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Dolomites, Lake Garda, Tuscany

Hi! My husband & I (27 & 28) are looking for some itinerary advice to narrow down our schedule.

October 8-12: Val d’Orcia for a wedding. Have some flexibility to explore nearby areas. Considering thermal baths, pienza, Siena (how much time do you recommend in each place?)

Want to explore the Dolomites for the rest of the trip or majority of it. We will leave Oct 18th to return home.

We want to base in Ortisei for sure.

Then considering possibly Cortina or Lake Garda for 1-2 nights. Is a car necessary for these spots in mid October? Is it worth it to rent a car for the day to drive to Lago Di Braies?

Looking for some advice! As social media is just very overwhelming & shows the highlights.

Thank you so so much!!!

Posted by
17893 posts

Siena is about one hour away from the Val d'Orcia by car. Visiting Siena would take a good portion of a day.
Pienza can be seen in a couple of hours or so, including the time to walk from the parking lot to the city center.
Montepulciano is slightly bigger than Pienza, but can be seen in a few hours.
Thermal Baths (Bagno Vignoni or San Filippo or Chianciano Terme are the closest) depends on how much time you'd like to spend soaking in the water. A few hours maybe?
If you have a rental car you can see several towns in 4 days. Without a car then it is more problematic because bus service is limited (and almost non existent on weekends, and Oct 9-11 is a weekend).
A car is recommended also for the Dolomites. You can do without if you stay in Ortisei which has good bus service, but if you want to see Cortina or Lago di Braies (both about 1.5 to 2 hour drive from Ortisei) then a car is useful to be able to see them without changing your Ortisei base.
For your specific trip, since you are headed to largely more rural/mountain regions, I'd definitely rent a car.
The drive from Val d'Orcia to the Dolomites is a boring 6-7 hour drive plus pit stops (mostly on 4 to 6 lane freeways), but if you are in America, I'm sure you are used to that type of long and boring freeway drive. You can also break it into a two day drive, if 6 hour at the wheel is too long for your taste (I've driven from the SF Bay Area to L.A. many times, which is a similar distance, so it wouldn't bother me too much).