Dolomites, Italy
Pale limestone spires that glow pink at sunset, rifugio lunches, and the Sella Ronda ski circuit.
Best time to visit
Weather by month
| Month | High | Low | Rain | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | -7° | -16° | 45 mm | prime |
| Feb | -6° | -14° | 49 mm | prime |
| Mar | -3° | -11° | 64 mm | prime |
| Apr | 0° | -8° | 95 mm | |
| May | 5° | -4° | 144 mm | |
| Jun | 10° | 0° | 145 mm | prime |
| Jul | 12° | 2° | 148 mm | prime |
| Aug | 12° | 2° | 142 mm | prime |
| Sep | 8° | -1° | 99 mm | prime |
| Oct | 4° | -4° | 102 mm | |
| Nov | -2° | -9° | 117 mm | |
| Dec | -7° | -14° | 67 mm | prime |
30-year averages (1995–2024) from ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo. Rain is the monthly total.
Cost
Serves travellers at Backpacker→Ultra-luxury level. Typically around $200 a day on the ground.
Ranges are typical costs, not quotes. Check the real price before you book.
What's on
Maratona dles Dolomites July
Legendary gran fondo cycling race
Worth knowing
Cards in the towns, the hotels and the lift offices. Mountain huts frequently take cash only, and there is no machine at 2,500 metres, so carry euros up with you.
money · editorial
These valleys are trilingual. Place names appear in Italian, German and Ladin, and the versions are not translations of each other, so Ortisei, St Ulrich and Urtijei are one village. Rifugi need booking well in advance for a bed and often for lunch.
know before · editorial
Late April to early June and October to early December are the dead seasons: the lifts stop, the rifugi close and most hotels close with them. Ferragosto in the middle of August is the Italian holiday, when every valley is full and the passes are solid with cars.
when not to go · editorial
Val Gardena, meaning Ortisei and Selva, is the most central for the Sella Ronda. Alta Badia and Corvara are on the same circuit and quieter. Cortina is a proper town with shops and its own separate ski area. Val di Fassa is the cheaper southern side. The Val Pusteria end is the base for the Tre Cime and the hiking rather than the skiing.
where to stay · editorial
In winter the lift network and the ski buses genuinely replace a car, and the Sella Ronda is a circuit you ski rather than drive. In summer a car is close to essential, except that some high roads and the Alpe di Siusi plateau are closed to private vehicles during the day, which is what makes them pleasant.
getting around · editorial
Venice, Verona or Innsbruck, and then two to three hours of driving whichever you choose. Trains reach the valley mouths at Bolzano and Brunico but the last leg is a bus up a side valley, and the timetable thins out fast.
getting there · editorial
Quests
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Lago di Braies
Impossible green, with the wooden boats. Arrive before seven or after five.
Tre Cime di Lavaredo
Three limestone towers of nine hundred metres, standing in a row.
Seceda
The serrated ridge that drops away like a blade. By cable car from Ortisei.
Alpe di Siusi
The largest alpine meadow in Europe, wooden barns scattered across it.
Passo Sella
A road at 2,244 metres, with the Sassolungo standing straight above you.
Lago di Carezza
Small, green, with the Latemar behind it. Five minutes and you have seen it; go back anyway.
See
See the Tre Cime di Lavaredo at sunrise
Eat
Eat canederli, the bread dumplings of the Tyrol
Canederli in broth
Stale-bread dumplings with speck. Mountain food, and it does not apologise.
Hand-cut speck
Smoked and air-cured. Here it is Tyrolean before it is Italian.
Strudel in a hut at two thousand metres
It got up here by cable car or on somebody's back.
Moment
Sleep in a rifugio halfway along the Alta Via 1
The enrosadira
The limestone turns pink for ten minutes at sunset. It has its own name in Ladin.
Hear someone speaking Ladin
The third official language of the valleys. Thirty thousand speakers, and still standing.
Trail
The Tre Cime loop
Ten kilometres round, with the three towers changing shape the whole way.