Dolomites in September

[Zona]

We are planning a 5ish week trip to the Dolomites in late August/September later this year. We don't have anything booked, but will start making reservations soon. We are interested in easy to moderate trekking, maybe staying at rifugios for part of the time. We will have a car and will probably base ourselves in Ortisei for a couple of weeks and do daytrips/drives/hikes, then go over the Passo Gardena towards the eastern areas and thinking to possibly book a rifugio for a week followed by a week in San Candido. We had looked into Cortina d'Ampezzo but the accommodations seemed overpriced compared to what we can get in other towns.

Has anyone done a long-ish trip in this region? Did you stay in one place or move around a lot from night to night? Any favorite rifugios? If anyone did a multi-day hike, did you self-book or have a tour company plan/move luggage, etc? Would love to hear people's experience with this part of Italy. Last September we spent a month in the Lake Como area (in an apartment in Menaggio and daytripping around the lake area) and absolutely loved it. Hoping to enjoy this trip just as much, although not expecting to stay in one place the whole time, since there is so much to see across a wide area. Open to any tips and advice to help in our planning. Thanks!

 

[explanade]

I've been to the Dolomites several times. Like Austria, this is one of the rainiest parts of the world. August is typically when they have the lowest rainfall.

But I've been in Val di Gardena where for 4 days it rained and often heavily.

Parking is an issue, especially in Ortisei. You will pay a lot for parking unless you find one of those vacation apartments which has parking but they're often some distance from the center so you have to walk some distance to restaurants and uphill at that.

I've stayed in Santa Cristina and Selva but not in Ortisei, which tends to be more expensive and has more difficult parking options.

I'm not a hardcore hiker and certainly not one for multi-day hikes. Main interest I have for rifugios would be for lunch near the top of a cable car, so I can't help much for those.

I've visited Cortina d'Ampezzo once and Val di Gardena at least twice. It really depends on how you arrive there.

Closest airports are Innsbruck, Verona and Venice. Val di Gardena is closest to Innsbruck and Verona and Cortina d'Ampezzo is closest to Venice.

The other thing I've found is that car rental is cheaper from Italy than Austria and it's very expensive if you pick up one country and return in another.

Like I said, I'm not a hardcore hiker so I usually go for the 1-week cards which cover unlimited rides on cable cars, like the Val di Gardena card. All the big valleys have similar deals or you can get the Super Dolomiti card which covers all the valleys but you would have to spend at least a couple of weeks to hit all of them.

 

[Zona]

Thanks very much for the reply, Explanade. It is nice to hear from someone who has been there and I appreciate the advice about car rental and parking. I posted a similar question on the TripAdvisor forum and it didn't generate a lot of discussion there. Usually TA Forum is my go-to site for trip planning. But the Dolomites/South Tyrol forum on TA is not super active, so I've been trying to branch out and research on blogs and youtube videos, etc.

We are prepared that it might rain (and weather will be cold at altitude) and will pack accordingly, with layers and bringing our good broken-in hiking boots and poles. We probably won't do any hikes that require specialized equipment (such as the Via Ferrata ones).

We have mostly booked our trip at this point, but all is still refundable until about 30 days out. We are flying on points and had to fly in/out of Milan Malpensa (not ideal for Dolomites but we will also be stopping in Lake Garda on the way there & back). We will have a car the entire time. Here's our plan for now:

First 4 days: drive from Malpensa, stopping in Desenzano del Garda/Sirmione on the south side of Lake Garda for 2 nights, continuing to Bolzano for 2 nights. This will be the last week in August, so we are expecting there will still be crowds before school starts. We will do our best, and will book our Otzi ice mummy tickets in advance.

1 week San Candido/Innichen - we found the weekly rates in early Sept in this northern town much more reasonable than what was available in Cortina d'Ampezzo. From here we can explore Lake Braies, Tre Cime, Val Pusteria and maybe Croda da Lago. Some lifts in the Cortina area close by 15 Sept so it made sense to start here for this time of year.

1 week San Cassiano/St. Kassian - this will be a good base to explore the Alta Badia area and also over to Cinque Torri.

2 weeks in Ortisei/St. Ulrich - it made sense to do this area last because it will be late September and the lifts are open longer. There is a lot to do in this area with Seceda, Val de Siusi and other scenic hikes and walks. Our rental apartment has a dedicated parking space on property and is within a 5 minute walking distance of the Resciesa and Seceda funiculars.

2 nights in Riva del Garda on the north side of Lake Garda, then one night in the outskirts of Bergamo (we will explore the old town via public transport as it looks tricky to drive there). We have a mid-morning flight home from Malpensa on Oct 1.

We are finding the shoulder season rates in this area to be pretty reasonable for Europe -- we prefer self-catering apartments with kitchens and clothes washers and are averaging about $120 USD per night for lodging. So far we are using a mix of booking.com, airbnb, and contacting properties directly. Many places here have a 4-night or 7-night minimum stay, which works well for how we've planned.

We bought 2 Cicerone guides on Amazon for help in planning: one has 50 day walks in the Dolomites, and the other is called "Walking in the Dolomites" and has 25 multi-day routes.

As we are still in the planning phase, I welcome any additional comments on the itinerary or suggestions of great hikes, cultural sights, and area must-sees.

 

[explanade]

You should get some good weather out of the 4 weeks you will stay up there.

I've only been to Alta Badia once, Cortina d'Ampezzo once and Val Gardena twice.

One thing that may be of interest is Val Gardena Active, which is a card you get for staying a certain number of nights at an accommodation.

Val Gardena Active Summer - Hiking, Bike, Culture and more - Val Gardena - Alto Adige - Dolomites - Italy

The weekly Val Gardena Active program invites you to actively explore the territory of Val Gardena, with the possibility of creating tailor-made holidays. Discover the unspoiled nature of the UNESCO World Heritage woods.

www.valgardena-active.com

They have various tours, including guided hikes or bike and e-bike tours at discounted rates. Some tours are even free.

It's not just hotels. When I stayed at Santa Cristina, it was an apartment with a store and they gave me the card as well as a free bus card good for buses between the 3 Val di Gardena villages as well as stops I believe at some of the cable cars.

I think I rode the bus maybe once. Nice not having to pay for parking but it seemed the schedule wasn't that convenient in my case.

So I just parked at the garage that was across the main road from Ortisei centro and you had to walk across a pedestrian bridge over the road to go into town. The garage is also part of the Alps di Siusi cable car base station.

 

[meridiver]

We spent two weeks in the Dolomites in 2017 (last week of August, first week in September). We drove in from France and stopped in Sirmione for two days. Because it was still August, we found Sirmione beautiful, but very crowded. From there, we drove straight through to Val di Gardena and stayed for 4 nights in Selva. We absolutely loved it. The entire Val de Gardena area is spectacular and there is so much to do.

After Selva, we blew the budget and stayed in an expensive hotel (Sporthotel Sonne) that we stumbled on when we took the chairlift from Ortisei into Alpe di Suisi one afternoon. Driving into Alpe is restricted unless you have a hotel reservation, but it's just 20 minutes from Ortisei on the chairlift. It was so beautiful that we booked a reservation on the spot and drove over two days later when our rez in Selva was finished. I also highly recommend the chairlift from Ortisei to Seceda which is just gorgeous. That was another one where we went up on the chairlift during the day and loved it so much that we booked into one of the little Rifugios up there so that we could stay overnight and catch the sunrise. It then snowed (!) on the day we went up there so DH was tramping through a foot of fresh snow the next morning to get his sunrise shots LOL.

From there, we tried to go to Tre Cime, but it was completely rainy/fogged out on the day we drove up there so we didn't bother to do the hike around the peaks. Also, the Rifugio up there was the least pleasant of all of the ones we stopped at throughout the trip, so if the weather is chancy, don't even bother driving up.

We then stayed for 4 or 5 days in a little apartment just on the outskirts of Cortina and did the lifts in that area (Cima Tofano di Mezzo where you can get right up to the top of the peak on the lift is particularly cool), and also drove over to the Cinque Torri area and the World War 1 museum at the top of Passo Falgorezo. Fascinating history and Cinque Torri is another spectacular area with great hiking.

A couple of other notes: The so-called "coffin" gondola at Sasso Lungo is an experience not to be missed as long as you are adventurous and not afraid of heights or claustrophobic. And, in general, be prepared for cold/changeable weather. As I noted above, it snowed on September 1, and from then on, it was pretty chilly.

All in all, it was an amazing trip, highly recommend!

 

[explanade]

Yeah I did the Sasso Lungo. Actually I never heard of it being called a coffin but more as a telephone cabin.

 

[FIREd]

I did a couple of weeks in the Dolomites in September 2022. I moved around a lot. The weather was good for most of the trip. The highlights of the trip for me were Lago di Braies, Tre Cime, Cinque Torri, and Lago Sorapis (though the water level was disappoingly low when I went).

Cortina d’Ampezzo was ok. It’s pretty but it was pretty much dead when I went and it was even tough to find a decent restaurant for dinner as many restaurants were closed in the off season. I guess it’s more of a summer/winter town.

Sirmione and Verona were gorgeous but full of tourists.

I will also mention the scenic village of Longomoso with its natural earth pyramid formations. Nice drive up from Bolzano too.

 

[Zona]

Thanks everyone for all of the replies. We will definitely need to be prepared for all weather. Living in the desert, we are not so used to driving in snow. I'm hoping for decent weather most of the time but preparing for the possibility of snow. Usually we just carry on 1 bag each when we travel but I think with boots, poles, and all-weather clothes we will have to bring a third bag for the gear.

Meridiver, when it snowed overnight while you were on Alpe de Siusi, were the roads also snowy down in Ortisei, or did it just snow at altitude? Clearly, traipsing through the snow was worth it as your DH got a beautiful shot at sunrise. Great photos!

We will have to see about the Sasso Lungo gondola. Neither of us are claustrophobic but the combination of a small capsule and heights might be too much for DH.

Fired, thanks for mentioning Longomoso. I really enjoyed seeing the rock formations in Bryce Canyon NP and Cedar Breaks national monument, so we will put Longomoso on the list. We are hoping that by doing the Cortina d'Ampezzo area that first week in September (while staying in San Candido) a few things will still be open and not shut down for the season quite yet. I imagine we will mostly be looking for lunch spots while we're out driving around/hiking, since we will have an apartment with kitchen. Hoping restaurants in the town of San Candido/Innichen will still be open during that first week of September if we want to do any dinners out.

For those of you who went in the autumn, did you come across any harvest festivals or cool cultural events? I think apples get harvested around that time, and I've seen photos on the web of when they bring the cows down from mountain pastures (the cows have little flower garlands on their heads). Would love to see something like that if we're there at the right time.

 

[meridiver]

It snowed all over, but was pretty much melted at lower elevations by the time we came down mid-day. I think they only got a couple of inches lower down whereas we got a foot of snow higher up. At the time we were up on Seceda Ridge around 7,000 ft, not in the Alpe di Suisi, which didn't get much if any snow.

We didn't expect snow, but luckily each had a warm jacket, gloves, scarves, long underwear and hiking boots so it all worked out. A pair of lightweight long underwear and one of those ultralight, packable down jackets are my best packing advice for changeable weather - it takes up very little room in your luggage but will add just enough extra warmth if it does get cold. I bring them pretty much every trip other than to the tropics. If you don't already have an ultralight down jacket, Uniqlo has them for around $100.

As for Cortina, when we were there in the first week of September, everything was open. My guess is that things start to shut down around mid-month when the lifts start winding down.