was such a breeze to do and so stunning. At times, it was hard to process that the views we were seeing were real.
June 18th: Gardena Pass, Pordoi Pass, and Lake Ghedina
This was a travel day to Cortina from Val Gardena with tons of options in between. We decided to stick with a straightforward route and went up to two passes, stopping at Pordoi Pass to go to Piz Boe. There was snow on top, making it impossible/not wise to hike to the summit but I admit I wasn’t thrilled about the hike even without the snow due to the cliffs. We swung by Lake Ghedina which had a closed restaurant before exploring Cortina.
June 19th: Croda da Lago
This proved to be an incredible and dynamic hike, clocking in at nearly 9 miles after we got a bit turned around thanks to some snow at a pass. There was one uphill that felt slippery and steep along with a fairly intense downhill reverse rock scramble but it all felt within our comfort zones. We remarked how it was the perfect adventure – not an easy hike but not overwhelming.
June 20th: Cinque Torri
A very easy day in part because my companion had to work for part of the day and we needed a rest. We did under 5 miles at Cinque Torri mostly wandering around and heading up for a delicious lunch at a Rifugio. We could see Cinque Torri from our airbnb so it was a treat to see it up close.
June 21st: Tofana di Mezzo chair lift
Again, we wanted a bit of a break from hiking and wanted to instead soak up some views. This was one of the few things we likely wouldn’t do again as the altitude sickness quickly became real. I felt bad enough that I pretty instantly wanted to head down. While I’ve been to Jungfrau in Switzerland, the train there does a great job of building up to the altitude whereas this simply dropped you into it fairly instantly in a few short gondola rides.
June 22nd: Tre Come di Lavaredo
This was one of the few days of slammed parking and a huge relief at how early we arrived. The road here has a limit to the number of cars and we arrived fairly early (7:38am). Upon leaving, a long line of cars was seen waiting to get in. The views were incredibly unique and the hike itself proved to be a straightforward 5.5 loop. Once more, it was hard to soak in the views in the moment as they felt so unreal and otherworldly.
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