I love Swiss alps, but I also looooooove the Dolomites, aka the Italian alps. These mountains have such a unique character, so spiky and rocky. It feels like another world. Plus the Italian food and Tyrolean hospitality are fantastic. First links to all the hikes we did, then an overview of the Dolomites region.
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Hikes our family did in the Dolomites
We’ve been twice for summer hiking trips with the kids and visited some of the most popular sites. Here are links to details for the hikes we did. I found it so frustrating researching family hikes for this region. Most websites only had pretty pictures and barely any info about the trail. Argh! So I’m here to fix that situation. Every hike listed here was tried and tested by me, my kids and some by my 70 year old father. I have a few more to add, but I’m busy so I’ll have to get to that later.
Dolomites Overview
The Dolomites is an enormous range of mountains in northeast Italy. This map shows where it’s located in Europe. All the dots are hikes and mountains in the Dolomites.
Before our trip, I looked at lots of pretty pics on Instagram and pinned all the things I wanted to see. As this map demostrates, these sights are very spread out. The roads are all narrow two lane winding mountain roads, so it takes a long time to get around the region.
Our home base in Alta Badia
We prefer to sleep in one place instead of wasting time checking in/out in various hotels. We chose Alta Badia as our home base (specifically in Pedraces) because it was right the middle of all the places we wanted to see. There were lots of hiking options within a 30 mins drive. The longest we had to drive was 1hr30 to the famous “Three Peaks” aka Dreizinnen or Tre Cime di Lavaredo.
I really liked where we stayed, but, of course, some things on my list were just too far away. The Dolomites are so big that we couldn’t see everything. So next time, I would stay either in the northeast or in the national park to the south and explore those areas.
Researching the Dolomites
The best overview website is www.dolomitisupersummer.com/. However the hiking maps on this site are topographical and make it difficult to quickly browse through 100s of hikes, looking for something family-friendly. I spent hours searching and downloading hiking maps for the individual regions, but they were difficult to find and I couldn’t find them for every area. I also collected maps onsite at Tourist Info offices, which were much more helpful, but mostly not online. I’m taking pics of these maps an hoping to upload them soon so you can use them.
Details for Dolomites Hikes
Now for the trail maps for each hike.
Tre Cime di Laveredo / Dreizinnen
These iconic peaks are *the* symbol of the Dolomites, decorating every brochure and website promoting this area. Despite the inevitable crowds at this popular site, we still thoroughly enjoyed this hike and recommend it for the amazing views. Don’t miss it! It’s a 9.5 km loop around the peaks, rated “easy” but it takes some hard work, especially on the uphills.
See details for Tre Cime di Laveredo hike
Nuvolau to Giau Pass
I searched high and low to find our last family hike of our trip. Everyone was pretty tired, so I wanted something a bit shorter and not too much up and down and luckily we found it here. We rode the chair lift from Fedare to Nuvolau, with unbelievable of the Cinque Torre and peaks around Cortina, shown in the pic below. The trail wandered around the closer peaks to the San Giau pass, where we caught the bus back to our starting point. This was a perfect way to end our trip and leave wanting to come back for more.
See details for Nuvolau to San Giau pass hike.
Arabba Viel dal Plan Trail
This easy panorama hike overlooks Marmolada, the highest peak in the Dolomites, and its impressive glaciers. After riding up a cable car, you wander around the mountain for 6.5 km, without any steep up and down climbs until the end, enjoying fantastic vistas the whole way. It ends at the Pordoi pass (famous with cyclists), where you can take a bus back to your starting point. We really loved this trail! It was quiet in the morning, but quite busy by the afternoon.
See details for Arabba Panorama hike
Sassolungo
This is a wild experience, starting with the coffin-like barely two person cable car that takes you to the saddle between the spiky peaks. Then you descend about 600m on lots of switchbacks with loose rock to the base of the peaks. Then work your way back around the peaks to your starting point, going up and down many times on lots of different terrain. It was a tough hike (especially for my dad), but gorgeous and varied. So glad we did it!
See details for the Sassolungo hike
Vallunga valley walk
We loved taking a break on this easy valley walk after all the hard hikes we had done that week. This “long valley” has steep rock walls and interesting peaks on all sides, passing through both grassy fields and dense forests. We saw lots of families picnicking here but the farther walked, the quieter it got. You can walk as far as you like, then turn around. But we recommend going at least 3 km to a big flat field at the end of the valley, a really beautiful sight.
See details for Vallunga hike
6 responses
Hi Tanya. I love your blog and have book marked some of your easier hikes for our future visits. (We visit CH every year, particularly the Berner Oberland.) We are not the hiking animals you guys are being of advancing years with cranky knees and hips, but we love to find a good walk. We also found a dearth of detailed info in English on hiking in the Dolomites so we wrote a book od easy hikes in and around the Val Gardena. It is, in fact, called “Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena” and is on Amazon in most worldwide marketplaces. There is a companion book called “Walking in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland.”
Happy Hiking!
Hi Laurel, thanks for the tip about your book. This would have been so helpful on our last trip to the Dolomites. We’ll check it out for our next trip.
Thank you once again for all the amazing information. Switzerland/European travel will be such a different experience for my family if not for your hard work and sharing 🙂 Looking forward to the Dolomites this summer
You’re welcome. Hope you have the best time in the Dolomites. I can’t wait to go back there.
Tanya, I’ve been following your blog ever since its first iteration. We have lived in Switzerland for several summers in a row, plus a full year in Basel, and your write-ups turned my young family (then ages 4 and 1) into hiking enthusiasts. We owe you so much! We are now about to begin a new adventure in Italy, and I wondered if you and your family had ever done a via ferrata circuit? My son will be 10 when we move, and he is keenly interested in them. If you have, I’d love to know your thoughts/recommendations! Vielen Dank!
I have done a via ferrata but we’re not very good at it. We did the new one at Arnisee, which was very cool. Even though it’s a family route, it was a bit difficult for us because we don’t have much climbing experience. I have a friend who does them frequently with his small children. He likes the one at Brunni Engelberg, which is very family friendly. I should interview him and write an article on this.