Dolomites
 

For my husband's 40th I want to surprise him with a trip to the Dolomites. Is late August an ok time for hiking? Has anyone been? Any suggestions in planning this trip?

We spent two days in the area around Bolzano and really enjoyed it. I would highly recommend the hotel where we stayed in Ortisei called the Hotel Uhrerhof-Deur. It was probably one of the nicer places I've ever stayed. Their web site is http://www.uhrerhof.com/ .

The hotel is a bit out of the way (and way up a narrow, winding road) but it's rather close to some very dramatic mountains where the driving and hiking would be great.

We were there in early May which was too early for a lot of hiking because the ground was still very wet and most of the lifts were closed.

It's a perfect time for hiking but will also be more crowded than September because it's Europe's vacation month. It's probably a good idea to make your reservations early.

There are a lot of good towns and cities in Veneto from Verona to Vicenza to Venice. I hope you will have time to visit some.

Cortina d'Ampezzo is a great place to stay, and take hikes from there. The mountains are true "Dolomites". Cortina has many hotesl, of all price ranges. If you can plan your trip toward the end of August or the first week in September, you will find that (a) the weaher tends to be very pleasant (b) you won't have any problem fidning a place to stay.

I highly recommend this hotel:

http://www.uhrerhof.com/index-en.htm

Hi Kate - There have been a number of recent threads on hiking in the Dolomites. Here's one about the Vie Ferrate -

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...olomites.cfm?9

Hope this helps ...

Steve

I went to Alpi di Siusi in late August. Looking at the number of people hiking, it got to be the popular time to go hiking there. I mean hikers everywhere!

I stayed in Bolzano. Like any mountain destination, you need an adaptable schedule. I had two days available for hiking: one day was a downpour so I assigned the better of two days for hiking.