Venice and Dolomites itinerary

Hi, Neighbor to the North! congratulations on your new knee, which hopefully will allow you to hike as much as you want.

Your itinerary looks fine, but it would not be my choice, personally, I am curious why you would spend 3 nights in Castelrotto, a village below the mountains, before going to Ortesei. I would think someone who was interested in hiking the Alta Via 1 would want to be more in the mountains—-like up on Alpe di Siusi, with beautiful views of the peaks ringing the plateau in every direction, and nice walks right from one’s door.

There are a number of hotels up there that would be nice for a 3-night stay, before you go to Ortisei. We stayed at Chalet hotel Dolomites in the little community of Compatsch, and enjoyed it very much. Forum member Laurel recommends a couple of other places that might be better located in her book on walking in the Val Gardena:
https://www.amazon.com/Walking-Italys-Val-Gardena-Dolomites/dp/B0BT6RHGKV

The hotels she suggests are Hotel Saltria, at the far end of the meadow near the base of Sassolongo and Sassopiatto (my favorite mountain duet in the world), and Alpenhotel Panorama. Both have swimming pools for enjoyment after a day of hiking. Half-board is pretty much the only option for dining at these mountain hotels, but the food is excellent.

The easiest way to reach these places from Bolzano is by pre-booked taxi, but there are bus and bus plus gondola options as well. Laurel explains all this in her book, along with lots of information about Ortisei and the rest of Val Gardena. I recommend the book if you need help deciding on locations, hikes, and so on.

As for Verona, yes, do spend a couple of nights there; it is a nice town to explore and not particularly crowded. Save your Venice time for Venice. Do you need any recommendations for apartments in Venice?

Looking at the lift schedules for Val Gardena, a few will be closed by mid-September. Just something to keep in mind in planning your days around the Dolomites. https://www.valgardena.it/en/summer-holidays-dolomites/lifts/

Seven nights in Venice seems like a loooooong time. We’ve stayed for 3 nights and that was plenty. You might consider stopping at Lake Garda for a couple of nights. Or spending a few nights in Stresa and flying home from Milan.

Thanks for the replies
Lola - I’m hoping my new knee will let me hike as before but I still have to build up muscles in my right leg. I have already purchased Laurel’s book so have been reading it. No particular reason picking Castelrotto other than RS recommended it in his book. I’ve been checking out accommodations there and the ones he recommends are full on the dates we want. I’ll look into Compatsch as we had thought about staying there. Ideas for places to stay in Verona would be nice. I had booked Hotel Aurora 4 years ago so thought we might stay there again.
Travel4fun - 7 nights in Venice seems like a lot but after we factored in some day trips around the area (Padua, Burano and Murano, etc) we thought it okay. I haven’t booked anything yet so we could fly out of Milan. I haven’t looked into the lift schedules in any detail but certainly will before I start booking. We can certainly cut our Venice time shorter to visit other places. Both of us like to stay for several nights in places rather than moving every other day. We’ve done many trips in previous years especially on walking holidays that had us moving on a daily basis so staying put seems nice.

Lola's advice is great. I agree about the AdS versus Castelrotto even if you can only do light hiking. LMK what questions arise. Can’t wait to get back there ourselves this year as we didn’t go in 2023.

We have spent a full week in Venice 3 times over the years and I think it gives you a great opportunity for better appreciating Venice, getting to all of her corners, plus taking those potential day trips.

Hi Laurel, thanks for the reply. We have enjoyed reading your hiking guide. Just wondering if more nights up at Compatsch would be better? We love staying up in the mountains and just exploring. I totally agree with staying in Venice for a week, so many places to wander around in. We read Donna Leon’s books with Commissario Brunetti so have a book with walks in Venice to follow so that will fill some of our days.

Hi Rosemary. My wife and I have stayed in both Castelrotto (3 nights) and Ortisei (4 nights), but on two different trips. We loved hiking in the Dolomites, and both towns were nice. That being said, I think you would be better off just staying in Ortisei for your hiking fix. It’s got a little more going on in terms of restaurants and shops than Castelrotto. More importantly from a hiking perspective, you can walk to lifts to three different mountains (including the Alpe di Siusi) from your accommodation in the heart of town. We bought a Val Gardena lift pass for the four days we were there, allowing us to ride up to the trails, hike all day, and catch a bus back to Ortisei from where we finished. One day we even ended up on one of the trails we had accessed fro Castelrotto four years earlier. As I recall, there was one lift running from Castelrotto, but you had to drive or take a bus to most of the trails. Many of the hotels and B&B’s in Ortisei also provide a pass to the fabulous sports centre with indoor and outdoor pools, saunas, etc- much appreciated after (or instead of) a day of hiking.
As for a week in Venice, I agree with travel4fun that it’s more than you need. If you want to connect by train to other places, Verona is a much more convenient base. Verona is also a much more peaceful and affordable place to stay, with lots to offer in its own right. We stayed there for five nights, and day tripped to Padua, Vicenza, and even Florence. It’s too bad you’ll miss the opera, but be sure to visit the ancient theatre if you can. I’d recommend limiting Venice to three days, and adding time to Verona and someplace else- one of the towns on Lake Garda perhaps, or maybe Bergamo or Milan.
Buon viaggio!

Rosemary, are you using Brunetti’s Walks? We had so much fun with that when we spent a month in Venice in 2013. We did every walk. We never did find the flower shop where Signorina Elettra bought the flowers for the office, though.

We loved our time (4 nights) at Chalet Dolomites at Compatsch, but There are not many hikes right from the door. The best might be Puflatsch, which was recommended by our host Alessandro, and my husband and his daughter really enjoyed that. The hike up to Schlernhaus/Refugio Bolzano was one of my goals, but we ran out of time to do that; it is a fairly long and strenuous hike (I have done it before, but I was younger).

https://www.visitdolomites.com/page2/bolzano-schlern-refuge/?lang=en

We ended up spending one day enjoying the meadow trails and attending a noon Alphorn concert at one of the mountain restaurants; on another our adult kids and grandkids rented mountain bikes while we did more exploring on the plateau, hiking to Saltria and back; and two days walking to the lift down to Ortisei (2 miles from Compatsch) to do some hiking there. But since you are going to stay in Ortisei you would skip that part. There are other hikes at the Saltria end of the Alpe; you could ride the local bus there and back for hiking.

https://www.chaletdolomites.com/en/

Wherever you choose to stay, I highly recommend some time on Alpe di Siusi. It might be my favorite place on earth.

Hi Lola
Yes Brunetti’s walks is the book we have, hence why we wanted to stay in Venice for a week. I’ve been following another post about 7 nights in Venice and your idea about staying in an apartment is brilliant. Once we get a better idea of our dates I’m going to contact one or both companies that you mentioned to see about availability. I’ve also contacted Chalet Dolomites to see about availability.
Another reply suggested staying in Ortisei for 7 nights rather than splitting up our time so that is another possibility. As this will be our first time to the Dolomites it will be a time for exploration.

Since you will be staying in Bolzano, a consideration might be a day trip to Meran/Merano. There is a lovely walk up through the town and along the river. I believe the train runs between Bolzano and Merano. Slightly beyond that is Merano 2000 and numerous hikes once up the gondola. A cable car and hike to Knottnkino, the open-air cinema on the high plateau of Hafling-Vöran-Meran 2000 in the South Tyrol, is also memorable.

Just wondering if more nights up at Compatsch would be better?

With three nights in the Alpe di Siusi I would hike Puflatsch, as Lola recommends (aka “Trail of the Witches”) which is only a couple of hours so you could fit in another outing, if you like, such as a portion of the Steger Nature Trail.

I would devote a day to the Panorama to Zallinger hike https://girovaga.com/?s=Best+hike&submit=Search if you are up to it. Otherwise the entire Steger Nature Trail is a worthy and less strenuous option.

Nothing wrong with walking to and from Mont Sëuc, which is above Ortisei, even if you plan to stay there. That way you “cover” the AdS pretty thoroughly and can pursue other venues while staying in Ortisei.

I actually enjoyed the walk across the meadows to Mont Seuc so much that I did it solo once, so I could take my time and enjoy in my favorite view of Sassolongo and Sassopiatto. I sat down on each bench I came to, and just immersed myself in all that beauty. One person stopped to inquire if I was OK, and my answer was “I am fine, thanks, and I’ve never been happier”.

A week in Venice is great - we recently returned after a month there. We had a great apartment, via Airbnb. Do a search for “adorable flat close to St. Barnaba” and you would find it.

A great book is Secret Venice by Jonglez. Full of quirky details that will draw you all over Venice. Get a hard copy, the Kindle version is unreadable.

Aussie’s apartment looks very nice, and is half the cost of the Dorsoduro apartment si was going to suggest.

Here is something to put on your itinerary while walking around Venice: the rooftop terrace at the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. You get a great view of the Grand Canal from a bend in the canal, so you can see a lot in either direction. It is free, popular and must bbe booked in advance for your 15 minutes on the roof.

https://www.dfs.com/en/venice/service/rooftop-terrace

Booking opens up exactly 21 days in advance, sometime after midnight in Italy. That means in late afternoon the previous date here in the Pacific time zone. When I booked this for our family trip this past September, the 50 slots disappeared within 20 minutes, so mark your calendar and be ready.

The building itself is well worth a visit. It is now a high-end department store, with galleries filled with Prada, Gucci and other designers’ wares surrounding the large open area in the center. It’s fun to walk up the stairs and do a lap around each floor as you make your way to the top level. Just don’t be late for your time slot as they will not extend it.

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful replies. I’m piecing together dates and places to stay so will be finalizing in the next couple of days.
Lola - Hotel Dolomiti has sent me confirmation of our dates so I just have to accept the offer. Thanks for the idea of the roof top terrace in Venice, it looks wonderful so I’ll mark the date on my calendar to reserve our spots when the time comes. I’ve looked at your links for apartments and both look like a great idea. Which ones have you stayed in?

Aussie - thanks for the name of the Airbnb, unfortunately for the dates we will be there it has already been reserved. I have put a hold at our library on the Secret Venice book that you mentioned so will get it sometime this week. I can then order it from Amazon closer to the time.