JulieVikmanis

Among places I'm considering for a Christmas/New Years trip is Castelrotto and the dolomites. Is this advisable for winter? Which airport would be best to fly into? Which is best surrounding ski area? Ideas for day trips? Thanks for any quick suggestions/responses.

Steve_James

Julie - I've been going to the Dolomites pre-Xmas for the past 3 years and love it.

I'm sure Xmas/New Year there would be wonderful! Go for it

The nearest airports are Bolzano, Innsbruck, Verona, Brescia, Venice and Munich. Where are you flying from?

Castelrotto is a charming village - but it's not ideal for skiing. The best skiing area nearby is Val Gardena, which is a pretty extensive area with a lot of lifts.

The main resort is Selva, but nearby Ortisei and S. Cristina are only a few minutes away by frequent ski-bus. I usually stay in Ortisei ...

The main ski areas on either side of the valley are now connected by the new underground train at S. Cristina which connects the Sasslung/Ciampinoi ski area with Col Raiser/Seceda.

For more info have a look at:

http://www.valgardena.it/eng/page10.html

Hope this helps ...

Will you have a car or will you be using public transport for day-trips?

Steve

Dayle

Hi Julie,

It's been 10 years ago now (WOW!!! time flies!), but we stayed in Cortina and skied from there. We skied around Cortina 2 days, then did the Sella Ronda route (which takes you through Val Gardena) and the Paso di Falzareggo (SP?)another day down a valley about 17 miles and through several villages. When we were tired, we took a taxi back to Cortina!

We also did a day trip to Kronplatz which was more like US resorts to us. We loved it all!

Buon viaggio!

JulieVikmanis

Thanks for these responses. Sounds like the area might be very good for us Steve, we will probably have a car but my husband would love to be without car if public transport works for day trips. I'd be very interested to learn how easy it is to get about without a car. Thanks.

Steve_James

Julie - There is a very frequent ski-bus service between the resorts of the Val Gardena (Ortisei, Santa Cristina and Selva) - for skiers and non-skiers alike.

From Ortisei there's a regular bus service down the valley to Ponte Gardena (- nearest railway station), Bolzano and Bressanone.

There's also a service connecting Ortisei and Castelrotto - with connections in Castelrotto for Alpe di Siusi or for the Siusi/Sciliar cable car.


There's no bus service over the passes in winter - but if you're there during Christmas week I suspect there might possibly be some excursion tours available (- road conditions permitting ...). Or you can easily arrange private tours.


If you're happy to use public transport, you can reach places like Bolzano, Carezza/Val d'Ega, Merano, Trento, the 'Wine Route,' Innsbruck, Vipiteno, Brunico & Upper Val Pusteria, Val Badia ...

If you're serious skiers you can access other valleys (Corvara/Val Badia, Val di Fassa ...) from the Sella Ronda circuit at the head of Val Gardena.

Let me know if I can be of more help ...

Steve

caroline_edinburgh

We stayed in the Dolomites for a week one Christmas (not skiing) - forget the name of the village but it involved the word 'Fiore' or 'Fiori' and was quite charming. We flew to Venice. We went on daytrips to Bassano del Grappa, which was very interesting, Marostica, a ski resort (Cortina maybe ?) and Venice. We could have visited Bolzano for the Christmas markets but didn't bother since it was a full day trip and we wanted to relax. Bassano had a small Christmas market.