We will be arriving in Castelrotto in the mid afternoon. After we check in and freshen up, I am wondering what options we might have for activities. Rick recommends touring Castelrotto, but he makes it sound as if there is little to see there. I am thinking that it may be too late to get up to the Alpe di Siusi. Are there some nearby easy hikes or ski lifts to great views? Any other ideas?
Posted by
OP
Middleboro, Ma, USA
15 posts
Thanks Amy! That sounds great!
Posted by
FL
99 posts
Greg, My family and I did this exact thing a few days ago. We took the Marinzen lift (15 minutes each way) and spent some time at the top. There are beautiful views, a restaurant, chairs to lounge on ... as you ride back down, you have a beautiful look over Castelrotto. It's a nice orientation to the town and gets you familiar with how things operate. The lift closes around 17:00 I'm told, so keep this in mind, however you could hike back down. You could also take a 5 minute bus from the center to Compatsch and and do a 2.5 hour Puflatsch hike. It's mostly even terrain with occasional hills up & down (my 70 year old mother did it easily) and it's a good way to check out the area if you plan to do more hiking. You can always cut a hike short and backtrack if necessary. Another option is to ride the cable car down (to Schlern, I think? There is only one cable car at Compatch that goes down). There's a bus station at the bottom that runs back to Castelrotto. I think that trip might take you 1.5 hours in total. The TI is excellent, if you don't get the help you need at your hotel. We could have spent more time in this area and I regret that we didn't anticipate how beautiful it would be and how much there would be to do, if you're an outdoorsy person. It's so well organized and laid out that we didn't refer to our guide book at all. For us, it was a nice break from the heat, the churches and museums, and traditional Italian food. PM me if you want more information. I am in love with this region and plan to go back!
Posted by
Hinesburg, VT, USA
33 posts
We also arrived in mid-afternoon. A couple tips - grocery stores are closed on Sundays. Also, many restaurants are only open for lunch and dinner - NOT mid-afternoon. So we were wandering around hungry... We finally found a pub/restaurant that served pizza mid-afternoon. Taking the chairlift sounds like it would be good because it takes you to a different spot than where you'll be at the top of the alpe di siusi. There is also a little walk around the hill in town (in RS's guidebook) and there is a longer walk... something about "peace" - I forget the name - that branches off from the walk around the hill. If you don't have a rental car, then if you have the time and energy, I'd suggest walking to Siusi the next day to get the tram up into Alpe di Siusi, rather than taking the bus. It's a lovely trail (somewhat on dirt road, somewhat on trail), saves you a few euro, and just seemed more pleasant than going to the bus depot, finding the right bus, etc.