Hiking in the Dolomites

Our tour begins today at Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE), where we'll transfer as a group to Dobbacio. Our tour leader will meet you by the red-fronted \ RELAY\ shop in the airport's Arrivals Hall at 3.45pm. If you'd like to join the group transfer, the latest your flight can arrive is 3.15pm. Please note, that it can be extremely busy by the main exit from the luggage area, please do not leave the building. After we've gathered our group, we'll travel to our hotel in Dobbiaco, around a three-hour drive away. Located in the far north of Italy, Dobbiaco is close to the border with Austria - you might be surprised to find the food this week is Austrian-influenced, rather than typically Italian! We'll stay at the Hotel Tschurtschenthaler, a family-run, traditional Alpine-style, 3-star hotel, located in the centre of the Old Town, surrounded by pretty shops and cafes and with far-reaching views of the stunning Dolomites mountains. On arrival, our tour leader will give us a short briefing on the week ahead.

Taking the public bus, this morning we'll travel to Ferrara to begin our walk to Lake Braies (1,494 metres). We'll make our way through the fields and forest paths to arrive at the grandeur of the hotel at the head of Lake Braies - a justifiably popular lake spot with high-sided cliffs and deep green emerald waters. We'll have lunch and explore further around the lake before taking the public bus back to our hotel. Today's 14-kilometre/8.7-mile walk is expected to take around five hours with a total ascent and descent of 450 metres/1,476 feet.

We'll take a local bus to the old spa town of Altprags this morning, from where we'll climb up through beautiful flower meadows and on through forests to reach the lovely Putzalm hut for a well-earned coffee break. We'll then continue climbing to reach the tree line and shortly after, the pass of Suisridl, a little over 2,000 metres and a beautiful picnic spot. We'll descend on paths and tracks through the forests and the cross-country ski area to return to our hotel. Today's 12.5 kilometres/7.8-mile walk is expected to take around six hours with a total ascent and descent of 750 metres/2,461 feet.

We'll take a bus to Sesto and then a cable car to the top station (approximately 2,000 metres) and then ascend Mt Elmo (2,434 metres). Our walk takes us along a ridge that marks the border between Austria and Italy and has several bunkers and look-out posts from WWI. There is also a great and unusual photo opportunity - a foot in both countries! After walking the ridge and possibly bagging another summit, we'll descend into quiet valleys echoing with the shrill whistle of the elusive marmot, the eagle-eyed may well spot one sat sentry on a rock. We'll return to a different cable car for a descent to the valley floor and a public bus back to Dobbiaco. Today's 11-kilometre/6.8-mile walk is expected to take around six hours with a total ascent of 680 metres/2,231 feet and a descent of 700 metres/2,297 feet.

Today is an opportunity to either rest your legs and explore the cultural side of the region or keep up the activity levels and try some biking. A popular cycling day is the 50-kilometre/31.1-mile cycle ride to the Austrian town of Lienz. This gentle descent follows a well-made cycle track which is traffic-free and pretty much all downhill. Taking between two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half hours, most people will arrive in time for lunch. The train will take the strain for the return trip and the local rental company will collect the rental bikes from Lienz. A pair of cycling shorts and cycling gloves are recommended for this trip. The town of Brunico hosts one of Reinhold Messner's mountain museums and is a short 30-minute train journey away. The pedestrianised main street leads to the castle atop the hill overlooking the town, the old castle's rooms contain interesting exhibitions celebrating the mountain peoples of the world as well as displaying some of the expedition equipment used on his epic oxygen-free ascents of the world's 148,000-metre peaks. A longer journey to Bolzano allows you to visit the museum of the 'Iceman' discovered in the Schnalstal Glacier in the Otztal Alps in 1991. At over 5,000 years old, he is Europe's oldest natural human mummy and the discovery of his body, along with the remnants of his weapons and clothing has helped to throw some light on the life and times of the region's Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Europeans. For those interested in the battlefields of the 'White War,' as the conflict of 1915-17 in these mountains was known, a visit to Monte Piano via a bus journey and 4x4 shuttle can be arranged. This open-air museum commemorates the 14,000 soldiers who lost their lives to enemy action and the environment with well-preserved battlefield trenches, look-out posts and troop shelters. The nearby town of San Candido, barely five minutes by train, is another popular destination for a spot of shopping on a slightly larger scale than Dobbiaco. Pedestrianised streets, street cafés and restaurants invite you to linger for a lazy lunch as the world passes by. Perfect for a relaxing day off. Less than an hour by public bus, Cortina is a world-renowned glamourous spot. The streets ooze high-class shopping experiences, and the cafes invite you to stay and people-watch. With the 2026 Winter Olympics being part-hosted here, there's a buzz and flurry of activity that is infectious and exciting. Alternatively, you can take further walks or stay at the hotel and make use of the indoor pool and spa.

We'll take the bus to the Auronzo hut at 2,320 metres, just below the famed UNESCO site of the Tre Cime de Lavaredo. From here, we'll take a quieter path to the most impressive north faces of the Tre Cime and pass the Langalm hut before following another less well-known path to reach the Locatelli hut and a picnic spot near the lake. After lunch, we'll take a small path, looping around Torre di Toblin and have some time to explore various Austrian WWI defences. We'll return to the Auronzo hut via the south faces of the Tre Cime and a complete loop of the most iconic mountains in the Dolomites. From here, we'll return to Dobbiaco via the shuttle bus service. Today's 13-kilometre/8.1-mile walk is expected to take around seven hours with a total ascent and descent of 500 metres/1,641 feet.

We'll take the public bus to Pratopiazza (1,991 metres) - approximately 50 minutes - and walk a high-level track to the Durrenstein hut (2,040 metres). From here, we'll make a climb to the summit of Strudelkopf - a fabulous summit at 2,307 metres. The panoramic views are superb and we'll see the Tre Cime in the near distance. We'll descend via a military road and a choice of either a return on the same outward bus or an additional 4-kilometre/2.5-mile descent through the forests and along the riverside to Brukele and a bus back to Dobbiaco. Today's 11-kilometre/6.8-mile walk is expected to take around six hours with a total ascent of 480 metres/1,575 feet and a descent of 1,000 metres/3,281 feet.

Our trip ends today. Departing Dobbiaco this morning, we'll drive to Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE) where we'll arrive at around 1.30pm. The earliest your flight can depart today is 3.30pm.