1. Northern Italy: Dolomites, walking in Trentino-Alto Adige

This is a Grade 3 walk.  The trails follow well-marked and well-maintained paths with no dramatic climbs or descents and pass mountain huts along the way for breaks and lunch. While the walks do not have steep or long climbs (you use cable cars to avoid this), several of the walks are quite long: Day 4 is 14 kms and Day 5 is 19 kms (there is a shorter alternative on Day 5).  The circuit walk on Day 5 has some ‘exposed’ sections so is not suitable for people who suffer from vertigo (there is an alternative walk).  Full details on each walk are on the itinerary.  Click here.

The self-guided itineraries are rewalked and the notes updated each year.

Accommodation is in ‘superior’ rooms with en-suite bathrooms in a very well located 4-star hotel, an excellent family run hotel on the sunny side of the valley with a ‘wellness’ centre, pool and surrounded by lawns.  It is in prettiest town in the valley.  

The landscape is very varied, starting with the valley troughs, where orchardswith delicious apples reign supreme and the lower slope, which are covered with vines.  Culitvated terraces produce potatoes and berry fruits, whereas higher up in the mountian pastures a wide range of cheeses are produced.  The areas cuisine is a very satisfying combination of Austrian and Italian cooking including soups, meat and game.

Generous breakfasts are included each day (you'll need them for your walks).  With notice, the hotels wil be able to prepare a cut lunch for the walk.  Because of the nature of the hospitality in the Dolomites, delicious dinners with flexible menus have been included on this tour.

Spring arrives late and autumn arrives early in the Dolomites.  The lifts start in mid-June and close in mid-October.  The best time to visit is between mid-June to the end of July and then from the beginning of Setpember to mid-October.  It is also possible also to go in August but it is quite warm and very busy (being peak holiday season for the Italians).

You’ll be picked up by private transfer in Bolzano on Day 1 and taken to the valley, 60 kms away.  You will be driven back to Bolzano in the morning of Day 6.  You will also be driven to the beginning of the walks on Days 2 and 4.  You will use cable cars to get to the beginning of the walks on Days 2, 4 and 5 (the cost of the cable cars are not included in the tour price).

To guide you through this wonderful walk, you will receive:  the Hidden Italy roadbook (an eighty-page A5 booklet that includes comprehensive daily walking notes accompanied by detailed maps, updated and revised each year);  access to the exclusive Hidden Italy App to complement the roadbook (the App is downloadable to Apple and Android devices and features information about the routes: maps, GPS tracks, altimetric profiles, etc; GPS navigation on all the routes; an alert function if you stray off the track; and an emergency function);  twenty-four-hour phone support from our Florence-based Operations Manager.