Help with trip to Dolomites

I don't see Moena mentioned too often on this site. It's a sweet little town with friendly locals. We stayed at Hotel Monza about 5 years ago when we were there, and we had the breakfast/dinner provided. Their dinners were traditional food. The hotel felt more like a B&B - friendly hosts & immaculately decorated and clean.

We just took a train from Verona & bus from Trento, so when we were in Moena, we took the bus one-way over to the next town, Vigo di Fassa for the chairlifts and walked back to Moena. The restaurants in that area were very reasonable for prices. As much as we enjoyed Moena, 6 days would be too much, in my opinion.

I bought the Cicerone book as well last year. First time we went in 2010, we split time (not enough...) between the region around Cortina, and canazei. Last year we only stayed around Cortina again.
We loved the tre cime di lavaredo walk a lot. It is absolutely spectacular. Last year, we spent sometime hiking cinque Torre. Lots of history regarding WW1 around there. We also enjoyed the easy 1 hour walk around lago di braies. It's just beautiful. We wanted to hike to go to lago di sorapiss, one of the many hikes proposed in the book, bit didn't have enough time. In 2010 my kid was younger, we took the passo pordoi cable car in canazei for breathtaking views of the region.
I've been in the dolomites 2 times, but love this region so much, I know we'll go back. So much to see, do and enjoy.
As far as Slovenia, we didn't hike in the mountains, but enjoyed the road between Kranska gora and Soca, going thru Vrsic pass, following the Soca River. The WW1 museum in Kobarid is small but moving.
For an easy but nice walk, velika planina is beautiful, just south in lake bled. Lots of cows, traditional homes, we enjoyed a lot.
A walk around Lake bled is also a must. Vintgar gorge is also beautiful to do.
You will definitely enjoy your trip a lot.

Jean...thanks so much for your insights on Moena. I had wanted more Information about it. I know that we want to visit it, but felt it might be an option to stay a couple of days. Still don’t know if we should focus more on Val Badia versus Val di Fassa. I think we do want to stay a few days in Val Gardena. I will look up hotel Monza though.tomsee if they still offer bkf/dinner.

Claude...thanks so much for your advice on areas to visit and hikes. This helps a lot. We do want to see Cortina though. I’m afraid that we also will really love the Dolomites. Unfortunately, we are in our 70’s and in good health and very active...but ...
We hope too that we will enjoy Slovenia as much as the Dolomites...it will be hopefully very different.

Rsfrato, a little more about Moena. It was a very relaxed pace location. Hotel Monza was on the edge of town, overlooking the small church from a distance, with views from our balcony of the mountains and looking left seeing the downtown. I selected a room with the view, and it was definitely worth it!

Snippets of memories:

Seeing family members coming each morning to the lovely cemetery attached to the church and tending the flowers on the graves. I walked through it, also - beautifully tended and displayed memorials.

When we would walk to/from downtown or on the trails in the afternoon, there would be a few women sitting together at their front door. They would wave to us and greet us.

We saw a couple of women working in a hay field near a trail. They were tossing it up in the air to dry it.

One of the tiny shops had fabric, and upstairs there were gorgeous selections of lace for window curtains.

Since you are interested in the town, you probably know that this area also has people who can speak the traditional Ladin language.

Jean...thanks again for your thoughts about Hotel Monza...it looks like a very charming family run hotel...the type that we like to stay at. I will contact them. I’m thinking of 1-2 nights in Moena. Originally, I was planning 3 nights in Val Gardena and 3 nights in either Moena or Val Badia. But we can extend our time in the Dolomites another day to allow us to spend perhaps 2 nights in Moena and 2 nights in Val Badia...or perhaps 1 night in Moena and 3 nights in Val Badia before we travel on to Slovenia. Do you have any thoughts about this? I have already found extra things to do there too...so this anniversary trip is fast becoming a 3 week trip...but why not?

I am not finding any established walks in the area from Moena except for taking the chair lift at Vigo di Fassa which we could do...but I am somewhat intrigued overall by the area that seems/sounds a little different then the more touristy Dolomites areas....but I could be mistaken. So I really do appreciate your thoughts about the area as I plan this trip

Hello again. Here’s a site that will give you a good idea of Moena & area. Personally, I wouldn’t want to stay at one of the locations for just one night. The two nights/two nights would be more enjoyable. We walked up the hill, out of town and also walked the paved nice path between Moena and Vigo di Fassa. Otherwise, it was up the gondola at Vigo di Fassa for high altitude hiking.

https://www.alpine-pearls.com/en/holiday/italy/moena/

Jean....thanks again. That website is most helpful and I had not seen it yet. Curious, if you don’t mind...why did did you choose Hotel Monza and how long did you stay in Moena? The more I look at Moena and also Hotel Monza...the more I’m thinking of staying there, depending on price. But you also get what you pay for too. I’m thinking of 2 nights there, which would give us a full day to explore. Are as familiar with other areas of the Dolomites as you Moena? I would appreciate your further thoughts of the whole area too.

We took the RS Best of Italy tour and loved so many locations during that trip. A few years afterwards, I planned an itinerary for us centered in the Veneto region and Dolomites because we definitely wanted to return to Venice and the Dolomites. I chose Moena after a lot of research. During the RS tour, we stayed at Castelrotto (Kastelruth).

I really liked that Hotel Monza was on the edge of town (but easily walkable) with the amazing views from the balcony vs. being downtown among the hotels bunched together. We stayed two nights in Moena.

If we’re able to return to the Dolomites, I will probably have us stay next at the Val Gardena.

Enjoy your trip!

Jean...we too like places that are not in the center of town. Hopefully Hotel Monza has openings the dates that we finally choose. We hope to do the Dolomites the first week in September, but have not purchased airfare yet until I have determined all we want to see. Plus, trying to decide if Moena should be at the end of the Dolomites trip or in the middle.

We have been to Italy before too, Tuscany, Umbria and Cinque Terre. We rented a car ...”a Lancia “....which was full of dents, “but ..oh could it go”. It loved the mountains and my Italian ancestry husband loved the car.
Thanks for all of your help...we will definitely be going to Moena because of you.