Cortina D’ Ampezzo winter hiking

Optimistically planning a month long visit to Austria and Italy in December.

Our initial plan was to spend five nights in Val Gardena (have booked an apartment in St Cristina) and five nights in Cortina d'Ampezzo.

We're now considering spending five nights in Dobbiaco/Toblach or San Candido instead of Cortina, as I've been told the landscape is entirely different than Val Gardena and it will provide a nice contrast. It also looks like its easier to get to (we're traveling by train and bus).

I'm having trouble finding apartments in Cortina that won't break the bank, and I get the distinct impression that Cortina is sort of the St Mortiz of Italy. Correct assumption?

We prefer quiet, laid back areas. We will not be skiing, but rather winter hiking, and it looks like both areas offer plenty of winter hiking options.

Thoughts on differences between the two and which would provide a more low key holiday would be greatly appreciated (we'll be there from December 17-22 if that makes a difference).

Should we choose to forgo Cortina, is there any reason to choose Dobbiaco/Toblach over San Candido, such as easier access to cable cars that lead to groomed hiking trails, etc?

I am planning a 13-day trip to the Dolomites this Sept and will arrive from the East Tirol side of Austria (direction of Lienz) by car. So, naturally, my first stop is to visit Tre Cime, after which I will travel to see the Odle Group of the Dolomites. How many days shall I spend in this area? I am thinking of about 3-4 days, to account for likely rainy days that renders hiking along the Tre Cime di Lavaredo loop trail impossible. In this case, I can also enjoy some of the Alpine lakes and smaller towns. My questions:

1. It seems that Cortina is the most popular choice of a home base in this region. However, there is no accommodation choice that fulfills my requirements and budget (at a low level of about $170 per night max). Also, I am worried about potential construction noise and dust from construction for the future Olympics. Where else is a good base for 3-4 days? For example, is Padola too far? My next stop will be in the Val Gardena or Val di Funes area. I will have a rental car, but have not driven in Alpine mountains much.

2. Which cable car or gondola rides do you recommend in the Tre Cime area?

3. Beside the loop trail, what are the other easy and enjoyable Tre Cime trails?

4. What other nice places should i visit in this area? Lake Baies is one.

5. Will I need hiking poles for the Tre Cime loop trail? Should I buy some here in the US or buy them in Austria? I don't hike much, if at all, in the US. Even when I do, I won't need any poles.

Once this segment of my Dolomites trip is planned out, I will plan the Val Gardena/Val di Funes part. This is a bigger area and there appears to be more moderately priced lodging options.

Any further advice is appreciated. Thanks!!!

We will be based probably in Sorrento for 3 days. I have read something about some hiking near Amalfi. We are in reasonably good shape but not really hikers. Are there trails that we can negotiate and approximately how long are they? What is the best way to get there - we are 4 people.

Hello,

We are visiting the Dolomites next week and will be staying in campings with tent. I e-mailed 5-6 camping places, but they do not take reservations for tents. Anyway, we are only two people with a small tent and car so we should probably be fine with finding places.

In terms of itinerary, can you please share your thoughts and if we are missing something/should include something etc. Any advice will be useful.

Day 1: Driving up from Venice. We are going to base ourselves in a camping near Cofosco for 2-3 days (do not want to assemble/disassemble a tent each day) Probably will arrive around 13:00 - 14:00. Any ideas how to fill this day with some sights/short hikes in the region ? Seiser Alm ?

Day 2: Drive to Val di Funes - St. Magdalena - Adolf Munkel Trail, drive back to Colfosco. Should we include anything else for this day, or this is plenty ?

Day 3: Seceda with the cable car from Ortisei. Doing a loop hike to Pieralonga and Refugio Firenze.

Day 4: Drive to a camping near Cortina. Hike to lake Sorapsis in the afternoon. Should we include something else?

Day 5: Cinque Torri + Gaiu Pass + Falzarego Pass + Castello

Day 6: Tri Cime loop hike + Cadini di Misurina hike.

Day 7: Leaving the region and heading back to Bulgaria with 1 night in Croatia.

I would love to squeeze in Lago di Braies somewhere in the plan, so we are thinking of having 2 nights around Colfosco and 4 nights near Cortina.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions on how we can improve our trip! I am pretty sure that some of the days it will be raining so we have to accommodate and try to have back-up options for rainy weather.

My best friend and I have rented an apartment in Rome for 3 weeks beginning Oct 1.

We're thinking of visiting Cinque Terre for a couple of nights and will be taking a train or other transportation between Rome and CT.

We are both in our 60's, I'm in excellent health, my friend is in good health. I do have a fear of heights & drop offs but we want to do some hiking while in the area.

Can you advise me the best way to travel from Rome?

Where do you recommend we stay and hike that will allow us hiking, taking into account my height fears.

Many thanks in advance for your assistance!

Hi people,

Planning on visiting both Lake Como and then going into northern Lombardy (Chiavenna as a base, maybe), but not sure how to arrange it or how to manage the car rental in the most efficient way. Our rough itinerary so far looks like this:

- Day 1: Coming from Tuscany, arriving at Lake Como around noon or 2/3 PM (overnight in Varenna)

- Day 2: Around Lake Como, maybe visiting Bellagio / Varenna / hiking around the area.

- Day 3: Around Lake Como, maybe visiting Bellagio / Varenna / hiking around the area.

- Day 4: Going from Varenna to Chiavenna, sightseeing around the area

- Day 5: Visiting Soglio (Switzerland) and maybe other small towns close to Chiavenna.

- Day 6: From Chiavenna to Tirano or Pontresina to take the Bernina Express up to Chur, so we might be able to visit some towns enroute to Pontresina/Tirano during the morning as the Bernina Express leaves Tirano at around 2 PM. We will probably go from Chur to Luzern which is our next step for a couple of nights instead of staying in Chur.

I am not worried about the Lake Como leg of the trip, but how would you arrange the trip from Day 4? We weren´t planning to have a car initially because we would do Lake Como and then move into the Ticino (based in Locarno) in Switzerland. However, we discovered how beautiful the area around Chiavenna is and we are now gravitating towards doing that instead of Ticino, before moving into Lucerne (Bernina Express seems to be an interesting option to connect northern tip of Italy (Tirano) with Chur and then going into Luzern for a long but relaxing day).

Big problem is that there doesn´t seem to be a rental car return place that would suit our itinerary without getting into astronomical fees or a lot of unnecessary driving (or returning in Switzerland which also increases fees), any advice on that and how our rough itinerary looks? We would like to keep unnecessary travel as much as possible and minimize super expensive costs for the car rental.

Thank you!

I know this is an odd request. I am in Italy and need to find new hiking boots to replace the ones that have carried me through the last several months. No place I've checked stocks wide sizes, including Decathlon. Any ideas on stores (including online) I could turn to? I would only want to order from within Italy, given customs issues, which derailed an attempt to buy from Amazon. Thanks for any suggestions.

My family and I will (hopefully) be traveling to Italy this holiday season. Doing five nights of skiing in Cortina (The Cristallo) and then on to Venice for a long weekend and New Years Eve. We are trying to decide between The Danieli and The Gritti Palace. Any advice? It's my husband and I with our two children 11&9. We will need some kind of adjoining room situation and I can't tell from the website if either hotel offers that.

I will be arriving into Nice in the middle of September. I have a month and will spend 10-12 days in Northern Italy and the rest in France.

My plans are to go to Verona first and then the Dolomites as I think the weather should be better at the end of Sept. Thinking 1/2 nights in Verona, then 4 nights in the Dolomite area-suggestions welcome. Maybe an airbnb and do day hikes? We will have a car.

Then make our way back to Nice stopping in the Piedmont area-again suggestions of a location not in a busy town to make day trips? Maybe also a couple of days in Turin?

Our interests are hiking, history, food and wine.

Any tips would be appreciated.

Hi. I am hoping to visit Italy next year and I’m currently on the lookout for reasonable airfare for the end of March/beginning of April. Is this a pretty good time to come weather wise? Rome is a must do and there are several other places I’d like to see and I have to figure out a reasonable itinerary for 14 nights. Florence, Venice, Bergamo, CinqueTerre, Burano, Lucca, Orvieto, Amalfi Coast, San Gimignano are all on my wish list. This will be my and my husbands first trip overseas. I like culture and my husband likes the outdoors and hiking. I would like to also stay in a agroturismo during part of our stay. I think three full days in Rome would be good and the rest divided up perhaps between Florence, Cinque Terra and Orvieto might work? Perhaps flying in and out of Rome/Florence. Does this sound doable?