Greetings from Mazomanie, Wisconsin. My wife and I are senior travelers interested in a supported, self-guided, 5-6 day village-to-village Dolomites walking tour of moderate exertion level in early September 2026. Your ideas, comments, and recommendations regarding an itinerary and operator would be most welcome. Thank you, Chris & Jeannie
Posted by
385 posts
Check out Mac’s Adventures or Pygmy Elephant. I did the TMB with Macs and had a great time. The next most prevalent operator was Pygmy. Trekkers gave positive reviews for both. The hotel owner I spoke with said some of the smaller companies were disasters.
We did one of the Macs “Comfort” tours which avoided overnights in the huts. I cannot sleep in a room with 10-30 other hikers. I have the AV1 comfort and Heart of the Dolomites tours Macs does on my future trip radar.
I found that you will pay about 30% more through Macs than having booked directly, but their maps and choice of accommodations is worth it for those who do not like doing a ton of planning.
One thing to consider is a base camp (or hiking centre in Macs lingo) style trip may offer the same hiking variety but avoids having to pack and move very day. For us, that got a bit tiring at the end of the TMB. Hence, we are going back to the base camp option.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Hello Jason. Many thanks for your generous, informative post. On your recommendation we will also take a look at the base camp option. All the best, Chris & Jeannie
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
69 posts
My wife and I will be spending nine days hiking in the Dolomites in September of 2025 and will be using Ortisei as our base camp so we do not have direct hiking experience yet and were not interested in the hut to hut style of hiking the Dolomites. In planning our upcoming trip, we have used the following book as a very helpful guide; Walking in Italy's Val Gardena by Laurel Barton and Richard Barton. The book is very helpful in terms of providing up to date and detailed information on transportation in the area, specific hikes, passes and lifts, degree of difficulty for hikes, etc.. The author frequently comments on the this travel forum and you might search for some of her comments and advice for enjoying hiking in the region though the book does focus on base camp style hikes.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Hi Tim. Thank you for your advice about an itinerary and for the book recommendation. I hope you will post a report after your September trip. I’ve downloaded the Kindle version of the book and look forward to getting into it. All the best, Chris & Jeannie