Any tips for Dolomites?

We will spend 9 days in the Dolomites late April / early May and I’d be keen on any recommendations from WBers on wineries, restaurants and activities. I have already booked a tasting at Foradori and lunch at San Brite. We will be staying near Auronzo and will day trip from there. Youngest family member is 3 so we will take it easy.
Thanks!

If you are up for a day trip going east then I would suggest a visit to la Subida.

Many good wineries within a short drive (Oslavia, Brda, Cialla, etc).

Near by you could also visit Slovenia and the Soca river with its beautiful walk paths (there are spots suitable for young children as well).

Thanks Mikael! Slovenia is stunning, never been to the Soca river

My pleasure and I’m sure you will like Soca river.
We walked across the bridge Brv čez Sočo and kept on to a water fall (think it was Slap Kozjak).

For a food experience you also have Hisa Frank/Polonka (same owner, the latter is more casual).

Hope you have a good time during the vacation!
I’ll be heading to Croatia during the same period.

First off, the Dolomites are like no other mountains anywhere. Enjoy! Considering you are staying in the Eastern part of the range, I’ll begin from there. Your must see in the vicinity is the Tre Cime de Lavaredo. The closest you can get by car is the Rifugio Auronzo. From there you can walk as much or little as you like. Foradori is quite a distance away. If you take the northern route and go via Bolzano, I recommend stopping to see Ötzi the Glacier Mummy in the museum dedicated to him there. As Mikael notes, you are actually closer to some of the wineries in the Veneto and Friuli than you are to most of the Trentino/Alto Adige wineries.

As far as dining, if you are willing to drive an hour, I would think Dolada is another option for dinner at a similar level to San Brite.

If you are interested in traveling more in the heart of the German-speaking Dolomites, I can suggest more but I am not sure how much you want to travel. The best thing to do is walk around in the beautiful mountain scenery!

Foradori is a lovely place to visit, and ideally if you can arrive a little early, just spend some time in the courtyard watching and listening to the birds that love the greenery around the courtyard. They are very much a winery that wants to co-exist with nature. If you want them to love you, ask about their composting. After visiting, there are some alimentari / other foods shops on/near the main road (about a 5 min walk away from Foradori). The food in the alimentari we visited was excellent and possibly a good option if then heading for the mountains.

As you’ll have a youngster, I’d definitely focus on the ski lifts (check when they are open - perhaps only on weekends at that time of year) to get you up into the mountains, and for the journey itself. As you’ll be in Mezzacorona/Mezzolombardo, the easiest option might be the old ski lift from behind Trento’s train station. It’s a lovely old thing, and a very cheap experience (a small few euro), though as a ‘destination’ I’d prefer the options around Andalo, Fai della Paganella or Molveno up to Pradel.

If you end up near Andalo, then I’d recommend this aladdins cave of lovely food (and wine) https://www.labottegadellebonta.com/
If you make it Molveno, then I’d recommend the utterly hat-stand crazily energetic butcher in the centre (the bit where it flattens out). As well as meats, he stocks loads of other things, plus has a barbecue in good weather outside. He’s a wonderful character who it’s difficult not to warm to, even admire.

Trento is a wonderful city, described by friends as “like Verona before mass tourism spoiled it”. I’m sad to find out that the restaurant Ai tre garofani is now permanently closed, as it was one that was good for us on 3 separate visits. The market day has a real bustle about it, but otherwise it’s wonderfully spacious and clean.

In general, expect good hearty / robust food, with some excellent local fruit (and the legendary white asparagus at that time of year). For wines, I’d say Alto-Adige probably edges Trentino overall, but Foradori are excellent, and (shshhh!) do try the local vino santo wines (vino, not vin as they make in Tuscany). Not at all oxidised, they are wonderful dessert wines, typically released with more than a decade’s age and will age happily well beyond that. Just don’t tell anyone else ok Also worth mentioning are local mushrooms (very good indeed), cheeses (definitely try anything labelled Malga, where the cows are taken up into the mountains for pasture in spring and summer) and the grappas, plus grappa based herbal liqueurs.

I’m sorry I’ve not got any recco’s for where you are staying, as we’ve not ventured out there (yet). We never even made it to the midway point of Moena (home of the stinky cheese ‘Puzzone di Moena’)

I hope this helps

[late edit] as you’ll have a 3 yo along with you, a short note on the local sweets (aka little bribes). Small hard boiled sweets (labelled caramelle, but that’s a broad term) come in a variety of flavours and they’re happy to have herb flavourings alongside fruit or honey. It’s perhaps the latter that would be the safe bet. Then there are the very traditional local sweet ‘zirele’. These are somewhat sturdy little cubes of sugar, in a wide variety of flavours (and natural colours), and again with some flavours that might be challenging to a 3yo (mainly the ones using herbs and spice, so getting single flavour or ‘fruit’ packs may be better than a fully mixed bag). I’ve added a picture of them below.