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Dolomites, Italy

Europe · Mountains

Dolomites, Italy

Limestone towers, and lunch at two thousand metres.

4.7(61 reviews)8 daysJune to SeptemberFrom $2,480 per person
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01Overview

Limestone towers, and lunch at two thousand metres.

Hut-to-hut walking in the Alta Badia and Sesto valleys, where the trails are well kept, the refuges serve proper food, and you can spend a week above the treeline without carrying a tent.

HikingFoodNature

Key information

Best time
Late June to mid September
Trip length
6 to 10 days
Group size
Up to 10 travellers
Walking
10 to 18 km, 700 m ascent
Luggage
Main bags moved between valleys
Language
Italian, German and Ladin

02Things to experience

What a week in Dolomites actually looks like

  • Tre Cime circuit

    The three peaks loop, ten kilometres of it, with a refuge at the halfway point that does an excellent apple strudel.

  • Sunset on the Sella

    Up by cable car late in the day, when everyone else is going down, for the alpenglow on the Marmolada.

  • A via ferrata morning

    Clipped to a steel cable up a rock face with a guide. No experience needed, a decent head for heights helps.

  • Malga lunch

    A working dairy hut above Badia. Cheese made that morning, speck, dark bread and a jug of something cloudy.

A scene from Dolomites
Dolomites detail 1
Dolomites detail 2

03The route

A suggested itinerary

This is the shape most people travel. Every part of it can be lengthened, swapped or dropped, and private departures run on any date you like.

Adjust this route
  1. Day 1

    Arrive in Bolzano

    The train up the valley, a night in town, and a briefing over dinner in the old arcades.

  2. Day 2 to 3

    Alta Badia

    Two valley days to get the legs working, with a malga lunch and an easy ridge walk.

  3. Day 4 to 5

    Above the treeline

    Two nights in refuges, walking between them, with everything you need on your back.

  4. Day 6

    Tre Cime

    The circuit, from the north side, ideally starting before the car park fills.

  5. Day 7 to 8

    Sesto and out

    A last valley walk, a long lunch, and the train back down to Bolzano.

04Where you stay

Three places we book here

Family guesthouses, refuges and restored houses. We have slept in every one of them, and the prices below are what you would pay direct.

Rifugio LavaredoMountain refuge

Rifugio Lavaredo

Bunk rooms and a handful of doubles under the three peaks. Dinner at seven, lights out at ten, sunrise at your window.

from $85 per night

Maso CortoRestored farmhouse

Maso Corto

A larch-clad maso above La Villa with five rooms, a sauna and a breakfast that could feed a walking group twice.

from $190 per night

Albergo SestoValley inn

Albergo Sesto

A family-run inn since 1934. Thick duvets, a drying room, and a kitchen that still does the old Ladin dishes.

from $130 per night

An editorial photograph from Dolomites

05From the field

“You climb for six hours and then somebody hands you a plate of pasta at two thousand metres.”

The Dolomites solved a problem that most mountain ranges have not: you can walk for a week at altitude and sleep in a bed every night, with a cook, a shower and often a wine list. The rifugio system has been running since the nineteenth century and it means the walking can be serious while the evenings are not. This is a German-speaking, Italian-cooking, Ladin-speaking corner of Europe where the menu is dumplings and espresso, and the towers turn pink for about eleven minutes at sunset in a way that never stops being ridiculous.

Written by the Wayfare planner who runs this route.

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