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Dolomites itenerary driving from Venice ending in Bologna

We (2 adults, 65+) will be arriving in Venice early Sept. 9. Will not stay in Venice, plan to rent car and drive straight to Dolomites - returning car in Bologna on Sept 15. Need advice on driving route and passes to see best of Dolomites. Also since we arrive after an overnight flight do not want to drive too long on first night, preferably no more than an hour or at most two. Need advice on: where to stay 1st night? Should we then choose one (or nor more than two places) to stay in after 1st night, would like to avoid changing hotels every night. We would enjoy doing some easy hikes some days. Any advice would be great. So our plan is to drive from Venice to Dolomites then down to Bologna in 5 or 6 days. Thanks for any help.

Posted by
11676 posts

We were in Ortisei in the Dolomites and loved it there. Beautiful hiking. Then we stayed overnight in Malcesine on Lake Garda before driving to Bologna. A great trip.

My $0.02 would be to not rent the car in Venice at all but to rent in Bolzano. The one fly in the ointment is that Sept 9 is a Sunday, so you will most likely have to take the (local) train from Bolzano central to the airport to rent from there, as the rentals near the train station may not be staffed on a Sunday. And stay in Bolzano for the night. What do you get out of this? You get a hassle free travel experience when you are jet lagged. I live on the US east coast, and I find that no matter what, my brain shuts down around 3pm and I can't stay awake on the first day after that.

As far as the passes go, run this past Google translate, and throw out enough destinations until you can fit your time budget: https://it.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Tematica:Passi_dolomitici

Posted by
703 posts

we stayed in alta badia and drove around the surrounding passes, for a few days. one great experience was to travel via passo pordoi and we went on the sass pordoi cable car. the scenery was spectacular.

hope this helps

Posted by
346 posts

We stayed in Bolzano and day tripped to Alta Badia (great, easy hiking and really breath taking!). We also day tripped to Malcesine on Lago di Garda from Bolzano. Again, beautiful. You might, as previous poster mentioned, consider taking train from Venice airport to Bolzano then rent a car from there.

Posted by
9 posts

We are staying in Venice a few days then taking the train to Bolzano and renting a car from there so we can tour around the dolomites and then returning the car back in Bolzano and training on to Lake Como. The train is the way to go for us!