Hello! My mother and I will be visiting Riva del Garda for a few days in late October and are interested in a driving daytrip to the Dolomites. I'm torn between focusing on the Brenta Dolomites area or the Val Gardena. Both look very beautiful, but of course the Val Gardena is an hour or so further from Riva, and would make for a fairly long day. We would like to visit a scenic town, enjoy dramatic mountain landscapes, take a cable car up to a viewpoint, and have a traditional lunch (possibly at a rifugio overlooking a spectacular view). We would be happy to do some walking to enjoy the lovely nature, but are not interested in any significant hiking for this particular day. We're open to a longer day of travel if the Val Gardena is the clear choice, but do want to be mindful of logistics. As for either the Brenta Dolomites or the Val Gardena, we'd appreciate any suggestions as to routes to follow, towns or specific locations to visit, restaurant recommendation or dishes to try. Thank you in advance!
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Milan Italy
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Hi, Giangilberto from Milan, so let's start by saying that first of all the northern area of Lake Garda, the area around where you are on the shore of Garda, is beautiful. If you then want to take a trip to the Dolomites, you have to evaluate some logistical aspects, such as, first of all, understanding whether you travel by car or by other transports, such as trains and buses. This is already a decision that makes you take the plan one way or the other.
As for the Brenta Dolomites, there are various places that are worth it.
The Brenta Dolomites are much closer and there is the beautiful village of Molveno, for example, which is just over an hour from Riva del Garda. You can take, for example, a panoramic itinerary that starting from Riva del Garda you can go up the Sarca Valley passing by Lake Tenno and a very characteristic village, a medieval village that is the Borgo Medievale Canale di Tenno and then arriving to Molveno. There is a cable car that goes up to the Pradel plateau which is generally open until the end of October and has access to many panoramic, you have a spectacular view of the lake and all the walls of the Brenta Dolomites, and also you ave the various "rifugi" where you can have a typical lunch, for example polenta or especially the delicious mushrooms Finferli, the carne salada and so on.
https://www.funiviemolveno.it/
As for the Val Gardena, which I personally prefer to the Dolimiti del Brenta, but it's my opinion.
Clearly, as you pointed out, the itinerary becomes a bit longer in the sense that it takes at least two and a half hours to get there.
There could be problems, for example, regarding the cable cars and ski lifts because many cable cars close at the end of October, at the end of the summer season and do a sort of autumn maintenance in preparation for what will then be the winter season.
There should be some cable cars that, especially from Ortisei, remain open until the first Sunday in November or at least the beginning of November. Now there might be two cable cars available, Seceda e Col Raiser, I'll give you the link to both.
The first starts from Ortisei the second from Selva di Val Gardena.
Ortisei is, let's say, the capital of Val Gardena. It's a beautiful village, you can easily explore on foot, and from there you can take the cable car and arrives directly at a panoramic point on the peaks around there, which are also very beautiful.
Here too, there are a lot of mountain "rifugi" where can you have a typical tirolese meal.
Let's say that here, being already in Alto Adige, you can also find what are the traditional Stube. They are the classic Alpine rooms, all built in wood, a few tables, the classic tirolese restaurant, where you can taste traditional dishes such as speck or cheese knödel(canederli) and of course a very very tasty strudel.
where you can taste the famous products at tot D1 above all which I will tell you are the can der with cheese and speck and above all the strudel.