Eastern Dolomites, Italy

Dolomites (Pale Mountains) are a mountain range in northeastern Italy, and they are considered the best natural wonder of Europe. The Dolomites are packed with scenic beauty containing rugged mountains, turquoise-colored lakes, and charming villages. Dolomites extend between the borders of Italy, Austria and Bolzano in the South Tyrol region.

Dolomites are divided into two distinct regions called the eastern and western dolomites. Cortina D’Ampezzo serves as the base to explore the eastern dolomites, which is discussed in this blog. To visit eastern dolomites, I recommend the US travelers to fly to Venice (VCE), as it is easier to find connecting flights from most major European cities for reasonable prices. We booked a business class TAP Portugal flight from LIS-VCE with Aeroplan points.

Venice to Cortina D’Ampezzo

I highly recommend renting a car in VCE airport and the best town to stay in the Dolomites is Cortina d’Ampezzo, which can serve as the base for most of the activities in Dolomites (<2 hours from the Venice Marco Polo Airport).

Cortina d’Ampezzo can also be reached from Innsbruck, Austria (2hr30min), but car rentals may charge more for crossing the border into Italy. I recommend readers compare the car rental prices with both options before making a choice.

Grand Hotel Savoia Cortina d’Ampezzo

We booked 2 nights in Grand Hotel Savoia (A Radisson Collection Hotel), which is in the main town close to all the restaurants and shopping. The cash prices for Grand Hotel Savoia run between $300-500 per night and it is one of the best hotels to stay in Cortina D’Ampezzo. It is rare to find award availability, but we were lucky enough to use 70,000 Radisson rewards per night to book this hotel (breakfast not included). I was glad to get rid of my Radisson awards as I never really found much use for them until this booking.

https://www.radissonhotels.com/en-us/hotels/radisson-collection-grand-hotel-savoia

The hotel has a large parking lot with a grand reception area and the rooms are well-decorated with breathtaking views of the Dolomites. Unless you have Radisson points, I would not recommend spending cash on this booking, since you can easily find several reasonably priced and comfortable B&Bs in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Cortina D’Ampezzo Best Cable Car Rides

Cortina D’Ampezzo Best Hikes

I highly recommend the top 10 hikes listed in All Trails (https://www.alltrails.com/italy/veneto/cortina-d-ampezzo) when you are staying in Cortina d’Ampezzo. I prefer hikers to go early in the morning to the popular Lago di Braies (Pragser Wildsee) to find easy parking. The lake is nice but crowded (the hike there is very short) and unless you intend to kayak the lake, I recommend heading out to do more exciting hikes in the Dolomites. Some of the best hikes we did include Tre Cime di Lavaredo (prepare for a 30 Euro parking fee), Passo Tre Croci – Lago di Sorapis – Forcella Marcuoira, and Campo di Sotto – Lago Fedèra – La Rocchetta di Prendera.

We continued our Dolomites trip towards Val Senales in South Tyrol, where we stayed 3 nights in a SLH property Goldene Rose Karthaus (booked with 17K Hyatt points). The hotel prices vary between $200-400 USD per night.

https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/italy/slh-goldene-rose-karthaus/mucyz

Goldene Rose Karthaus

This hotel is in a beautiful location completely surrounded by mountain peaks and is a popular winter destination for skiing in the nearby Val Senales glacier. The entire hotel has a very unique wood construction, and the rooms are very well decorated. We originally booked a superior room, but the front desk upgraded us to a Junior Suite for being a Hyatt member.

Junior Suite

When we went to the room, we were surprised to find a Finnish sauna in the bathroom, which we have never experienced in any hotel in the past. I wish more hotels included saunas in the suites which is a great way to relax after a long day of hiking or skiing.

Breakfast

The free breakfast was very good with our choice of eggs, and oatmeal which can be ordered from a menu. The hotel also offers guests a choice of free desserts and hot drinks between 3-5 PM, which was very unique, and well appreciated.

Wellness Area

The hotel also has a separate detached area with two hot tubs and an enclosed area to sit and read some books. We were having so much fun with our private sauna and we did not feel the need to walk to the hot tubs. The controls for the sauna were very easy and it heated up in 10 minutes.

After concluding our Dolomites trip, we returned the car to Venice and took a flight to Frankfurt (stayed the night in the Hilton attached to the terminal) and rushed back early morning to take the Singapore airlines FRA-JFK first class flight.

Singapore Airlines FRA-JFK First Class Flight

Singapore’s first-class flight was undeniably the most exciting part of our inbound trip to the US. We were lucky to find 2 seats in first class when Singapore airlines released a massive award space earlier in the year. I won’t clog up the post about the Dolomites with flight pictures, but the flight experience is unbelievable, and we were wishing it was longer.

Summary

Italian Dolomites are spread over 6,000 square miles and you need a long time to cover the entire region. Depending on your available time, I recommend readers plan a few trips to the Dolomites to experience both the summer hikes and the winter skiing.