We will be spending three nights in the Dolomites in September driving from the Tarasp area of Switzerland. We want to drive around and tour the area as well as do some moderate hiking. I have narrowed the search to S. Cristina area or La Villa in Alta Badia. Would the drive from Tarasp to Alta Badia be too much? Just cannot decide best place to headquarter. Thank you!
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NYC area
2914 posts
Hi Valerie, The drive from Tarasp to Val Gardena or Alta Badia is easy. I'd go via Nauders, Rechen Pass (not really a pass when compared to others), Vinschgau/Val Venosta to Meran/Merano, then around Bozen/Bolzano to the Val Gardena. We drove from Mals/Malles (Vinschgau) to the Val Gardena in under 3 hours if memory serves me. The difference in driving time to the Val Gardena or Alta Badia is about 30 to 40 minutes. This time difference is just the amount of time to drive over the Spectacular Gardena Pass, which seperates the Val Gardena from the Alta Badia. Interesting that you'll be driving through the Vinschgau/Val Venosta, as it's one of our favorite area's to stay and sightsee. Beautiful scenery, old towns and so many castles. I could go on and on about it, but the question is about Val Gardena and Alta Badia. We stayed in both St. Christina (10/03) and La Villa (10/06, 09/09). We prefer the scenery in the Alta Badia. That's just our opinion. We stayed and can recommend the Garni Ariston in St. Christina: www.garniariston.com and the Ciasa Montanara in La Villa: www.montanara.it We have photo's of all these and more at: www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/index.html Hope this helps. By the way, you'll be able to see a lot of the Dolomites based in either valley. Paul
Posted by
NYC area
2914 posts
Hi again, I meant to add that if you're looking for a quicker route from Tarasp to Val Gardena/Alta Badia, you could go via Landeck, Innsbruck, Brenner Pass (again not a pass, but a multi lane highway) to the Klausen/Chiusa/Val Gardena exit on the A22. This would mostly be on highways and take about 3 hours. Paul