The Dolomites, Austria / Italy border crossing

Can't speak to the roads you'll be taking, but when we were in the Dolomites this past June some other guests at our hotel had horror stories of crossing over to Italy from Austria over the Brenner pass due to truck back ups (just really long queues).

Thanks very much for the reply! That's disheartening ;(
I wonder, trying to do the border crossing very early in the morning or late in the evening would make any difference. I assume that I will be spending most of the time during the day in Italy.

It's not worth your time and mental capacity. Book a hotel in the Italian side; the food is better anyway.

Ha! Guess I'll take your advice. Appreciate it!

The toll from Brenner to Vipiteno and vv. is eur 1,30; the toll on the Austrian side is more difficult (no highway vignette required from Brenner to Innsbruck Süd but toll is paid for each passage, 11 eur for the whole stretch but partial stretches like Matrei-Brenner eur 5,50). On the Austrian side subscription tickets linked to licence plates are possible but quite complicated.

On the Italian side, the ordinary road between Vipiteno and Brenner is very easy and, under bad traffic, maybe quicker than the highway. On the Austrian side sometimes traffic on the ordinary road is limited to local traffic during summer weekends.

@lachera thank you so much for the reply and the information!
Sadly, I have to cancel my Austrian apartment reservation this time. Perhaps, next time, I will have more time to spend in the region.

Best regards,

Your idea was not completely off, as Austria is a bit less touristy than Dolomites so prices are lower. I often stay in Innsbruck (well, a little south) and travel several times to Vipiteno, Chiusa and Ortisei. The main con is that Ortisei begins to be a little too distant and has scarce parking; it can be done once or twice but not every day. Of course, I am mainly interested in Austria.

I have done a Flex-ticket for the Brenner highway; that is, I pay only the first six passages at 11 eur each. As soon as I reach this amount, I can travel freely for one year on the stretch between Brenner and Innsbruck Süd. The offer is linked to my license plate number, and I pass the toll booths through a dedicated video control lane.

@lachera, that's great info. I will keep that in mind when I visit the region the next time.

The town where I booked the apartment in was Innervillgraten. Google map says, take E66, then A22 to cross the border at San Candido. To Tre Cime di Lavaredo is 1 hour 9 min. To Ortisei is just shy of 2 hours. My original thoughts were, it seems like regardless of where I stay in the Dolomites, even in Cortina d'Ampezzo, it still takes about an hour to hit most of the spots I'd like to visit. I can spend the two hours to get to west Dolomite and just spend the whole day there.

But given that I only have 7 days there, it is kind of hectic. I might only get to spend one day to enjoy the spectacular scenery of the Austrian apartment, and the rest of the time keep on driving back and forth ;(. I think the next time, I will just make Innsbruck my focus area. I have visited the Obertraun area twice before, never gotten enough of the natural beauty.

cheers!

Well, Innervillgraten is 25 minutes by car from San Candido, no A22 or Brenner involved, so not a bad place at all. You are practically near to the Tre Cime/Cortina sector of Dolomites; Ortisei is definitely too distant. I spent holidays in my teen years around Dobbiaco and Villabassa, from there you can do a lot of hikes if you have a car but you cannot cover all Dolomites. Actually, you cannot cover all the Dolomites from any place, the area is too wide and roads are too slow.