Dolomites Hiking Week in Val Gardena

Days start with breakfast at the hotel around 7:30 and a briefing on the day's route. Transport up to the trailhead is by the local lift network or a short minibus transfer, so you're walking within half an hour of leaving the hotel. Routes run between 10 and 16 km with 500-900 m of ascent, and there's a lunch stop at a mountain hut (you buy your own lunch, or bring one) before heading back down for the afternoon.

What makes this different from a generic alpine walking holiday is the guiding. The lead guide has walked these paths for more than a decade and adjusts the itinerary day by day depending on weather, group pace and which huts have space. If the forecast is poor on the high routes, you go lower; if the group is strong, you get the bigger day on the Sassolungo rather than the standard circuit.

The hotel is a three-star family property a few minutes' walk from the Ortisei pedestrian centre, with a small wellness area (sauna, steam, whirlpool) that is open in the late afternoon. Rooms are simple alpine style, mostly with balconies facing the valley or the Sassolungo ridge. It's the kind of place where you eat breakfast with the same people every morning and know the waiter's name by Wednesday.

Val Gardena sits within the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage area, and the landscape is the main event: limestone towers, pale scree, larch woods and the Alpe di Siusi, the largest high alpine meadow in Europe. In summer the meadows are used for grazing, so you'll pass working dairy huts and hear cowbells for most of the day.

This is a fixed-base week, not a hut-to-hut traverse, meaning you sleep in the same room for the whole stay and carry only a day pack. That suits people who want the mountain days without the logistics of moving accommodation every night.

What's included

- 7 nights at a family-run 3-star hotel in Ortisei - Breakfast every day - Dinner at the hotel every day - 5-6 guided hiking days with a local mountain guide - Lift and cable car transport during guided days - Minibus transfers to trailheads - Welcome briefing and route planning session - Access to the hotel wellness area (sauna, steam room, whirlpool)

What's not included

- Travel to and from Ortisei - Airport or station transfers (arrangeable at extra cost) - Lunches on the mountain - Drinks and bar bills - Travel insurance - Personal hiking equipment - Single room supplement (where applicable) - Anything not listed as included