I’m looking for favorite towns, hikes, restaurants, hotels, etc. My wife and I love hiking when we travel, but also require nice lodgings this time, as this is a special trip. Bolzano, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Bressanone…please direct me.
Thanks all.
Chris
Hi Chris
Only once have we been to the dolomites, but we will return. Trento impressed us greatly, described by our friends as like Verona before the tourist hordes descended on it. We stayed at Lago Molveno, which has stunning views and plenty of walks, from the easy but long enough lake walk, to some more serious hikes in the mountains… indeed including some of the iron walkways if you have a head for heights.
We went in mid september which was at the tail end of the hiking season, but well before the skiing season. Nice timing as it never seemed crowded.
That said, there appear to be plenty of great places in the region.
P.s. The driving can be a little intimidating here, as the scenery appears closer than it is, and you are never quite sure how far that rock juts out.
Just returned from the Dolomites. Intended to fly to Venice and spend first night in Cortina and the 2nd night in Bolzano driving on the great dolomite road. USAir screwed up my plans and canceled our flight to Venice. Lost 1.5 days of an 8 day driving vacation. Spent first night in Bolzano and did 2/3s of the road, but did not get as far as Cortina. Still saw much of the scenery such as val of gardena and molmorado. Just beautiful. A lot of up and down driving with curves through many mountain passes. Not difficult driving. Loved Bolzano even though we didn’t arrive until 9PM on first day (thanks USAir-besides canceling first flight at 1 in the morning-our sub flight to rome the next day departed 3 hours late). Stayed at the Laurin Park Hotel in Bolzano which was first rate. Very good buffet breakfast included in price, nice room, free wifi and GREAT location. Right in the historic region of town adjacent to main square. Good parking at reduced rates for hotel residents on hotel lot next to hotel. A beautiful restaurant in hotel gardens. Can’t comment on food since kitchen was closing when we arrived. Ended up eating Pizza in the square since most kitchens had closed by the time we were ready to eat. Tourist office in Bolzano was very helpful with good maps with easy to find alternate routes through dolomites. Despite USAir, we loved the time we spent driving. If you want to stay in a town other than cortina or bolzano, St Ulrich seemed interesting and built up on our pass through. Good info on Michelin web-site as well as local webs. Hope you enjoy. I have driven all over Europe and this is one of the best drives we have taken, albeit too short. If we had arrived in Cortina as planned, we would have done some walking, but no time. Not far from Dolomites is Bergamo which was interesting and on our way to Belagio, our next stop after Bolzano.
Thanks Ian and Robert. Bolzano looks interesting because of the multiple cable car systems that can take you to higher elevations right from town. Also contemplating either San Cassiano (would need to rent a car) or Malles Venosta.
Is English spoken at least sporadically in this part of the country? I will of course inflict my Italian (or German if necessary) as an opening salvo. I find that in France when I initiate a conversation in French that it immediately gets turned back to English. Heh.
In Alto Adige they would MUCH rather speak English than Italian. German first of course.
Take LOTS of money, Bolzano is one of the most expensive places I have ever been (5€ espresso!). There is a quite famous botanical garden there if that sort of thing interests you.
Take the tour at Laimburg if you can. Among other things, they have a conference room that seats at least 100 buried under a mountain.
My wife and I spent a couple of days hiking out of Agordo last year, absolutely beautiful.
