Itinerary help - Wengen to Dolomites 13 nights

What a great trip! The Val Gardena and Berner Oberland are two of my very favorite places for hiking. Both areas are gorgeous and offer so many hiking options. Since you are an avid hiker, I think you are going to want more time in each place. As it stands, you have just three full days in each and there is no guarantee the weather will be good all three days.

Luzern is very nice, but I would skip it to add one night each to Wengen and St Cristina. Yes, you’ll have one very long travel day, but that wouldn’t bother me. Assuming you can make the connections work. (I haven’t checked the train schedules.) I would probably skip Mittenwald too (a towns I really like), but it sounds like you have a good reason to go there.

It’s up to you how to divide your time, and there are no bad choices. There is nothing wrong with your itinerary as is, I just know that on my first trip to Switzerland, when I left Murren to go to Luzern, I spent the whole time in Luzern wishing I was still in Murren.

You seem to only have 3 nights ( Aug 29,30,31) in Santa Cristina— not 4 nights. You’ll need more time there because it takes more time than you might imagine to get around the Val Gardena on the public buses to the chairlifts/cable cars in Ortisei
and elsewhere. Try to do the “coffin cablecar” (“Telecabina Forcella del Sassolungo”)
at the eastern end of the valley toward Selva di Val Gardena. The panoramic views are spectacular and there are mountain climbers visible from the cafe at the top. There’s more spectacular hiking at the Passo Gardena above the “Hotel Cir” which is 4 miles east of Selva di Val Gardena.
You can pick up one night by shaving one night from Lucerne. I would definitely take the train ride from Interlaaken to Lucerne—-it’s one of the most scenic rail routes in Switzerland. You can overnight one night in Lucerne and shift the time to the Dolomites.

A bit of good news on the clock front is that there are a few trains doing the Mittenwald to Bressanone route in 3 hours and the mostly-hourly buses from Bressanone to Santa Cristina take about 30 minutes.
From Bressanone to Munich. there are a few trains taking just 3:23.

Have a great trip!

Thanks, @Kenko . I mislabeled the dates (should have paid more attention to my own spreadsheet). The corrected dates clarify that I do have 4 nights in Santa Cristina in my original draft. I appreciate your sharing - these first responses are giving me great options to consider.

I agree 100% with Carroll on skipping Luzern and Mittenwald (other than a couple of hours).

For a hiking trip four nights in Lucerne and Mittenwald seems excessive. You might consider that you could stop in Innsbruck and connect to Mittenwald for one night on your way back to Munich rather than before going to the Dolomites. If you want to break the long trip to Bressanone from Wengen I would probably stop back in Zurich for one night (the National Museum and the Frauenkirche there are great sights too).

The weather can be really finicky in these places and if you're an avid hiker, you're going to want more time to account for weather buffer. If your flight has to be out of Munich, either concentrate your hiking in Switzerland/Austria/Bavaria (what I would do) OR if the Dolomites are a non-negotiable, skip Luzern and Mittenwald and just do a 1 night stay in Innsbruck on the way from Wengen to Valgardena. This frees up 3 nights to add onto Wengen and the Dolomites. I'd add 2 or all 3 onto Wengen to account for jetlag and the massive amount of things in this region to do.

6-7 nights Wengen > 1 night Innsbruck > 4-5 nights Valgardena > 1 night Munich

Alternatively you could skip the Dolomites, keep the rest of your itinerary (Wengen, Luzern, Mittenwald) and substitute the Dolomites with an epic hiking spot in Austria that is more convenient to Munich and way less overcrowded. There are tons.

Thanks @wanderweg! Could you share names of some of the epic hiking areas in the Austrian Alps that you mentioned - especially any between Zurich and Innsbruck/Mittenwald. I appreciate travel efficiency, so might consider alternatives to the Dolomites for a worthy substitute. And I also appreciate areas not entirely overrun by tourists. I imagine the Jungfrau region is overrun but still worth it.

Most of the best hiking we've done in Austria has been slightly east of Innsbruck, which is still very convenient to Munich. For an option that has good public transportation, we love the Gastein Valley with hiking in Sportgastein, Schlossalm, Koetschachtal Valley (Reedsee), Gosausee & the Dachstein. You can take the train to Bad Gastein and the bus and cable car system from there is amazing. If you can rent a car, the area around Grossglockner High Alpine Road has beautiful hiking and the ability to do a day trip into the Austrian Dolomites near Lienz, specifically Dolomitenhutte to Karlsbaderhutte.

Both of these areas are a welcome respite from the Jungfrau Region crowds and the Dolomite crowds have gotten insane - paid hiking turnstyles, lines over an hour long to ride a cable car, it's getting overrun and if you are a keen hiker, you may really enjoy hiking in an area that feels like you're away from it all.

Check out the Zillertal too south of Innsbruck.

https://www.zillertal.at/en/summer.html

The Gillian Price guidebooks for various parts of the Alps can be consulted too:

https://gillianprice.eu/guidebooks-gillian-price/