We will fly into Verona and pick up a rental car for a week before dropping it off at the airport. We were in Verona before and hope to visit Lake Garda and the Dolomites this time. Given May is a shoulder season, we need suggestions on our itinerary and where to stay. Lake Garda seems to have many attractive small towns and it is difficult to decide which is a good place to stay for at least a couple of nights. My wife and I (both in our sixties) plan to do some short and easy hikes along the Great Dolomite Road. Again, there seems to many many scenic trails to choose from and I gathered from my research that a lot of chairlifts are closed in May. We are open to visiting nearby places around Verona as well. We have been to Venice several times in the recent past and do not plan to visit on this trip.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16200 posts
Since you have a car, I suggest you go to the north lake, which IMO is the most beautiful part of the lake. Any town will work, although my favorites are Malcesine and Limone. Coming from Verona Malcesine is easier to reach. You can visit Limone by ferry across the lake. Torbole and Riva (the largest town in the area) are also nice to visit, very close to Malcesine. On the southern flat side of the lake, Sirmione is a popular destination. It’s however overrun by tourists during the high season. May is probably not too bad, except for weekends when day trippers storm the place.
One of my favorite areas in the Dolomites is the Val Gardena (Gardena Valley). Any town in the valley will work although I prefer the village of Ortisei, the valley’s hub, as the others are kind of too smallish for my taste. Ortisei has some life in the evenings even off season. Many trails are within a short distance.
Posted by
OP
West Vancouver, BC
2 posts
Thanks Roberto for sharing your experience. Say, after two nights in Limone at Lake Garda, will Renon just outside of Bolzano or Cortina d'Ampezzo be a good option as a base for three days touring the Dolomites? I found accommodation at Ortisei to be much more limited and pricey next May. Also, can you suggest any must do trails along the Great Dolomite Road?
Posted by
martinez, ca, usa
2429 posts
hey david
you'll love lake garda. we stayed in bardolino for their annual wine festival first week of october few years ago. it's gorgeous views along the lake, we didn't drive too far north, wish we could have. small villages along the way, stop and have lunch along the way. malcesine, near monte baldo has a cable car over the lake. opens in march (funiviedelbaldo.it). check out basilica madonna delle corona, a gorgeous sanctuary clinging onto rocks of mountain. lots of walking steps getting to it. keep a map close by of area with towns to rent a hotel. check booking.com and rome2rio.com for distances how far you wanna drive each day. have fun and enjoy
aloha
Posted by
14 posts
Hi David,
I though I would share my thoughts as my family just returned from a visit in the Dolomites a few weeks ago (we were there during the height of the busiest week of the year, so I can't speak to what's open in May).
I would spend the extra money to try to find a place in one of the valleys if you can, rather than outside of Bolzano or Cortina. It is BEAUTIFUL in the valleys and driving is somewhat slow, so I think it would be a pain to be out on the edges for a couple of days and need to drive in. We stayed in the Residence Boe in Saint Cristina in the Val Gardena. This was quite affordable compared to everything else we found during the most expensive travel week of the summer. It was an apartment hotel, so having a kitchen was great. It was cheaper that many because there are no services at the apartment building itself, check in and check out are the next town over in Selva (about a 10 minute drive away).
The Alta Badia valley was lovely too and we also drove through Canazai - also lovely. Really you can't go wrong with any of the small towns Dolomites, but we were really glad we did not stay in Cortina or any of the towns on the other side.
Our favorite stops -
1. Cinque Torri on the Bai De Dones chair lift - beautiful, plus a little WWI history at their open air museum
2. Pass Pordoi - take the lift up the 2950m - it is a different world up there
3. Alpe di Suisi - it is beautiful up on this alpine meadow
Have fun!