Dolomites family base August

Discussing summer holiday options with Mrs Davy90

Thinking to head further afield than the French Alps this year so looking at the Dolomites.

We all love being in the high mountains.

Driving there with 2 teens and probably my gravel bike, will do a family day hiring bikes at some point. Don’t need guided tours and not fussed about bike parks but do like xc and gravel trails. I also like road cycling.

Family likes a bit of cycling but mixed up with hiking, sightseeing and general loafing about and eating too much.

Will be in an EV and looking for an Airbnb or similar self contained accommodation. That said, car camping not completely out..(it’s been a while).

We’ve had great breaks in the French Alps and Pyrenees in the past, usually go late August as it’s calmed down a bit. We prefer to avoid the crowds.

Where’s a good base?

TIA 🙂

Have a look at Saint Martin di Castrozza North of Venice about 90 minutes by car. One side of the valley has a 2700m mountain you can descend on MTB from the cable car station. The other side goes up to 2000m, there’s a small bike park/gnarr area on the way up also served by cable car. The road riding looked to be good enough for the Giro.

It’s a 70’s era skiing destination that was on a par with Cortina and has a reasonable village centre, the pizza place is good.

Val Gardena or Alta Badia

Avoid Cortina – it’s main focus is skiing nowadays so mucho ££££s

Thanks, the Val Gardena area looks the ticket – lots of stuff on youtube and Komoot it seems.

Need to work out EV charging options and find accommodation.

Cheers

Corvara could be a good base.

We stayed in a village called Capella Maggiore in the Veneto. Plenty of trails around the Processco region, good food and drink.

Hired bikes from Crazy Sport in the neighbouring town,rode a day, did something else the next and so on. Fantastic place ride as hard or easy as you want. Easy train links to Venice and further into the mountains.

usually go late August as it’s calmed down a bit.

Things will be in full swing at that time of year. All German states have school holidays in that period off as well as the Italians.

Things will be in full swing at that time of year. All German states have school holidays in that period off as well as the Italians.

Might need to have a think, in France there always seems to be a drop off mid August, which is why we go in the latter part of the month.. this may be based on something I’ve heard/read anecdotally rather than fact but we’ve always been able to park in busy places like Chamonix at this time of year (unlike say the Lake District hotspots)… Was hoping it would be similar….

Dolomites are one of the most heavily visited places in the Italian Alps. Not many park ups for the van unless you want to spend €€€ on a campsite. Italian campsites are generally not cheap.

+1 for Corvara. We stayed there a few years back and loved it. Hired bikes from a local shop and did the Sella Ronda route. It should have been lovely, but the weather was poor (on that day only pretty much!).

We also took hard-tail mountain bikes and did some uplift and easy trails.

Just looked it up – 2014 – crikey. The SR was 32 miles and 6,500ft. I don’t think there was a flat inch.