After a week at Lake Como we have four more nights before we head home. We would like to stay in a mountain town or village so we can do some simple hiking, and we would like it to be within a couple hours drive of Como.
Rick recommends Castlerotto, but are there some other nice options closer to the Lake Como area?
Thanks!
If you have to go all the way to Castelrotto, then you might as well go to the Val Gardena (Ortisei, Selva, Santa Cristina, etc.), which are much better and truly in the middle of the Dolomites.
Closer to lake Como you can find Livigno, Valdidentro, Ponte di Legno, and the bigger town of Bormio.
Do a Google Image search and see what you like. A rental car would be useful for any mountain locality you choose.
A question to ask would be: when are you going? Most alpine villages are fit for hiking only during a short summer period, let us say from mid-June to mid-September. At this time places like Madesimo or Bormio, or almost all the Engadine valley in Switzerland are much closer than Castelrotto or Ortisei. - Castelrotto and Ortisei have better shopping and generally nicer accommodation, but maybe they are not worth losing in travel two out of your four days.
Out of this time there are not so many places fit for hiking. I would recommend only places fit for skying in the skying season, or largish cities where you can spend some times even without hiking.
I stayed in a beautiful Dolomite village called Nauders last May and only paid $70 a night for a suite as ski season had ended. It is on the south facing slopes of the Pustertal valley near the village of Mühlbach (Rio di Pusteria). This is to the east of Brixen (Bressanone). To the north of the valley, you have a west-east range reaching 11k + feet. You can drive up a very steep, winding, but paved road to an isolated high Alpine valley called Fahne Alm at 5650 feet elevation. There you find the Gattererhütte, offering hostal like acomodations and a small restaurant. I didn't do any hiking, but certainly there is a lot around there, perhaps connecting with the Gattererhütte.
