Dolomites

We stayed in Santa Cristina Val Gardena and had a car. We also took the bus into Ortesei one day. The towns are about 5 minutes apart, with Selva another 5 minutes down the road. From these three towns you can access numerous lifts that will bring you to stunning views: Seceda, Col Raiser, Seiser Alm, Dantercepies. And that just scratches the surface. If you stay in a hotel, you get a bus pass for free, not sure about an apartment. We stayed at La Tambra and it was wonderful. We had the best steak and pizza of our lives.

With a car, you’ll be able to travel more freely, but you’ll absolutely want to take the lifts up. From the valley, you can’t even imagine the views you’ll see from up above. If you’re just spending a couple nights, you can travel by bus. But with more time, a car will allow you to explore more.

Good advice from Travel4Fun although we are in the never-a-car crowd preferring to use the public trans. The Val Gardena is hard to beat for convenience and beauty.

When is your trip? Some apartments require a minimum stay of 7 nights and be aware that July and August are often fully booked with some returning year-after-year making their reservations a year in advance. Mid-to-late June and Sept to mid-October are excellent times to visit.

If you want to use public transportation, then Ortisei is the best choice. You can access tree cable cars without leaving town. It's going to a long trip from Ticino, Switzerland to the Dolomites.

With Airbnb, if you arrive before check in, how are you going to store your luggage? I think hotels are better.

I have found most airbnbs have some provisions for luggage storage. If not, there is usually an alternative, station lockers, TI etc

Check out the South Tirol Website for LOTS of good information.
https://www.suedtirol.info/en/en

Also Check out Gillian Price's hiking guides to the Dolomites.
https://gillianprice.eu/guidebooks-gillian-price/

For skiing I stay in Santa Christina or Oetisei, but for hiking you can also stay in Corvara or Badia or even Cortina d' Ampezo. Local buses cover everything so a car is not required but can be nice. The train Locarno-Milan-Verona-Bolzano takes about 6 hours since it is a loop south but from Bolzano you can reach Ortisei in an hour by bus easily. The bus station is 50m north of the train station.

Have fun.

Ortisei is the McDonalds of the Dolomites, but the handiest place if you don’t have a car.

Car is the way to go if you value being away from crowds and getting on the trail at optimal times (early or late). I used Brixen as a base earlier this year and got around to many different hiking areas within reasonable driving times. Next year I will move my base more east towards Bruneck.

You never gave the time of year you are going which is a major factor.

Thank you all for the input.
We are going in late April. From what I can tell, the Airbnb's i've been looking at only require two nights minimum. We will be in each location for 5 nights. For our luggage, we shouldn't be too early before check in, but we will use the lockers at the train station if needed. We do realize it'll be cold and rainy, and not to go too high in the elevation.
The advice on the areas and the local transportation is much appreciated! You all gave little gems of advice that I was having a hard time finding during my research.

hey hey charb
happy to see you planning early. so many people traveling all year long doesn't seem any low seasons anymore. where are you traveling from and which airport you landing? look at multi-city flights (into one city out from another) so you don't backtrack, are you alone or traveling with family (adults kids-ages) dolomites and switzerland are top spots nowdays. april and may can be busy, their is easter holiday, spring breaks. make sure all passports up to date
if you plan to rent a car get an IDP (aaa.com/IDP) it is mandatory in italy. read up about laws, rules, ZTL zones, vignettes in switzerland, driving conditions, etc. driving car into another country to return car will cost you big bucks for a drop off fee.
does you accomodations have free parking or if a lot further away from place for a fee? check-ins are 3-4pm check-out 10-11am. if things don't work out well, rent room/apt day before or day after and let host/hostess know. happened to us in london, flight arrived 8am and had to wait till 2pm on a sunday with luggage. it was bad, we were tired from overnight flight, sat at a closed bar table outside till checkin. few people bring this up on the forum or vice versa having a late flight home. so so worth the extra cost.
we are on vacation, take care of it when we get back home. good luck and enjoy
aloha

I have to be honest, I think going in April is a risky move and not good value for your travel time and money.

I think the Dolomites demand to be seen in all their glory. It’s like going to visit the Louvre and half the paintings, including their centerpieces are out on loan (or stolen these days).

I have heard a lot of restaurants close down in between high seasons. You should really do your research on this one. Will the trails you are interested be manageable and safe? If they require a cable car will it be running? I have watched a video from that season and saw snow even at lower elevations with the person using spikes for the walk around Lago di Braies. There is not a ton of things to do there when outdoor activities are off the table.

To the Dolomites, we will be traveling from Switzerland by train. We plan to avoid renting a car at all costs, because I do not want to deal with driving in another country. I've been to other places in Europe where I had to drive, and I am not trying to do it again unless absolutely necessary. If I do rent a car, it will be just for that area and the returned before we train to our next spot.
We will arrive there closer to check in time, since we will be doing the train from another country.
Our trip is April 24th to May 9th, with the Dolomites being on the later end of the dates. So, we would be there the first week of May. I was looking at the historical weather when we first started picking out the dates, and it looked like the snow should be starting to melt. I will look into the weather further so I don't run into the issues that were stated. We won't be doing any major hiking, or going too high. More like a quick hike.
Any and all information is appreciated, so I don't run into anything unexpected.

I forgot to respond to the commenter that asked who I will be traveling with. Two adults, including myself. I have a significant amount of experience with international travel, the other has never been international.

We had a wonderful 5 days hiking in the Dolomites but had a car.That might make the most efficient use of your time.
We stayed in an Airbnb on the edge of Cortina which was perfect for us.To me, Cortina put us nearest the hikes that I found to be the most spectacular.That said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
Tre Cime di Lavaredo, Cadini di Misurina, Lavaredo/Locatelli huts; the 5 Torris area plus the short hike to the spectacular Nuvolau hut; Lago di Braies and the Lagazuoi area -all just made me fall in love with the area.
We also spend 2 nights in Ortisei (visited Seceda)but were sold on the eastern side of the mountain range.

My write up below if of interest, starting with Tre Cime and with links to the other hikes:

https://annestravelsandhikes.com/2025/09/24/tre-cime-lavaredo-and-rifugio-locatelli-hike/

NickB, did you by any chance take the Locarno-Milan-Verona-Bolzano all the way around? There are two reasons we want to train when practical-views in places that cars can't go, and because I despise driving in another country.

It's sounding like for this area that renting a car would be the best, regardless of the town we stay in? We would still do a train in, but would rent a car for while we are there. If we rented a car, what's the experience like with finding parking etc? Other places in Europe that i've been too were more difficult to navigate with a car because there is no parking anywhere. That's one of my fears.
For the U.S. drivers, what was your experience like driving there?

We have only driven in the Dolomites as part of a trip including Austria, Italy and Slovenia (where public transport seemed less robust), just the eastern Dolomites. I have found public transportation to work so well that I honestly haven't bothered with a car,. But that was also before the pandemic. Parking never seemed to be a problem for others, but you should check with your lodgings to get their perspective. Given your time frame you may want to keep an eye on the weather since mountain passes such as Grodnerjoch between the Val Gardena and the Corvara-Cortina sides of the Dolomites may be problematic if something turns icy. But honestly they stop the buses then too. Low altitude hiking might include the WW 1 era train route which is now a walking path the length of Val Gardena with villages, the valley and towns on both sides.

I’ve driven all over Europe and the Dolomites were pretty easy to get around and park. Pretty tame compared to the rest of Italy.

I think it’s a good idea to drive in the offseason when cable cars are not running. You’ll need options. The public transportation is nothing like Switzerland, which is the gold standard.

nickb and acechrist, thank you for the input. It does make sense to rent a car if we are going when they could possible shut down the buses. As long as the roads are open, i'm in the clear. The person traveling with me has plenty of experience driving in rough conditions.