Dolomites center based walking vacation in Italy




Price
£2189To£2729 including UK flights
Description of Dolomites center based walking vacation in Italy
Departure information
This trip can depart on selected Saturdays through Jun - Sept, please inquire for details.
Travel guides
Passionate, food loving, fiery, elegant, religious and beautiful. These clichés about Italians pretty much fit the picture of walking vacations in Ital...
There are more remote, lofty and famous ranges, but the Dolomites can’t be beaten for dramatic, jagged peaks. These limestone monsters soar to over 3,...
Vacation information
Traveling by train:
We offer the possibility of traveling by train to and from the UK for this trip and can book this for you if required. Please inquire for further details.
Reviews
1 Reviews of Dolomites center based walking vacation in Italy
4 out of 5 stars
Reviewed on 04 Aug 2023 by Steve Birdsell
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?
We loved the bike rides. Some parts of the ride were breathtaking. Views of the river and farm fields were very special. The wide bike paths and the gradual downhill made it nice for looking and easy riding. The days were fairly short (about 3-3.5 hours) and gave us time to explore the towns where we stopped.
2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?
We got our packet on the night before we started riding. Some of the adventures (dam tours, etc) along the way required making arrangements ahead of time. We were not able to do that on short notice. Also, many of the spots of interest were not on the biking trail (sometimes on the other side of the river). Be sure to do some advanced planning rather than just hopping on the bikes if you want to see some of the recommended sites.
3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes. We mostly used small local hotels and restaurants. Our footprint from riding bikes was small. We are pretty sure the luggage transport was done by locals who transported several groups' luggage in the same van.
4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?
We enjoyed it very much. We loved the bike riding and the route, and the overnight accommodations and stays in small to medium-sized towns. The app we used to track the route was super useful. The bikes were very nice. We felt the site-seeing along the way was a disappointment because there were few sites, or they required advanced planning. Often times, the sites were on the other side of the river or way above the river, (i.e., several hundred meters) in the case of some castles, so visiting them didn't work well on a bike. It would be nice to have more recommendations for sites that are directly along the route.
Responsible Travel
As the pioneers of responsible tourism, we've screened this (and every) vacation so that you can travel knowing it will help support the places and people that you visit, and the planet. Read how below.
Planet
Activity:Walking has minimal impact on the environment as you provide most of the energy yourself and, when you’re walking from village to village, you can enjoy a relationship with locals in a way motorists passing through never can. On foot, you get off the beaten track, and you’ll find that people treat you as a visitor rather than a tourist. Also, by walking independently, and not having to worry about keeping up with a group, you set the pace so you can soak up the sights, sounds and scents of your surrounds and really get under the skin of the place you’re visiting.
We proactively encourage our clients to think about traveling responsibly too: packing light, saving water, buying locally, re-cycling all maps and route notes at the end of their trip as well as to be mindful of not leaving any rubbish behind.
UK Office:
We are well aware of the impact tourism has at home and abroad, and we make every effort to balance the environmental impact of traveling with the immense benefits sustainable tourism can bring to destinations and the people who live there. So we start in the office: we turn off all electrical equipment every night; we use energy-efficient bulbs; we measure print and paper consumption, and re-cycle wherever possible; we print our brochures on paper from sustainable sources, and send them out in bio-degradable packaging.
People
Leaders & local suppliers:With over 400kms of marked trails, just in this area of the Dolomites, a week's walking from here allows you to discover the awe-inspiring beauty of this region. Famed for its varied cuisine - a mix of Italian and Austrian for the most part - the Alta Badia region has two restaurants with a total of 4 Michelin Stars between them. Ciasa Salares, famed for its locally sourced cuisine, is your home for the week, located just a short walk (or even shorter shuttle/bus ride) from the center of San Cassiano. Run by the Wieser family, Stefan, Wilma and their son Jan Clemens, who is passionate about the hotel's fantastic wine cellar, they manage to combine alpine chic in the decor with good old-fashioned hospitality. The four restaurants include an informal wine bar, a terrace restaurant, a main restaurant as well as tables in the labyrinthine wine cellar. There are also two other very special rooms - the Cheese Room and the Chocolate Room. Other facilities include a library and lounge, a luxurious spa with indoor swimming pool, relaxation area, treatment rooms (3), sauna, steam room and an outdoor hot tub to soak away those aching limbs after a day of walking. Like all our vacations, we encourage visitors to buy from independently-run shops & establishments where possible, supporting the local people and their families.
On foot, you get off the beaten track, and you’ll find that people treat you as a visitor rather than a tourist. Also, by walking independently, and not having to worry about keeping up with a group, you set the pace so you can soak up the sights, sounds and scents of your surrounds and really get under the skin of the place you’re visiting.
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