Dolomites/Venice with teens - itinerary question? and rec for hotels w/ quad rooms?

I only have one comment, and that is the highly inadvisable idea of driving between 3 and 4 hours, in a new country, on unknown roads, into mountains, when you are jet lagged. I can't over emphasize just how bad an idea this is. If you fly into Venice you would at least have an interesting city to explore on your arrival day, before picking up your rental and heading for the mountains the next day.

Dont forget that you will need to get an International Driver's Permit for each driver before leaving home. Read up on Italian driving laws in advance. Pay particular attention to speed cameras, ZTLs, bus lanes, and blood alcohol limits.

You can use booking.com to look for accommodations. Use the filters for amenities, including number of beds, and prices. But book directly with the hotel, etc. You might want to consider an apartment rental for your longer stays.

hey hey abigailsr600
welcome to the forum
where are you flying from USA/Canada? i would not drive to dolomites the day of your arrival. after a long flight, getting thru passport/immigration, picking up rental car, jetlag "it's real", driving someplace new and unfamiliar to you is not a good idea. it's your vacation though. what time does your flight arrive? spend the night in milan then head off in the daylight.
you will be traveling in high season crowds with many other travelers going to same places you plan. all drivers will need to obtain and IDP (aaa.com/IDP which is mandatory in italy) read rules, laws, signage, ZTL zones, car big enough for 4 and your luggage, driving through winding & narrow roads and traffic.
booking.com
look for your cities, dates, filters on left side for your wants/needs, especially with 4 people (how many beds, not a sofa bed). may have limits to how many people are allowed in room (safety issue from the hotel). check-in is 3-4pm and check-out is 10-11am, which i consider useful without having to wait for hours with luggage, places have storage for them until you check-in.
we have reserved room either a day ahead or a day after for convenience. lots to think about. keep asking questions, great posters here to help you out with good bad and ugly. good to look for places early since many of the bigger family rooms get booked up fast, months ahead of time. if you find something, emailed place direct for info & book with them. enjoy & good luck
aloha

Adding on to CJean’s advice- yes, please just take the trains from Malpensa to Verona. Stay there one night to enjoy it & let your body get over the jet lag. Pick up your rental car there, and it’s a straight route north to Ortesei the next morning.

The advice to not drive for a couple days after you arrive in Europe is wise. We rented a car on the third day after flying into Milan. While driving from Bolzano to Ortisei through a dark mountain highway tunnel, I suddenly came face to face with an enormous Winnebago-sized RV approaching us on the WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD! I hit the brakes and came to a stop until the RV returned to its side of the road before being able to proceed.

I cannot even imagine what would have happened if I was driving jet lagged and exhausted after a transatlantic flight.

We’re now in week three of driving in Italy and I have to say— driving in Italy is not quite like anywhere else in the world. I’m from Southern California and am used to being a road warrior on LA’s freeways.
Driving in Italy is definitely not something I would do after first arriving in Europe following a transatlantic flight.

Safe travels!

Adding on to CJean’s advice- yes, please just take the trains from Malpensa to Verona. Stay there one night to enjoy it & let your body get over the jet lag. Pick up your rental car there, and it’s a straight route north to Ortesei the next morning.

I do use Booking.com for both searching for accommodations & reserving them. I’ve never had any issues, and I stay in 10-12 different places each trip. Their reviews are only from people who stayed there (they send me a link the day after), so the reviews have integrity.

You also could not rent a car at all. We went to Ortisei from Venice and did not have a car. We took the train to Bolzano which involves a train change in Verona which would be the same coming from Milan. We then took a bus but after that much travel I would take private transport. Ivan is someone who has been recommended and I am sure someone has contact information.

You also could reverse your trip and start in Rome. It will get warmer as it gets further into June which is a good thing for Ortisei but not for Rome. We went the third week of June to Ortisei and the weather was perfect and all the lifts were open.

Rooms for 4 are rare in Europe. This is where we stayed this summer. It is a modest guest house that has two apartments. We stayed in the smaller one but the larger one would accommodate 4. They take credit cards which is rare in this part of the world. The owner does not speak English though. Her correspondence was in German and I used goggle translate. It was not a problem. German not Italian is the dominant language in the Dolomites. iBreakfast is included in the room rates but extra for the apartments. We ate breakfast two days and enjoyed it. We would return there in a heartbeat.

https://www.garni-cittadella.it/en/welcome

We rented one room for four (two beds) with our two teens (at the time) in July 2022 at hotel Grones in ortisei. Excellent stay with the half board. Parked in their underground garage for the whole stay and walked to gondolas for hiking .

We just made a trip to the Dolomites last summer and we started our trip at the Milan Linate airport where we rented a car. Before heading to the Dolomites (Ortisei), we visited Lake Como and Lake Garda. Driving takes much longer than indicated on Google Maps in the Dolomites. I'm glad we broke up the drive from the Dolomites, staying overnight in Trento on our way back to Milan. It's certainly not impossible to make the drive from Ortisei to Venice in one day, but be prepared for it to take longer than expected.

With that crew I'd look at short term rentals.

Hello! We are planning a similar trip, subbing Lake Garda for Rome, so I'll be following these responses with interest :)

I actually just posted about this, but we are also likely landing in MXP and renting a car there. However, I do think we'll stay overnight. Knowing how poorly we sleep on the overnights from the US, I'm nervous to get into a car in the morning. Milan has been on my teen's list anyway, so we'll check a few boxes and then head toward Ortisei in the morning.

For Rome, I can highly recommend Hotel Mozart, near the Spanish Steps. We stayed in one of their serviced apartments a few blocks away, which had a small kitchenette and (most importantly!) twin beds for my kids. It was perfect for us!

I can also highly recommend LivTours for a Colosseum tour. While you don't necessarily need a guide there, our guide Giulia really helped the place come alive for us and we all really enjoyed it. My teen also loved St. Peter's Basilica (but we all found the Vatican museums quite overwhelming/crowded) and Castel Sant'Angelo, and we loved our pasta and tiramisu class. If going back I'd probably look at a Trastavere food tour for my teen. Orvieto was a really nice daytrip from Rome - the underground tour is very cool!

I realize now after typing that you weren't necessarily looking for Rome suggestions, but I'll leave them anyway :)

My wife and I had a wonderful visit to Dolomites last June. We stayed 4 nights at Hotel Grones in Ortisei in a large room with 2 queen beds that would easily accommodate a family of 4. Since lifts and mountain trails are weather dependent, I would reverse the order of your trip to arrive in Dolomites later. We arrived around June 15 and some were just opening. Really no need for car. You can take the train from Milan or Venice or Rome to Bolzano and then bus or private transfer to Ortisei. There are 3 mountain hiking areas directly accessible from Ortisei and easy bus to other hikes if desired. Laurel’s book is great.

Thanks so much to everyone who responded -- this is all great information and we appreciate all of the advice! I think we are going to work on revising our itinerary so that we go to Rome first, then Venice, then the Dolomites, so special thanks to the people who recommended that!

HI @abigailsr600,

The Hotel Luna Mondschein in Ortisei offers a family suite that might work for you. (Details: https://www.hotel-luna.com/en/rooms-suites/family-suite-50-mq/?room=6). We stayed there several years ago and really liked it. It's a few minutes' walk from the centre and probably 10 minutes from the nearest lift. We did not have a car when we were there. We took the train from Verona to Bolzano and then the bus to Ortisei. The room came with a regional bus pass (the South Tyrol Mobil Card) that took us everywhere we wanted after that.
cheers!

As someone said above, if you plan to base in Ortisei, you don't necessarily need a car, especially because you only have four nights in the Dolomites. There are enough lifts/gondolas/cable cars from Ortisei, Selva, and Santa Cristina to keep you hiking in that area for a week (or longer).

We usually book two rooms, so I don't have recommendations for quads/family rooms. We did enjoy our stay at Hotel Grones, though.

Hi abigailsr600,
When our kids were 14 and 16 we took them on a trip through Italy. We started in Venice then headed up to the dolomites and ended our trip in Rome (after visiting a bunch of other places in between.) We rented apartments/condos/villas. We used a mix of local rentals, VRBO and AirBnB as it was difficult to find lodging for all four of us comfortably and economically. There are many local rental agencies around Italy so you don't have to use the more known AirBnB or VRBO. We chose to stay in Bolzano for our time around the dolomites and loved our stay there. We hiked a few of the days in the mountains then had a day to explore Lago di Garda (also worth a visit if you enjoy outdoor activities) as well as Bolzano itself. We flew in to Venice and out of Rome, which worked really well. We did rent a car but you could easily take trains instead. I don't think you will be disappointed with your choice of areas. The hiking around the dolomites is extrodinary!