Europe 2022 (Part 2): The Dolomites

I can’t recommend this area of the world enough. The Dolomites is a mountain range in the northern Italian Alps! We only scratched the surface of what you can do and see here, but loved our time here! If visiting is on your list, here’s a few places we discovered and loved:

ALPE DI SUISI / SEISER ALM

Alpe di Siusi was so beautiful! This is the largest high-altitude Alpine meadow in Europe. We took two lift/cableways and spent hours up here — there’s a cute restaurant, tons of trails (including family-friendly options), bike rentals, and picturesque views 🚠🏔🌾 We took the main Suisi lift up the mountain and from there, you can hike or take other lifts up the mountains further. Here’s more info about the different cableways and accessing this area. I was amazed at the view but also at how COOL it was to see little hotels, restaurants, and playgrounds all over up in the mountains. You basically can spend the whole day hiking and adventuring and wandering your away around, taking breaks at these local spots. It was just so different than anything I’ve done before – loved it!

LAGO DI BRAIES

Lago di Braies is a must! It’s a stunning crystal clear lake with hiking trails, a beach, beautiful lookouts, boat rentals, food options. It’s one of those magical places that makes you feel really small. It was just beautiful. You need to book your parking ticket in advance (they wouldn’t let us do it at the gate) so remember to do that! You can do a full hike around the lake, but we opted to do a shorter hike to a small beach area for snacks/views and then walk back and do a boat ride. The boat ride was well worth the money and just beautiful to admire the view from the water! Lago di Braies is a popular and busy spot, but still really special. We were able to try to avoid crowds and soak up the beauty despite lots of people being around! 🏔🛶💦

SECEDA

We took a lift/cableway up to Seceda for a short walk and to admire the view! Seceda is a mountain that’s 8,200+ feet above the villages of Ortisei, St. Christina and Selva in South Tyrol’s Val Gardena region. We drove to Ortisei, parked our car in town, walked to the lift, and then took the lift up to the mountain. From there, there was just so much beauty to take in and lots of hiking trails up here, plus a restaurant and playground for kids 🚠🏔🌸

MORE ABOUT OUR TRIP:

〰 We stayed at Hotel Waldrast in the small village of Suisi and it was wonderful! It’s a family-run hotel with kind staff, delicious food, a relaxing wellness area (saunas, steam room, hot tubs, etc), pool, kids play area, and more 🧖🏼‍♀️🍽🛏

〰 One morning we went on a scenic and stroller-friendly walk visiting Lago Superiore di Fiè and Laghetto Fiè, two lakes next to each other at the base of the Sciliar mountains 🥾🌿🏔

〰 E hiked up to see the Castelvecchio Ruins from Suisi and said it was awesome! 🏰🥾

〰 Castelrotto was a cute town to visit! We did a picnic lunch at a playground here

〰 We drove past Karersee Lake and it looked absolutely beautiful! We didn’t get to stop but it looked like a popular spot to visit and hike, with lots of small villages to explore nearby 💦🏔🚴🏼‍♀️