Hiking in the Dolomites

If you stay up the Alpe di Siusi you can start hikes nice and early. We have stayed at Hotel Saltria and at Hotel Panorama and enjoyed both. Each is half-pension and you can eat lunches in the rifiugi. There are several hotels sprinkled around the Alpe. I think with two weeks you might want to stay a couple of places. The Alpe di Siusi is good for a few days of hiking. The other side of the Val Gardena you can hike in the Puez Odle. I have not stayed there, but there is a big hotel at Col Reiser that has potential and great hiking!

Have you thought about hut-to-hut hiking? There are many refugios scattered around this area and one of our favorite things to do is to hike from one to the next, spending the night, and then moving on the next day. You can also base yourself out of one for a few days and then move on to the next one. This webpage gives you an idea of the wide variety of landscapes and refugios in the region. Many of the refugios provide bedding, some do not so be sure to check this before booking.
My favorite hut refugio is the Langkoffel Hutte at the base of the Langkoffel Gruppe of peaks. Amazing views and beautiful, very old refugio. They have a cozy dining room with great food.
The nice thing about hiking in the Dolomites, or any other part of the Alps for that matter, is that there are often not parking areas at trailheads, rather, you park at a gondola or chairlift station, ride it up into the high mountains, and then hike around. Saves time and saves your legs!
There are some refugios that you can drive to as well but those are the larger, more modern ones. They are fine but don't have quite as much character as some of those that are higher up.

I found the Cicerone Guides books covering the Dolomites informative. Do a book search using a comprehensive search such as Amazon to turn up a long list of titles such as:
Walking in the Dolomites
Shorter Walks in the Dolomites: 50 selected walks

Price's guides include sections on getting there and accommodations.

Sorry to say my buying the guides was hopeful thinking and I haven't walked the walk in the Dolomites. Yet.

PS. Hut to hut or inn to inn with any mode of non-motorized is the way to go be it long multiday distsnce walking/hiking, skiing or biking. full immersion travel.

Thanks for all your info. We considered hut-to-hut but perhaps only for a night or two. We are planning to train it from Verona and then use public transportation, lifts, cable cars, etc. to get on the trails. We did this in Wengen, Switzerland two years ago and loved every second of it. Do you know if we have to make reservations in advance for lunching at the rifiugi and are there stores in the Alpe di Siusi for lunch provisions if we need them?

Val Gardena has a wonderful transportation system and if your stay in Selva, Ortisei, or S. Christina you can easily hop on a bus that will take you to the lifts in any of the other villages in just a few minutes. We found staying in one of these three villages convenient as a starting point to each day's hike, giving us multiple options for which trails we wanted to choose. Then we could return to a home base each night that had a selection of restaurants and groceries. By purchasing a Gardena Card pass at the TI you'll be able to use the buses and most of the lifts without the need to purchase individual tickets. As someone else recommended Gillian Price's hiking guides for the Dolomites from Cicierone Press, along with a Val Gardena-Alpe di Siusi 1:25,000 map from Tabacco, are wonderful planning tools.

http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Dolomites-Cicerone-Guides-Gillian/dp/1852843853
http://www.omnimap.com/catalog/hiking/tabacco.htm

I have never made a reservation for lunch at a refugio but at some of the smaller ones I have had to wait a while, which is fine - I have more time to take in the view! Dinner is usually just for guests staying at the refugio.

I have the Cicerone book but didn't know about Omnimap. Thanks for all that information. Really helpful. We're looking at some B&Bs in those areas. We would really love to be somewhere though that didn't require a bus ride in the morning - somewhere where you can just walk out the door and hit the trails or a lift if necessary but where its all immediately accessible. Of course, it's great to have the option of buses if we want to explore further afield. Anyone have experience or ideas on that?

The three villages in Val Gardena each have lifts within easy walking distance of the hotels or B&Bs. We've stayed in Selva where the Ciampinoi and Dantercepies lifts are located. It's easy to plan hikes where you walk to the lifts in the village where you are staying, hike the high country and visit refugios, descend on another lift to a different village and bus back to your starting point. Here's a map of the lifts (and live webcams) in Val Gardena http://www.valgardena.it/en/val-gardena/information-services/weather-live-cams/live-webcam/