Italy
Dolomites (Cortina d'Ampezzo)
The most theatrical rock in the Alps, with cable cars, staffed huts and wartime iron ladders that put you inside it without a rope.
The Dolomites are a range of pale limestone towers standing straight out of green valleys in Italy's north-east, close enough together that meadow, spruce forest and vertical rock all sit in the same view. Three cultures share them: Italian in the southern valleys, German across South Tyrol, and Ladin, a Rhaeto-Romance language that survived in five valleys and nowhere else. A century of mountain infrastructure - cable cars, staffed huts and the iron routes left behind by a First World War fought along these ridges - means you can be standing among the spires within an hour of arriving, whatever your fitness.
Suggested stay
5–7 days
Language
Italian
Currency
EUR
Timezone
UTC+2
Why you'll love Dolomites (Cortina d'Ampezzo)
The rock fossil reefs pushed upright into pale spires that turn pink and then deep red at sunset, a light show local Ladin names enrosadira
Huts, not tents a dense network of staffed mountain refuges means multi-day traverses run on beds, hot dinners and a small pack
Three cultures German, Italian and Ladin in adjoining valleys, so the food, the place names and the church towers change over every pass
Access without expertise cable cars, graded iron routes and well-marked trails put non-mountaineers onto ground that looks unreachable from the road
Best time to visit
May, Sep
17-17° days
46.537° N, 12.139° E
UTC+2 · Europe/Rome
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Weather & when to go to Dolomites (Cortina d'Ampezzo)
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best May, Sep
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Dolomites (Cortina d'Ampezzo)
November and early December are the dead weeks, with the lifts and most huts shut, trails wet or snowed over and half the villages closed up; from then through February it is deep winter, short cold days with the high country reachable only by lift and ski. Skiers plan for exactly that window, but anyone coming to walk should not.
Top things to do in Dolomites (Cortina d'Ampezzo)
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Tre Cime di Lavaredo - the loop beneath the three north faces
hiking scenic 👍 PopularA roughly 10 km circuit from the road head at Rifugio Auronzo, past Rifugio Lavaredo and around to the Locatelli hut, where the three sheer north walls finally line up in a row. It is the most walked path in the range, easy underfoot and almost entirely unshaded; the access road up from Misurina fills before mid-morning through summer.
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Lago di Braies - the boathouse on the emerald water
scenic nature wildlife 👍 PopularA flat lake circuit under the wall of the Croda del Becco, with a wooden boathouse and rowing boats that made this the most photographed water in the Alps. Summer traffic to the lake is restricted through the middle of the day, so come at first light or plan around the shuttle bus.
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Seceda - the tilted ridge above Val Gardena
scenic hiking 👍 PopularTwo cable-car stages from Ortisei put you on a grass shoulder that shears away into the Odle spires, a view that looks manipulated until you are standing on it. Walk on into the Puez-Odle plateau or down to Col Raiser rather than riding straight back.
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Lagazuoi - the Great War tunnels above Passo Falzarego
history hiking ⭐ Highly recommendedA single cable-car stage from the pass lands at a hut with the widest terrace in the Dolomites. The descent is the real thing: a restored tunnel system bored through the mountain by Austrian and Italian sappers, or the exposed Kaiserjaeger path along the old supply line. Bring a head torch and a jacket for the galleries, which stay cold in August.
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Alta Via 1 - the classic hut-to-hut traverse
hiking adventure ⭐ Highly recommendedRoughly 120 km from Lago di Braies south to the Belluno valley, walked in eight to twelve days on marked trail with a staffed rifugio at the end of each one. No tent and no technical ground, but beds need booking a long way ahead for the July and August window.
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Alpe di Siusi (Seiser Alm) - the largest high meadow in the Alps
scenic hikingRolling grassland at around 1,800 to 2,000 metres with the Sassolungo on one side and the Sciliar on the other, closed to daytime traffic and reached by cable car from Ortisei or Siusi. Wide, gentle walking and the easiest terrain in the range for families or a first day at altitude.
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Cinque Torri - an open-air war museum among five rock towers
history climbingFive stubby towers above Cortina ringed by restored trenches, gun positions and barracks from the Italian side of the front, with a short chairlift and an easy loop between them. Climbers work the towers themselves; walkers carry on uphill to the Averau and Nuvolau huts for the wider view.
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Sella Ronda - the circuit of the four passes
snow scenicA loop right around the Sella massif over the Pordoi, Sella, Gardena and Campolongo passes: on skis and lifts in a single winter day, clockwise or anti-clockwise, and by car, motorbike or road bike in summer. Car-free days are held on the loop for cyclists in the warm months.
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Marmolada - the Queen of the Dolomites and her shrinking glacier
scenic snowThe range's highest summit and the only one still carrying a real glacier, reached by three cable-car stages from Malga Ciapela to a terrace and chapel just below the top. A museum inside the mountain covers the tunnel city Austrian troops cut into the ice; the glacier itself has retreated sharply and is closely watched.
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Lago di Sorapis - the milk-blue lake above Passo Tre Croci
hiking scenicAbout three hours in from the pass east of Cortina on trail 215, with a few cabled sections above drops, to a lake the colour of glacier milk under the Sorapis cirque. The colour is strongest in high summer when meltwater is still feeding it, and thins as the season goes on.
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Via ferrata - the iron routes the sport is named after
climbing adventureCables, ladders and steel stemples bolted to the rock, many laid by soldiers between 1915 and 1917 and maintained ever since. Grades run from stair-like to genuinely severe, and all of them need a harness, a shock-absorbing lanyard and a helmet; guides in every valley take beginners onto the easy ones.
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Val di Funes - the chapel of San Giovanni in Ranui under the Odle
scenic culture artsA quiet farming valley on the far side of the Puez-Odle park, where a small onion-domed church stands alone in a meadow against the spires, probably the most reproduced image of South Tyrol. The Adolf Munkel trail runs along the base of the same wall for anyone wanting more than the photograph.
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Passo Giau - the range's most photographed road pass
scenicA relentless stack of hairpins up from Cortina to a saddle under the fin of Ra Gusela, a fixture of the Giro d'Italia and the classic spot for sunrise on the Nuvolau. It links straight on to Passo Falzarego and Passo Valparola for a half-day driving loop.
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Rifugi - lunch above the treeline
foodStaffed mountain huts here run closer to restaurants than to bothies, and the menu is a map of the old border: canederli dumplings, barley soup and speck on the German-speaking side, casunziei beetroot ravioli and polenta on the Italian, apple strudel across both. Most take overnight guests as well, which is what makes hut-to-hut walking work here.
Best areas to stay in Dolomites (Cortina d'Ampezzo)
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Cortina d'Ampezzo
First-time visitors $$$Glamorous Veneto resort under the Tofane
Explore hotels in Cortina d'Ampezzo →
Val Gardena (Ortisei, Santa Cristina, Selva)
Car-free hikers $$Ladin woodcarvers, lifts in every direction
Explore hotels in Val Gardena (Ortisei, Santa Cristina, Selva) →
Alta Badia (Corvara, San Cassiano, La Villa)
Skiers & food $$$Ladin, polished, ringed by passes
Explore hotels in Alta Badia (Corvara, San Cassiano, La Villa) →
Val di Fassa (Canazei, Campitello, Moena)
Value & nightlife $$Trentino side, livelier and better value
Explore hotels in Val di Fassa (Canazei, Campitello, Moena) →
Alta Pusteria (Dobbiaco, San Candido, Sesto)
Arriving by train $$Rail-served Tyrolean valley near Tre Cime
Explore hotels in Alta Pusteria (Dobbiaco, San Candido, Sesto) →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Dolomites (Cortina d'Ampezzo)
Getting to & around Dolomites (Cortina d'Ampezzo)
Getting there
Fly into Venice, then about 2-2.5 hr north by coach or car to Cortina; there is no railway to Cortina itself
Flight
Venice Marco Polo (VCE)
Roughly 160 km north of the airport, about 2-2.5 hr by road. Scheduled coaches run from the terminal and from Venice Mestre station straight through to Cortina's bus station, and are the simplest way in without a car. A hire car is what unlocks the passes and trailheads, which buses only partly reach. Cortina has had no railway since the Calalzo line closed in the 1960s, and the old trackbed is now a cycle path.
Coach
Cortina bus station
Scheduled coaches from Venice airport and Mestre, plus seasonal services from Milan and Bologna, are the direct public route into the eastern Dolomites
Train
Calalzo-Pieve di Cadore
The nearest station to Cortina, about 35 km down the Boite valley, with connecting buses covering the last leg
Train
Bolzano/Bozen and Bressanone/Brixen
On the Brenner main line from Verona and Innsbruck; valley buses climb from both towns into Val Gardena, Val Badia and Alta Pusteria
Train
Dobbiaco/Toblach and San Candido/Innichen
The Pusteria branch line is the only railway that reaches into the mountains themselves, and the easiest car-free arrival for the Tre Cime end
Drive
Great Dolomite Road
The classic approach from Bolzano over Passo Costalunga, Passo Pordoi and Passo Falzarego to Cortina, an all-day drive in its own right
Coach
Innsbruck and Verona airports
Alternative gateways for the northern and western valleys, both within a few hours by road or rail plus a valley bus
Getting around
Hire car
The only way to string the passes and remote trailheads together at your own pace; expect hairpins, full car parks by mid-morning in summer, and compulsory winter tyres or chains in the cold months
TBC
Valley buses
Different operators per province - Dolomitibus in Veneto, the South Tyrol network up north, Trentino's own in Val di Fassa - frequent within the valleys and over the main passes in season, thin to nothing outside it
TBC
Cable cars and chairlifts
The real transport here, lifting you a thousand metres in minutes; summer opening runs roughly late June to late September, with a gap either side of the ski season when almost everything stops
TBC
Ski bus
Village-to-lift shuttles run through the winter and are usually included with a lift pass or a guest card rather than paid on board
TBC
Walking
Villages are small and walkable end to end; between valleys it is never a walking proposition, since the passes stand between them
Free
Day trips from Dolomites (Cortina d'Ampezzo)
Tre Cime di Lavaredo
Full dayIconic three peaks
The signature walk of the whole range, a flat-ish 10 km circuit under three vertical north faces with huts to stop at along the way. Go early: the road up fills before mid-morning and closes when the car park does.
Getting there
car | bus | tour | walk
About 1 hr by car or seasonal bus from Cortina via Misurina, then the access road to Rifugio Auronzo
Lago di Braies and the Pusteria valley
Half dayAlpine lake
The emerald lake and its boathouse, walkable right around in an hour or so, with the option of carrying on into the Tyrolean market towns of Dobbiaco and San Candido. Access is capped through the middle of summer days, so first light or the shuttle.
Getting there
car | bus | train
About 1-1.5 hr by road north over Passo Cimabanche, or by train plus bus to the Pusteria side
Alta Badia and the Sella pass loop
Full dayFour-pass circuit
Drive or ride the circuit around the Sella massif over four high passes, stopping at Pordoi's cable car for the terrace above the plateau. Ladin country, and the best eating in the mountains.
Getting there
car | bus | tour
About 1 hr to Corvara over Passo Falzarego and Passo Campolongo, then the loop itself
Marmolada and Malga Ciapela
Full dayGlacier cable car
The highest summit in the Dolomites, its last glacier, and a war museum tunnelled into the mountain. Clear mornings show the whole range laid out from the top terrace; cloud can close the lift with no notice.
Getting there
car | bus
About 1.5 hr by road via Passo Falzarego and Arabba, then three cable-car stages
Val Gardena and Alpe di Siusi
Full dayLadin valley & high meadow
The woodcarving villages on one side and the biggest high meadow in the Alps on the other, with cable cars from the valley floor to both the meadow and the Seceda ridge. A long day from Cortina and a better second base than a day trip.
Getting there
car | bus
About 2-2.5 hr by road west over Passo Falzarego and Passo Gardena
Bolzano / Bozen
Full dayAlpine city & Otzi
South Tyrol's bilingual capital, with arcaded streets, a produce market and the archaeology museum that holds Otzi, the Copper Age man found in the ice on the Austrian border. The obvious wet-weather day.
Getting there
car | bus | train
About 2-2.5 hr by road southwest, or bus to Dobbiaco and train down the Pusteria and Brenner lines
A little history of Dolomites (Cortina d'Ampezzo)
The pale rock came from the sea. In the Triassic these were coral reefs and carbonate platforms in the Tethys, later buried, uplifted and cut apart, which is why the towers hold marine fossils thousands of metres above sea level and stand in such abrupt columns. The range takes its name from Deodat de Dolomieu, the French geologist who described the mineral in the late eighteenth century. Mountaineers arrived in the middle of the nineteenth, and the first ascents of the great summits opened a golden age of Dolomite climbing that has never really closed.
For centuries this was Habsburg country with an Italian-speaking fringe, and the border ran through it. Between 1915 and 1917 the front line followed the ridges themselves: troops on both sides tunnelled into the mountains, cut supply routes into vertical rock and detonated mines under each other's positions, and the cables and ladders they left behind became the iron routes people now climb for pleasure. The Treaty of Saint-Germain handed South Tyrol and the Ampezzo valley to Italy in 1919, a transfer followed by decades of forced Italianisation and, eventually, by a settlement that made South Tyrol one of the most autonomous regions in Europe, with German, Italian and Ladin all official. Tourism grew alongside all of it, and the range is now a serial World Heritage site as much for its geology as for its looks.
Coral reefs and carbonate platforms form in the Tethys sea, the rock that later becomes the Dolomite towers
Deodat de Dolomieu describes the carbonate rock later named dolomite, which in turn names the range
Paul Grohmann and the Dimai brothers reach Punta Penia on the Marmolada, opening the golden age of Dolomite climbing
The Great Dolomite Road opens between Bolzano and Cortina, and organised tourism follows the coaches in
The Austro-Italian front runs along the peaks; tunnels, mine chambers and supply cables are cut into Lagazuoi, Col di Lana and the Marmolada
The Treaty of Saint-Germain transfers South Tyrol and the Ampezzo valley from Austria to Italy
Emilio Comici climbs the north face of the Cima Grande di Lavaredo, the line that defines big-wall climbing here
Cortina d'Ampezzo hosts the Winter Olympics, the first to be televised across Europe
The second Autonomy Statute gives South Tyrol broad self-government, with German, Italian and Ladin all official languages
UNESCO inscribes nine separate Dolomite mountain systems as a World Heritage site
Cortina co-hosts the Winter Olympics with Milan, seventy years after its first games
Know before you go
Payment
Cards & cash mixed
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Workable
Power
Type C / F / L
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+39
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
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FAQs about Dolomites (Cortina d'Ampezzo)
▸ When is the best time to visit the Dolomites?
May and September are the standouts for weather: clear, settled air, green valleys and far less traffic than the middle of summer. September is the better hiking month of the two, since the high trails and most staffed huts do not open until around mid-June, so May suits valley walks, cable-car days and driving the passes. July and August have everything open but bring the heaviest crowds and near-daily afternoon thunderstorms.
▸ How many days do you need in the Dolomites?
Five days is a fair minimum, because the valleys are separated by passes and every transfer eats hours. A week lets you settle into two bases, one east around Cortina and one west in Val Gardena or Alta Badia, and still keep days spare for weather. Hut-to-hut walkers should think in terms of eight to twelve days for a full traverse.
▸ Do you need a car in the Dolomites?
Not strictly, but it changes the trip. Buses cover the valleys well and run over the main passes in season, and cable cars do the climbing, so a car-free stay works well from Val Gardena or the Pusteria valley, which has a railway. A car is what gets you to remote trailheads at dawn, over several passes in one day, and around the range outside the summer bus timetable.
▸ What is a via ferrata, and can a beginner do one?
It is a protected climbing route: a steel cable running the length of the rock with ladders and pegs where the holds run out, so you clip in and move up ground you could not otherwise cross. Routes are graded from stair-like to genuinely serious, and the easy ones suit a fit beginner with no climbing background. You need a harness, a via ferrata lanyard and a helmet, all of which rent locally, and a guide is the sensible way to do the first one.
▸ What language is spoken in the Dolomites?
It depends which valley you are in. South Tyrol is German-speaking with Italian as the second language, the Cortina and Cadore valleys are Italian, and five valleys still speak Ladin, an old Rhaeto-Romance language, alongside both. Signs are bilingual or trilingual, most places have two names, and English is widely spoken anywhere with lifts.
▸ Are the Dolomites expensive?
Yes, by Italian standards. Cortina and Alta Badia in the two peak seasons are among the priciest mountain addresses in the Alps, and lift passes are a real line in the budget on top of beds and food. It drops sharply if you shift to Val di Fassa or the Pusteria valley, travel in the shoulder weeks, and eat the set half-board dinners that guesthouses and huts build their business around.
▸ Can you walk hut to hut without camping?
That is the normal way to do it here. Staffed refuges sit a day apart along the classic traverses, serving dinner and breakfast and providing blankets, so you carry a light pack with a sleeping liner rather than a tent. Book beds well in advance for July and August, and check opening dates either side of the season, since most huts run only from late June to late September.
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