Travel options from Lake Bled to Dolomites after Rick's Eastern European tour in June.

Take the train. It won't be fast, going from a rural area to another rural area will take a bit of time and involve a couple of changes. Especially when going through the Alps where ground transportation can be slow.

But you can take a train from Lesce-Bled to Brixen, which will take around 6:45 with 2-3 changes. From Brixen there are buses to Kastelruth (most of the inhabitants speak German so using the Italian name seems a bit inappropriate).

You can hire a private driver that might be faster than a train with lots of changes. It's worth checking out anyway. GoOpti is one option but there are others.

Otherwise, Castelrotto/Kastelruth might not be the best choice, coming from Lake Bled.
You will have much easier access to the Drei Zinnen part of the Dolomites, which is really stunning too. San Candido/Innichen is a good base, and it takes just 4.5 hours from Lesce-Bled by train.

It won’t be fast but it will be very scenic, especially through Austria. We reached Bled by train from Munich, and after our time in Slovenia we took the train from Bled to Vienna. I was glued to the window, engrossed in the scenery, much of the time on both trips.

You can use the Bahn.de website to see the route and schedules. Here is the English page:

https://www.bahn.com/en

Use “Lecce-Bled” as your starting point, as that is the station closest to the town of Bled. Use the “show details” button to see the change points (usually Villach and Lienz in Austria, and Fortessa in Italy). At the bottom of that list you can use “map view” to see the route marked on a map of the area.

Others were posting while I was writing. Balso made an excellent suggestion—-San Candido/Innichen (or Toblach/Dobbiaco) would be closer and are located in a beautiful area of the Dolomites for hiking (we are going there next September ourselves). No need to go to Castelrotto.

I know Rick recommends it highly, but that is because it is easy to reach (without a car) from the rest of his Italy recommendations. Castelrotto does have its charm, to be sure, but there are better Dolomite villages if your interest is mainly hiking.

We used a private transfert service https://www.turanus.com/
For the trip from Hallstatt to Lake Bled. I can recommend them.

Thank you all. I am taking it all in as I continue to look at my options.

We have made our travel decisions and now we will have a car in the Dolomite area. Recommended places to hike? We are moderate hikers and of course want amazing views of the mountains in June. Any advice is welcomed.

Where will you pick up the car?

Are you still planning on making your base in Castelrotto? That makes a difference when it comes to hiking possibilities. Or maybe you are asking for suggestions on where to base for scenic lodging and great hikes?

We are looking for hiking recommendations that would lead to a base area for two night knowing that we will have a car.

I asked where you are picking up the car as it makes a difference in how far you would drive to reach a good hiking base. And where you might return the car before moving on to Germany.

The villages closer to Slovenia that would be good bases have been mentioned above. But more people here on this forum are familiar with the Val Gardena and Alpe di Siusi areas so that may be the main recommendations you will get, including from me. But it may add some time to your drive without getting you to any better scenery than you would have farther north.

We have stayed up on Alpe di Siusi, in Val Gardena, and Corvara in Val Badia, and all offered nice views from the hotel and wonderful hiking right from the door, or nearby. You can check this website for our hotel in Santa Cristina to see the views of Sasslungo we had right from our balcony (page through the photos on the main page).

https://www.villamartha.it/en.html

Click on “location” for photos of the scenery from the nearby hikes.

We will pick up our car in Munich and will have it for 7 days before driving to Berlin to stay for 3 days before flying home. Does that change your recommendations?

Are you going from Bled to Munich to rent a car there before driving back to the Dolomites and then fly home from Berlin?

We pick up our car in Munich and then driving to Dolomites. After 3 days back to Germany and fly out of Berlin 7 days later.

From Bled to the Dolomites via Munich, that is quite a detour. Why would you even consider such a route? In my opinion you really need to take a closer look at your plan because I think you are about to waste both time and money.