Road Trip Through The Dolomites

On a springtime road trip from Croatia to Tuscany, I spent a few days in the Dolomites in north-eastern Italy. The Dolomites are a mountain range known for their jagged peaks and unique formations that are technically part of the European Alps but are considered their own ‘group’.

This region is famous for walking and cycling in summer and skiing in winter and is filled with amazing scenery and beautiful lakes. We had overcast and rainy weather for a good portion of our time in the region, but that didn’t stop my jaw from dropping at the views around me! Details of the trip are provided below.

Getting There

A lot of people access the Dolomites via Venice, but we drove into the region from Lake Bled in Slovenia via Austria, as we were on a longer road-trip from Split to Florence. Southern Austria is a beautiful place to drive through – green, clean and filled with gorgeous lakes, castles and forested hills.

The drive from Lake Bled to Santa Fosca, where we stayed in the Dolomites, took about 4 hours of drive time. We stopped a quarter of the way into the journey to stretch our legs at the lovely Millstatter See, whose blue waters beckoned us to make a detour from the highway. An hour of driving further, we stopped in at beautiful Lienz, Austria, for lunch. We then stopped in Lago Di Braies, Italy (pictured above) and at the top of the Giau Pass, before we reached our final destination for the night. A more detailed description of our stops along the way are provided below.

Lunch Stop in Lienz 

The chief city of East Tyrol, Lienz is known as the ‘Pearl of the Dolomites’. The town is filled with brightly coloured buildings and unique architecture, including Schloss Liebburg, a 17th century castle in the city centre which is now used as the town hall (and apparently turns into a giant advent calendar every Christmas, which I would love to see!).

Lienz is a very walkable town along a picturesque river and made for a great lunch stop. We parked near the city centre, went for a walk around town and stopped in a local cafe for lunch. My travelling companion had goulash stew and spaetzle, which is an egg noodle pasta, and I had a bowl of goulash soup, which is one of my favourite Austrian- Hungarian foods! It definitely hit the spot.

While the food was lovely, it was a bit of shock to find that half the restaurant we visited allowed smoking indoors, so it definitely had a distinct smell, even though the areas were separated. I haven’t come across this much before in Austria when I’ve visited on other occasions, so I was a little surprised and it’s something that’s good to be aware of when you’re choosing where to eat if you visit this region. Maybe make sure you walk into a restaurant to get a sense of the smell before committing on a place! After Lienz, we headed out of Austria and on to Italy, for our first nature stop in the Dolomites.

Lago Di Braeis

An hour south-west from Lienz and across the Italian border is the stunning lake, Lago Di Braies, (known in German as as Pragser Wildsee).

Lago Di Braies is one of those lakes you have probably seen if you don’t realise you’ve seen it. It’s so photogenic that it features in many stock travel images – even my picture on the home page of this website is me standing in front of this lake!

Lago Di Braies is commonly considered the most beautiful lake in the Dolomites and in Europe, and some even say, in the world! With its bright green water sitting in front of high snow-covered peaks, it is absolutely gorgeous. It is UNESCO heritage listed and is the largest natural lake in the Dolomites region.

If you’re feeling curious in exploring the lake yourself, you can hike around the lake in 1.5 – 2hrs, or rent a row boat for 25 euros for half an hour or 35 euros an hour between 7am and 7pm in the peak summer months. 

There is also a hotel on the lake that has indoor and outdoor seating and coffee. It was raining part of the time when we visited, so we only visited one side of the lake and then went inside the hotel to have a hot drink and shelter from the weather. The lake attracted a really wide range of visitors, from intrepid hikers to some of the most cosmetically ‘enhanced’ faces I have ever seen.  

It really is a special spot, even in less-than-ideal weather.

Giau Pass

After Lago Di Braies, we were hoping to visit Rifugio Auronzo at the base of Tre Cime de Lavaredo, but due to the weather and the time of year, the road was not yet open for the summer.

As we drove further into the heart of the Dolomites, things got increasingly snowy. It was hard to believe this was late May and that less than a week before we had been jumping of yachts sailing in Croatia!

We started to ascend up into the mountains as we began to wind up the Giau Pass, which is a high mountain pass siting at 2236m elevation with 55 sharp hairpin turns. This pass is UNESCO heritage listed and in the past, it marked the boundary between the Republic of Venice and the Austrian Empire. These days, it has become a popular scenic touring route for drivers, cyclists and motorcyclists alike.

We got out of the car to take in the view of Mount Ragusela at the top. Leaning against the very heavily compacted snow, we giggled at how cold it was – this was supposed to be our summer hiking holiday in the Dolomites, but we were definitely a few weeks too early!

Santa Fosca

We wove our way down the other side of Giau pass’s winding roads and headed on to Santa Fosca, the beautiful village just outside the town of Selva Di Cadore, where we stayed in the middle of the Dolomites. I was super glad I wasn’t the driver, as the roads were narrow, had many more sharp curves, and were pressed into the side of mountains with steep drop offs to the side. Did I mention Italy drives on the other side of the road to Australia?!

Because we were there after the winter ski season and before the summer hiking season, Santa Fosca and all the surround villages were extremely quiet. It almost felt like we were driving through ghost towns. I think the feeling was heightened as it was misty as we drove through, which meant we didn’t get the clear views of the mountains, but they instead peeked at us through the low cloud.

This atmosphere didn’t dissipate when we checked into our accommodation, Hotel Garni Ongaro, as we were its only guests, which felt a bit eerie as it was a fairly large and nice hotel. We walked down the road and had dinner at one of the only restaurants open, and again…we were the only customers. Due to basically everything being shut and the weather impacting our views of the mountains, my travelling companion laughed that I had taken him to the ‘Dull-a-mites’. I found this pretty witty, but it also stung a bit, as I’d been so excited to show him the place I’d read so much about! However, I had to agree, it was extremely sleepy when we were there. After dinner, we retired to bed in our warm and spacious room to get an early night’s sleep after a busy day of driving.

The next morning, we woke to find the skies had somewhat cleared, although it was still overcast. We decided it wasn’t going to be good enough weather to attempt any serious hikes for the day, so we would focus on driving around to see things from the car, with short stops when the weather was good. We made our way downstairs to breakfast and found a very generous spread awaiting us in the hotel dining room. There were whole jugs of juice, plates of multiple cakes, breads, yoghurts, cheese and meats, all included with the price of our accommodation. We were stoked, but also felt a little bad, as there was no way we were going to be able to eat it all! We ate what we could and got ready to go on a scenic road trip around the famous passes of the Dolomites for the day.

Our plan for the day was to drive to Ortisei via Pass Pordoi and Sella Pass, and then drive back to Santa Fosca via Val Gardena, Alta Badia and Falzarego Pass. The drives through Pass Pordoi (2242m) and Sella Pass (2218m) were a jaw dropping way to start the day. I have never seen mountain ranges like the Dolomites, and an extra amazing thing about driving through this region is that the mountains never feel far away, even from the road and sometimes you get to drive right up against the base of the mountain peaks. It’s really exciting driving.

About an hour and a half after we left Santa Fosca, we made it to the beautiful Val Gardena region and Gardena Pass (2136m). This area was one of my favourite parts to drive through and we got out of the car to get some photos and take in the surroundings. From Gardena Pass, it was only a ten- minute drive on to Ortisei.

Ortisei

Ortisei is a picture-perfect South Tyrolian town, with flower boxes, colourful houses and Austrian architecture You would be forgiven for thinking you had crossed the border out of Italy! Ortisei had the most atmosphere of any town we saw in the Dolomites. It had gorgeous architecture, open restaurants and amazing galleries and shops that showcased the talents of the local wood-carvers. The wood carving sculptures we saw in Art 52 gallery were particularly amazing! We had a nice walk around the town and went to a local supermarket to buy some local cheeses, breads and other foods to snack on over the following days. We also stopped in a cafe for lunch. There was access to the mountains around via ski lifts right from the centre of town, which would have been really handy were they open! I really really want to come back to this part of the world when summertime has properly begun!

Alta Badia and Falzagero Pass

After Ortisei, we drove back towards Santa Fosca over Falzagero Pass, which has an elevation of 2105m. The area surrounding this pass is famous for having been the site of intense fighting between Italy and Austria in WWI. This pass and Alta Badia were lovely areas to drive through.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped in at Belvedere Grill in Selva Di Cadore. It was a hillside hotel that perched right off the side of a cliff, and had amazing views. For dinner, I had the Tyrolean speciality, Speckknödel, in a cabbage salad. Speckknödel is a bread and bacon based dumpling and it was way yummier than it looked! Belevedere Grill Bar also served pasta dishes, strudel and other simple, local food. I’d highly recommend it as a place to stop in for a meal for anyone staying in the Selva Di Cadore / Santa Fosca area.

The following morning, we woke up to find the clouds had finally cleared! Unfortunately, we were headed off to Lake Garda for the next part of our trip. We went for a morning walk in the nearby hills and then packed our car to head south. The drive out of the Dolomites and towards Lake Garda was beautiful, but I was still a bit disappointed that we didn’t have clearer weather on our earlier days in the area.

While I loved getting to see the Dolomites, if I could do it all again, I’d go later than May (we didn’t really have a choice as we were working around attending a wedding) so that the lifts were more likely to be open and the weather was more likely to be clear and not wet, and I’d give myself more time, both to allow myself to do some proper hikes, but also to allow for a few chance rainy days where the hiking might not be possible to not limit my whole trip.

This is the sort of place I could definitely see travellers flocking to over the summer to work in hotels and restaurants for a few months and hike in their free time. While, due to the weather, we didn’t have the typical ‘instagram’ experience in the Dolomites, this area still took my breath away, and I really hope that one day, I’ll get to go back.