Drive a few hours north of Venice and the “typical” Italian scenery changes dramatically. The landscape becomes much more mountainous, and you will start wondering “Are we still in Italy?”. The Swiss style huts, German hotel signs and snowy mountains – the Italian Dolomites – looks and feels nothing like to Verona just a few hours south.

This Italian South Tyrol region was a perfect way for us to break our 2 weeks Northern Italy family holiday. It gave us something completely different without needing to go cross border into neighbouring Switzerland or Austria. The landscape is stunning and as a bonus it’s relatively budget friendly too!

Activities on offer are quite varied. After previous outdoor adventures in New Zealand & Tasmania, we wanted to take it easy. So instead of going on long hikes, skiing or mountain biking – instead – we opt for visiting view points, going up cable car rides to see amazing views, dining in restaurants with (more) gorgeous views. Although we did just a few short hikes.

Popular Italian Dolomites summer hiking months is between June and September. While the winter ski season usually goes from December until March.

Here are our tips on How to spend 3 days in Italian Dolomites South Tyrol :

Ortisei

Ortisei is located right in the centre of Dolomites Val Gardena. Many visitors will use Ortisei as base when visiting the Dolomites. There are plenty of accommodation options here. It is an ideal starting point for hikes and ski tours. Beautiful boutiques line the shopping street, countless village cafes and homemade cakes on offer will make you want to stay longer.

Selva Val Gardena

We chose to stay three nights in Selva Val Gardena: Apartment: App. Sun Burdengeja booked via Booking.com. We simply fell in love when we saw the views from this 2 bedroom unit. The village centre is just a 10-minute walk. Bus stop is about 100 meters away and it is free with the Val Gardena Mobil Card.

Selva Val Gardena gave us a more local feel and not as busy (touristy) than Ortisei.

Seceda

The views from this mountain is simply stunning. Seceda is home to some of the best family friendly hikes in the Dolomites. Hikers can start from Col Raiser. Or if you’re lazy – like us!… simply catch Seceda cable car from Ortisei.

Lake Braies

This Insta famous lake is located 1.5 hours from Ortisei or 1 hour from Cortina d’Ampezzo. Seeing images of this lake on Instagram is what attracted us to explore South Tyrol region in the first place. We visited lake Braies just before sunset. Despite the many Insta wannabees, lake Braies certainly delivers. This lake is so serene and just as pretty in the pictures as it is in real life.

Tre Cime di Lavaredo

Hikers from around the world come to the Dolomites specifically for Tre Cime di Lavaredo.

The views are amazing at just about every turn. We were going to do the short 1km hike to Cadini di Misurina view point. Unfortunately within 15 minutes of arriving the weather turned on us! We were blanketed by extremely thick clouds and we couldn’t see further than 50 metres. Despite waiting for a few hours things didn’t clear up. I guess it’s a motivation for us to keep fit and come back here again!

Ski lift Cable cars

We wanted to do quite a few cable car rides to take in amazing views of the Dolomites region. We purchased Gardena Card which allowed us to access 18 lifts in the region. You can choose either a 6 days or 3 days consecutive tickets. Kids discounts apply, while kids under 8 (like our boys) only paid 5 euros for the 3 days pass. Lift prices here are super cheap compared to Switzerland.

Some of our favourite cable car lifts:

  • Seceda (mentioned above)
  • Funicular Resciesa, 5 minutes walk from Seceda Cable Car. While up there enjoy lunch at Chalet Resciesa.
  • Passo Sella – Forcella Sassolungo: nicknamed coffin cabin lift – no prizes for guessing how it got that name. This lift was designed to carry max of 2 people. Just adding to the fun, on windy days (like when we visited) it will sway side to side. It was snowing when we reached the top. We enjoyed drinking wine at the cafe.
  • Colraiser: Many would hike from here to Seceda. Views from Colraiser are impressive. You can enjoy meals and even stay at a family run hotel: Almhotel Col Raiser.

Our stay in the Italian Dolomites was relatively brief. We would love to come back here again to do more hikes and revisit Tre Cime di Lavaredo. We highly recommend this region for travelling families.

This blog post probably fail in capturing how beautiful this region is. If you’re interested visit: https://www.valgardena.it/en/ for a more in depth guide.

Getting around

Many visitors would hire a car or drive campervan motorhomes. For us we hire a private driver Taxi “Mili” Pajo during our 2 weeks Northern Italy holiday.

When visiting South Tyrol region you’re likely to be coming from Verona, Venice or Milan

On the way here you can make a quick stop in Bolzano, Bergamo or lake Garda.

For other places we have visited, checkout our website’s travel Destinations section. We buy our travel essentials online via Ebay