Hi we are flying into Venice then we’re planning on spending 4 days in cortina d'Ampezzo, 4 days in Val Gardena then a few days in Cinque Terre.. we were thing that cortina would be too crowded for us with road construction and would love recommendations for a really quaint substitute for our first four days? Thoughts on Corvara? Also confused is ortesi the same as Val Gardena? Thank you so much for help?
Posted by
Firenze, Italy
1896 posts
Val Gardena is a valley with three towns; descending from the upper position, Selva, Santa Cristina and Ortisei that is the main town. (Each town has three names in the three local languages, Italian, German and Ladin). After Ortisei the valley drops very steeply to the main Isarco valley, so there are only groups of isolated homes but no other towns.
Posted by
Atlanta
2583 posts
We stayed in Castelrotto, a very charming town. It’s very close to lifts and other public transport that take you to various hiking trails. Ortesei is close by, I believe it’s the Alpine meadow that Rick Steves describes in his guidebook. Beautiful!
Posted by
Centennial, CO, USA
1903 posts
We stayed in Ortisei for a week in September 2024. We hiked every day, had a bus pass from the hotel and bought a gondola pass for the week, so we were allover the place, hiking from a different town each day. Have to say that Ortisei, and it seems most of the towns in the Dolomites by September are pretty quiet. We found most of the restaurants in Ortisei were closed for the season ! Did encounter lots of locals that drove to a gondola to hike, parking was at a premium, cars parked all along the road. Super glad we traveled by bus, no hassle with parking, etc, and got right to the area where the gondola took us up to the trails.
Posted by
Bay Area, California
1745 posts
Cortina will host the next Winter Olympics and therefore should be avoided. Good thinking.
You can either stay in Ortisei on all days or split up the trip. If you are choosing the latter, then Toblach is a good choice because there is a direct bus to Tre Cime, which is stunning.
Alpine weather is very fickle and therefore you need to budget for some rainy days when you cannot do extensive hiking. Have some plan B's, such as the Ice Man exhibit in Bolzano, which is highly recommended.
Anyway, you should book your hotels ASAP because they are often booked months and months in advance.
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
12009 posts
September is a great month in the area and when we always go. Some restaurants may close mid-to-late month, and some lifts may start to close but plenty are open in the Val Gardena. You can easily spend the whole time in the Val G and not lack for things to do. However, if you want a different village experience, I can recommend Merano, to the northwest of Bolzano, Moso in the Sesto Dolomites to the east, or San Cassino in the Val Badia to the east of the Val G. Moso would require a car, IMO.