Dolomites holiday

Wailin

Hi folks

We are thinking of doing a hillwalking holiday of the dolomites in Italy in the summer. My wife and I plus our two kids, 16 and 8.

Obviously, with the youngest kid, it won't be anything more than leisurely hillwalking. So i have no idea where to stay that would be family friendly. We would love to rent a cabin but would prefer an area that has decent amenities for families.

So, if anyone has any tips or has been to this area, I'd appreciate any info.

The Dolomites are fantastic, great place to go Hillwalking.
I usually would get the plane to Munich and train to Bozen/Bolzano, and take it from there.
Other options are fly into Venice or Verona, but I am not sure of the connections.
I would recommend the Cicerone guide books to plan your walks in advance, I have stayed in various villages, and walked from hut to hut, and would recommend Corvara,which is pretty much the heart of the Dolomites, or the German speaking village of Toblach, which is near the famous Drie Zinnen.
The Villages of the Val Gardena, or Groden are also lovely places to stay, with the bed and breakfasts, and small hotels offering excellent value.
There are really good local bus services, so no need for a car, the roads can be very twisty, so it's better to let someone else do the driving.
The main bus company is SAD.IT
An overnight in a Hutte/Refugio, is a must, and can be booked in advance.
I like the wilderness round the Puez Hutte, but there are lots and lots to chose from.
Food and drink, is excellent and a good bit cheaper than Ireland.
Feel free to ask any questions, and it might be no harm to post this in the outdoor pursuits section in the Sports.
While the majority of the locals, outside of Bozen and Meran, speak German, or Ladin, most would have English as well of course as Italian.

otnomart

The Molveno area at the foot of the Brenta Dolomites is also lovely.
The lake is stunning and there a lot of sports facilities, alongside the hiking trails.
https://www.trentino.com/en/trentino/dolomiti-di-brenta-paganella/molveno/

Wailin

Thanks folks, appreciate the great advice. Great tips there dursey and really makes me want to go even more.

We're starting to look at other options though as the 8 yr old will probably hate hillwalking everyday, while I'd be pretty miffed at being stuck to the beginner walks and looking up at the beautiful mountains i could be doing!

It's probably more suitable to adults rather than families with young children. It looks breathtakingly beautiful.

An option would be to spend a week in the Dolomites and then a week in a campsite beside lake Garda,.

Wailin

Dursey, we are thinking now of doing 5 nights at lake garda and 2 nights up north to see the dolomites. Where would you recommend as a base, bolzano?

Wailin

Wailin wrote: »

Dursey, we are thinking now of doing 5 nights at lake garda and 2 nights up north to see the dolomites. Where would you recommend as a base, bolzano?

I like Bolzano, it's a nice town, and worth checking out Otzi, the mummy found in the ice, but it's a bit far from the mountains, I would stay in Corvara, right in the heart of the mountains, or somewhere in Val Gardena,

k123456

If flying , Bergamo is a good option as two flight to from BGY a day seven days a week

Under three hours, you have Madonna Di C, Pinzolo, Pejo etc

Treviso airport to Alleghe , closer still

Not sure about summer prices but in Jan, we pay 60Euro Half board 3star Plus hotel in in Ossana
Madonna Di C would be more pricey for hotels etc

munchkin_utd

where we've been a few times is the Venosta Valley (Vinchgau in German) which is the valley due west of Bozen/ Bolzano
Theres an hourly train up the valley from Bozen and being a fairly spectacular valley with steep slopes on both sides, most people live along the base of the Valley and near the railway, so if you chose somewhere in one of the villages then its really handy to get in and out of there.
One really cool thing they have there is an organised bike hire program at most of the rail stations, so you get a train up (literally up hill) the valley, and then cycle downhill through the orchards and little villages until you have enough and hand it back at another railway station downstream - and get the train back again to where you started .
https://www.vinschgau.net/en/welcome.html

Bozen itsself is a nice enough town, heaps of history and the cable car to the higher regions of the city is part of the public transport system so is very cheap and a bit of an experience !

ncmc

Hi guys, I really want to visit the Dolomites next year for summer holidays. We have two kids who will be 6 and 3 at the time. So obviously anything other than gentle walks will be ruled out. However we would rent a car and we love driving around doing day trips to see the sights.

However, we would prefer to stay in a larger town rather than a small village, just in terms of having good facilities for the kids plus nice shops and restaurants for us! What would the larger towns in the area be? Ideally we would be looking for somewhere quite central where we could do a 'hub and spoke' approach to day trips.

Also, can you swim in the lakes or would it be too cold in June/July?

VG31

ncmc wrote: »

However, we would prefer to stay in a larger town rather than a small village, just in terms of having good facilities for the kids plus nice shops and restaurants for us! What would the larger towns in the area be? Ideally we would be looking for somewhere quite central where we could do a 'hub and spoke' approach to day trips.

Bolzano/Bozen would be ideal for you. It ticks the boxes for shops/restaurants and location. I spent a week in the South Tyrol last summer and spent an evening there. It has a population of about 100,000 so there's plenty of shops and restaurants.

There's plenty of good attractions in the city itself like the the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology (famous for Ötzi the Iceman), the Renon Cable Car and Runkelstein Castle.

I didn't actually directly visit the Dolomites themselves so I can't recommend any towns or walks there. I imagine most of the terrain would not be suitable for your kids anyway.

Make sure you visit Merano (30 minutes from Bolzano/Bozen). Trauttmansdorff Castle Gardens there were the highlight of our trip.

VG31

Also I highly recommend a day trip to Brixen. You can take a cable car up the Plose mountain and there's great views of the Dolomites at the top. I remember seeing a family-oriented walk there with activities for kids along the way.
http://www.plose.org/en/woodywalk.html

And if you would prefer to stay somewhere a bit smaller Brixen (population 20,000) would be a good option. One big advantage of staying in Brixen is that you get the BrixenCard which gives you free public transport in the whole South Tyrol region for the duration of your stay. You also get free entry into museums and one free trip on the Plose cable car. The public transport is excellent so you might not even need to hire a car.

I stayed in a town called Sterzing near the Austrian border last summer. We didn't hire a car and used the Sterzing equivalent of the BrixenCard to travel for free on the trains and buses. You may find it more convenient to hire a car with young children however.