This a full 4-day itinerary for our time in the Dolomite region of Italy. Since my husband and I were already in Italy traveling around (check out our 16-day itinerary!), I have added our two travel days to the overall itinerary below, for a total of 6 days. I highly recommend 4 full days in the Dolomite region itself: it is so worth your time!
As you may have read in our 3-day Tuscany blog post, I was under the weather but by the time we got to the Dolomites, I was feeling great--my husband on the other hand unfortunately caught what I had, which impacted our activities while we were here. I will detail what we had planned, and what we actually ended up doing. We are outdoorsy and enjoy hiking but did not plan anything too strenuous, or any multi-day hikes. There is so much to see and do here--we cannot wait to come back--but trying to figure out what was feasible in our period of time was a bit overwhelming. Hopefully this itinerary will help you out!
We visited the Dolomites at the very end of May, first day of June and it felt practically empty of tourists--especially after coming from Rome and Florence. This is partially because some of the roads, trails, and hiking huts were not open yet; we did run into this problem, which forced us to adapt our trip a bit last minute. We ended up spending our entire time in the greater Bolzano region. The weather was gorgeous every day, mostly in the 70s and no humidity thanks to the altitude; hotels and Airbnbs were not expensive; flowers were blooming; we loved it. I have heard this region can get very busy during peak summer travel, and if I could go back I might choose September for a lot of the similar qualities we saw in May, but the roads and hikes should all be open since most do not close until October.
It is important to remember that this area of Italy, called South Tyrol, was originally part of Austria but was annexed to Italy in 1919 after WWI. The culture in this area is definitely a mix of both. German and Italian are the official languages for the region, so most signs will be in both, and most people we encountered spoke English as well. This can sometimes make searching for things on maps confusing since they have both an Italian and German name; I have tried to include both versions in this post, formatting it as Italian Name/German Name. Check out our Dolomites 4-day itinerary--with separate 2-day travel info--below!
Day 1 (Travel Day):
We were traveling to the Dolomite region by car from Pienza, Italy, in Tuscany. I highly recommend having a car while in this area. There are trains to the bigger cities like Trento and Bolzano, as well as some bus systems throughout the region, but a car is definitely easier. Venice or Milan have the closest airports!
Our drive from Pienza took us about 5 hours and we had planned to make some road trip stops but only opted for one because we were sick: Santuario Madonna della Corona. Other options we considered included: Bologna, Verona, Sirmione, or even Venice. Santuario Madonna della Corona is a beautiful church built into the side of the mountains, dating back to 1625. There are parking lots in the little village above the church (Spiazzi) with refreshments and a bus to take you down the steep path to the site itself. The bus tickets are less than 3 euros a person, but we opted to walk down and take the bus back up. Once down where the church is built, there is a little gift shop with some refreshments and you are able to take in the beautiful scenery and stunning architecture. Overall, it was a quick but beautiful stop for us on our road trip!
Our original plan before coming to Italy had been to drive to Cortina d'Ampezzo to spend two nights there in order to do the famous Tre Cime hike. Before traveling up to the region, we discovered that the toll road to the hike had not yet been cleared of snow to be opened; it usually opens around this time, into the first few days of June. Because we could not guarantee the hike would be open, we explored some other last-minute hotel options closer to where our main base of the trip would be and landed on a stunning hotel in Tires/Tiers: Alpinhotel Vajolet (right outside Bolzano/Bozen).
Day 2:
The Alpinhotel Vajolet in Tires had stunning views and the nicest staff and accommodations--we cannot recommend it enough! We had a bit of culture shock at check in being greeted in German, since we had been traveling in Italy for almost two weeks by this point. They saw our initial confusion and quickly switched to Italian and English, which we found amusing!
The hotel had beautiful hiking opportunities just outside their doorstep, not to mention the surrounding area, but unfortunately my husband was not feeling well at all so we just relaxed at the hotel and enjoyed the views. One hike we wish we could have done nearby was the Adolf Munkel trail.
Day 3:
Our plan for this day was to wake up early and go to the famous Lago di Braies/Pragser Wildsee--from Cortina, this would have been about a 50 minute drive towards our next overnight location, and from Tires/Tiers it would have been an hour and a half drive. Ultimately, we were not feeling well enough to make that drive, but hope to go in the future! The lake is a popular location on Instagram and can attract a lot of tourists, but I am not sure it would have been overly busy this time of year. You can rent boats or take a nice hike around the lake.
Instead, we drove an hour to the Church of St. John (which would have been a stop on the road trip after Lago di Braies/Pragser Wildsee if we had been coming from Cortina). There was parking right next to viewing areas of this famous small chapel with its beautiful copper domed bell tower. There were nearby hotels offering refreshments and a path you could take to walk up to the church itself, but you had to pay a couple euros per person to enter the gate and we unfortunately were out of cash (and no ATMs nearby that we could find). We enjoyed wandering the area and taking in the views, especially all the wildflowers that were starting to bloom.
We ended the day checking into our base for the rest of our time in the Dolomites: Ortisei/Urtijëi. We stayed at a lovely Airbnb with plenty of space and views of the mountains. It was also a quick walk into town for restaurants and shopping.
Day 4-5:
As we recovered from being sick, we spent our two days in Ortisei/Urtijëi pretty leisurely--strolling through the town, eating gelato, and taking the lifts for some light hiking and amazing views.
From our Airbnb, the lift up to Alpe di Siusi/Seiser Alm (Funivie Ortisei) was less than a ten minute walk away and we were able to walk right up, get tickets, and had a cable car to ourselves. I know I mentioned this is the opening, but the complete lack of crowds or people in this stunning location was mind boggling! We loved it! A roundtrip ticket for this particular lift was 29 euros a person, which is a bit pricey but worth it. At the top, you exit next to a hut with food options--we opted to get some paninis to-go and had a picnic while hiking around. We did not want to do anything too strenuous, but the waitresses at the restaurant were helpful in recommending trails. This area, which is the largest high-elevation alpine meadow in Europe, was mostly low rolling hills and easy to walk around while staring up at the iconic rocky peaks. There are hotels up here--and we would love to stay in one when we return--but the road to drive up to it is very limited access (only certain hours in early morning and late evening) and you must pre-arrange with your accommodations for a pass that allows you travel outside those time limits. One option we would have considered had we been feeling better would have been to rent an e-bike from Bambay rentals at the base of the lift in Ortisei/Urtijëi--taking the bike with us on the lift, we could have seen more of the valley and biked back into town versus taking the cable car back down.
We also took the lift up to the Seceda Ridgeline (Funivie Seceda)--the lift access was on the other side of town for us and was a bit of an uphill walk. This cable car takes you higher than the Alpe di Siusi/Seiser Alm and is therefore longer and done in two parts. A roundtrip ticket for this was 41 euros a person, but again very worth it. Once again, we walked right up and were able to purchase tickets and had the first very long cable car all to ourselves; the second cable car is shorter and steep and they wait to fill it with a couple people before taking off. There is also a hut right when you exit with food options and several hiking opportunities (like a roundtrip hike to Rifugio Firenze/Regensburgerhütte and back). We opted to just hike along the stunning ridgeline and once again, just stare semi-open-mouthed in awe at our surroundings.
There are plenty of hiking opportunities in this area, and beautiful mountain huts to visit and enjoy a cold beer or a nice meal. Some huts are not open at the very beginning of the season, or are just starting to open, so talking with locals about best places to go is encouraged.
Day 6 (Travel Day):
On the day we sadly had to leave the Dolomites, we drove about an hour and a half to Trento to return our car and spend an afternoon before taking a train back to Rome. After our car was returned, we had pre-booked storage for our bags at the Trento Railway Station using the Radical Storage app. Trento was at a lower elevation than the other towns we had been in and the temperature was definitely hotter here! We were able to explore the lively historic center, grab some lunch, and then enjoyed the Castello del Buonconsiglio. The castle was lovely and had great views, but when we were there, most of the placards did not have any English translations. For the price of about 10 euros a person, it was definitely still fun to wander around and admire the history.
We took a train from Trento to Rome Termini, which was about 5 hours and was a lovely trip. Once back at Rome Termini station, we took the Leonardo Express to the airport to spend the night at the very nice Hilton Rome Airport before our departure. At the time of our travel, round trip tickets out of Rome were significantly cheaper than departing from one of the cities closer to the Dolomites and ended up not being too big of a hassle for us.
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