8-Day Dolomites Road Trip from Venice, Italy: Cortina, Alta Badia & Val Gardena

Day 1: Up the Piave Valley to Cortina

Arrival day, kept short on purpose. From Venice the motorway runs north to the edge of the mountains, and then the old Alemagna road follows the Piave and Boite valleys into Cortina, so the Dolomites arrive gradually through the windscreen rather than all at once. About two hours and twenty minutes of driving in total, with one optional stop halfway, and an evening on foot in the town you will come back to for three nights.

Landing late? Skip Pieve di Cadore and drive straight through — the stop is a break, not a sight you would miss. The last hour is on a good, well-lit valley road with no passes, so arriving after dark is fine.

Tonight: Cortina d'Ampezzo (three nights)

1. Midday📍

   Collect the car at Marco Polo

   The rental desks are at the airport, and the A27 north begins a few minutes from the car park — the reason to take the car here rather than anywhere near the city. Photograph the bodywork and the fuel gauge before you leave the bay, and check the drop-off terms match the plan: this page returns the car here on Day 8. Then north on the A27 toward Belluno.

   Time here: 45 min

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2. Afternoon · Optional📍

   A break in Pieve di Cadore

   1 hr 35 min from the previous stop

   An hour and a half from the airport, the motorway ends and the road starts climbing the Piave valley, and Pieve di Cadore is the natural place to stop. Titian was born here, and his statue stands in the main square; the house the town keeps as his birthplace is a few minutes away. Give it half an hour for a coffee and a walk round the square. It is a stop to break the drive, not a destination — skip it if you are tired.

   Time here: 45 min

3. Evening📍

   Into Cortina, and the Corso on foot

   45 min from the previous stop

   Forty-five minutes more up the Boite valley, with the Antelao and then the Tofane walls filling the windscreen as you get close. Park at the hotel and walk into the centre: Corso Italia is pedestrianised and runs past the parish church and its tall bell tower, which is the easiest landmark to steer by. Cortina was part of Austria until the First World War, when it passed to Italy. That's all for today. An early-evening stroll along the Corso is all a first night needs.

   Time here: 1 hr 30 min

Day 2: Around the Tre Cime di Lavaredo

The walk this part of the Dolomites is known for, done as a full loop rather than a photo stop. A toll road climbs from Misurina to Rifugio Auronzo at the foot of the three towers, and a well-used path circles them — past the south faces, through the gap on the east side, and round to the view of the north faces from Rifugio Locatelli. Moderate walking, most of a day, and Lago di Misurina on the way home if there is anything left in your legs.

This day only works in clear weather, and the toll road has to be booked the night before, which makes it easy to postpone: if the forecast for Day 2 is poor, do Day 3 first and move this to the next day. In steady grey, Lago di Braies — about an hour's drive north, with its own parking reservation needed between 09:00 and 16:00 from July to mid-September — is a lake that still rewards a flat walk. The easy version of the loop is the wide track from Rifugio Auronzo to Rifugio Lavaredo and up to Forcella Lavaredo, then back the same way: about two hours, with one short climb.

Tonight: Cortina d'Ampezzo

1. Morning📍

   Up the toll road to Rifugio Auronzo

   Fifty minutes from Cortina, over Passo Tre Croci and past Lago di Misurina, to the barrier where the toll road starts. In 2026 entry was by online booking only, made by 23:59 the night before, and the ticket covered twelve hours of parking from the time booked. Aim for an early slot: the car park at Rifugio Auronzo sits at the foot of the south faces, and the loop is better walked before the day's crowds arrive. Lace up in the car park, not at the hut — there's nothing to wait for.

   Time here: 20 min

2. Midday📍

   Round the towers to Rifugio Locatelli

   

   1 hr 30 min from the previous stop

   Go anticlockwise: the flat track east past Rifugio Lavaredo, a short climb to Forcella Lavaredo, and then the path drops around the north side, where the three towers turn from a wall into three separate blocks of rock. It takes about an hour and a half to Rifugio Locatelli, and the hut sits exactly where the north faces line up, so eat there. The loop back is the part people underestimate: down into the basin below, then a steady climb up the far side before a gentle return to the car. Allow three and a half to four hours for the whole circuit without rushing.

   Time here: 2 hr 30 min

3. Afternoon · Optional📍

   Lago di Misurina on the way home

   

   1 hr 40 min from the previous stop

   Back at the car, it's a quarter of an hour down the toll road to Lago di Misurina, then twenty-five minutes on to Cortina. The lake is small and flat, with a level path all the way round, and in the late afternoon the Sorapis group reflects in it from the far side. Walk as much of the shore as you want, or just sit. This stop is optional — if the loop took everything you had, drive straight home and leave it.

   Time here: 45 min

Day 3: Cinque Torri, a Free Afternoon, and Passo Giau at Dusk

The lighter day, and deliberately placed after the Tre Cime. A chairlift from the Falzarego road lifts you to the Cinque Torri, five rock towers standing on open grass above Cortina, where the Italian army dug trenches and gun positions in the First World War that you can now walk through. Then the afternoon is yours, back in Cortina, before the short drive up to Passo Giau for the evening light.

For something harder than the Cinque Torri, walk to Lago di Sorapis from Passo Tre Croci instead — a longer, rougher half day with some exposed stretches protected by cables, ending at a milky-blue lake under the Sorapis wall. In rain, Cortina's museums (modern art, fossils and local history, run by the Regole d'Ampezzo) make a better morning than a lift into cloud. Giau also works at sunrise, if you would rather get up early than go out again after dinner.

Tonight: Cortina d'Ampezzo

1. Morning📍

   Cinque Torri and the wartime trenches

   

   Twenty-five minutes from Cortina on the Falzarego road to the Bai de Dones chairlift, which runs from 09:00. At the top, by Rifugio Scoiattoli, a marked path loops around the base of the towers and through the restored trenches, gun positions and dugouts of the open-air museum, with information boards along the way. It is easy walking on a good path, one to two and a half hours depending on how much you stop, and entry is free. The last chair down is at 17:00, so there's no hurry — have lunch at one of the two huts before you ride back.

   Time here: 3 hr

2. Evening · Optional📍

   Passo Giau at sunset

   

   35 min from the previous stop

   From the chairlift it's half an hour to Passo Giau, and much the same from Cortina — back through Pocol and up a sequence of hairpins onto a wide grassy saddle at about 2,230 metres. In the last hour of light the Ra Gusela wall above the pass turns orange, and the Marmolada and the Civetta line the horizon. Walk a few minutes up the path beside the hut for a clear view over the road. Bring a warm layer and a torch for the walk back to the car; the drive down is slow in the dark, so take your time.

   Time here: 1 hr 30 min

Day 4: Over Falzarego and Valparola to Alta Badia

The first move, and a short driving day that still crosses two passes. You leave Cortina on the Falzarego road, stop at the top for the Lagazuoi cable car, and drop over Passo Valparola into Alta Badia, one of the Ladin-speaking valleys of South Tyrol. The front line of the First World War ran along this crest, and the morning is spent inside it. The afternoon goes to Santa Croce, a pilgrimage church under a sheer limestone wall on the other side of the valley.

The Lagazuoi tunnels are one of the few high outings that still work in poor weather — the operator itself recommends them on grey days — as long as the cable car is running. In rain or low cloud, skip Santa Croce and spend the afternoon at the Museum Ladin in the castle at San Martin de Tor, a short drive north of the La Crusc lift. Santa Croce is also the part to drop if the morning runs long: Corvara is a quarter of an hour from its lift.

Tonight: Corvara, Alta Badia (two nights)

1. Morning📍

   Lagazuoi by cable car, and the way down

   

   Check out, then half an hour on the Falzarego road to the top of the pass, where the cable car climbs the cliff in a single span in a few minutes. At the top, Rifugio Lagazuoi's terrace looks across to the Tofane, the Civetta, the Marmolada and the Sella. There are three ways down, and they are different things. The cable car is the easy one. The ordinary footpath — trails 401 and 402, past Forcella Lagazuoi and Forcella Travenanzes beside the ski slope — is an hour to an hour and a half on foot to the pass on an open, marked path that needs only walking boots. The third is the Lagazuoi tunnel, more than a kilometre dug by Italian troops inside the mountain during the war: steep, dark and wet, with a helmet, a headlamp and gloves needed — bring them or rent them at the valley station before you ride up. The operator grades it easy, but it is not for anyone uneasy in enclosed spaces or on slippery steps, and from the top to the car takes two and a half to three hours.

   Time here: 3 hr

2. Afternoon📍

   Santa Croce, under the Sas dla Crusc

   1 hr from the previous stop

   Over Passo Valparola and down through San Cassiano and La Villa — about half an hour's drive to the La Crusc lift at Badia. Two gondolas in a row lift you to the small pilgrimage church and hut at the foot of the Sas dla Crusc, a limestone wall that runs straight up behind them. From there the path heading north across the open meadows toward Armentara is level, easy walking; go as far as the afternoon allows and come back the same way. The last gondola down is at about 17:15. From the bottom it's a quarter of an hour to Corvara.

   Time here: 2 hr 30 min

Day 5: Around the Sella

The day this base is here for, and the fullest of the trip if you choose to make it so. Corvara sits on the ring of four passes around the Sella massif, so the loop starts and ends at the hotel door: Campolongo, Pordoi, Sella and Gardena in that order, keeping the massif on your right the whole way round. The plan itself is gentle — about an hour and fifty minutes of driving, a cable car and two short walks. The one strenuous option on it, Piz Boè, is an upgrade for experienced hikers, not part of the day.

The passes are pointless in low cloud. If today is grey and tomorrow looks better, use today for Santa Croce or the Museum Ladin, and drive to Val Gardena tomorrow the long way — Campolongo, Pordoi and Sella, then down into Selva — instead of over Passo Gardena.

Tonight: Corvara, Alta Badia

1. Morning📍

   Passo Pordoi and the Sass Pordoi cableway

   Forty minutes from Corvara: over the wooded saddle of Campolongo, down through Arabba, and up the long run of hairpins to Passo Pordoi. The cableway from the pass lifts you to the Sass Pordoi terrace at 2,950 metres in a few minutes, onto a bare limestone plateau that feels nothing like a viewpoint, with the Marmolada glacier across the gap. The plan here is an easy hour walking around the edge of the plateau, then lunch at the pass. The optional, strenuous upgrade is Piz Boè, the highest point of the Sella at 3,152 metres: about two hours each way on a stony path with a short roped section near the top, which turns this into a four-to-five-hour mountain outing before the rest of the loop. Only in settled weather, and only if you are sure of your footing on rock.

   Time here: 3 hr

2. Afternoon📍

   Passo Sella

   25 min from the previous stop

   Twenty-five minutes on from Pordoi, the road climbs to Passo Sella directly under the south face of the Sassolungo, the massif you will spend the next two days looking at from the other side. Park at the long pull-out near the top and walk for an hour through the Città dei Sassi, a field of huge fallen boulders below the Sassolungo, on an easy, marked path. It is a sheltered walk, and a good one to keep if the wind has come up at Pordoi.

   Time here: 1 hr 15 min

3. Evening · Optional📍

   Passo Gardena, and back down to Corvara

   

   25 min from the previous stop

   Down through Plan de Gralba and up again to Passo Gardena, about twenty-five minutes. By late afternoon the crowds have mostly gone, and the low light picks out the Sella's walls and the Cir towers above the pass. Walk a few minutes up the path from the road for the view down into Alta Badia. Corvara is twenty minutes below, which makes this the easiest pass of the week to stay on until the light goes.

   Time here: 1 hr

Day 6: To Val Gardena, and Up to Seceda

The second move, and a short one: fifty-five minutes over Passo Gardena, down through Selva and Santa Cristina to Ortisei, where the Seceda cable car leaves from the edge of the village. That puts Seceda's ridge on the day you arrive, while the car is still loaded and the legs are fresh. The hotel can wait until afternoon.

If the cloud is down on the ridge, swap today with tomorrow — Alpe di Siusi holds up far better under a grey sky than Seceda does. The harder version of Seceda is to walk down instead of riding: past the Pieralongia hut to the Col Raiser gondola, down to Santa Cristina, and back to Ortisei by valley bus. In rain, Ortisei's Museum Gherdëina covers the valley's woodcarving and Ladin history, and the Ötzi museum in Bolzano is forty-five minutes away.

Tonight: Ortisei, Val Gardena (two nights)

1. Morning📍

   Seceda and its ridge

   

   Leave Corvara by about 08:30 to be in Ortisei before 09:30, and park at or near the valley station. Two stages of cable car take you to the top at about 2,500 metres, where the grass tilts gently up to the edge and then stops, with the Odle spires dropping away on the far side. The walk along the ridge is the reason to be here: easy to moderate, on a wide path, as far as you like and back. The huts on the slopes below serve dumplings and speck with the view. Give it three or four hours, and ride down while the light is still good.

   Time here: 4 hr

2. Evening · Optional📍

   Ortisei in the evening

   40 min from the previous stop

   Check in, then walk the pedestrian centre in the early evening. Ortisei has been a woodcarving town for centuries, and some of the workshop windows along the main street are worth stopping at. Street signs are in Ladin, Italian and German, in that order. That's all the programme there is — tomorrow is a walking day.

   Time here: 1 hr 30 min

Day 7: Alpe di Siusi on Foot

No driving today at all. The gondola from the middle of Ortisei lands on Alpe di Siusi, a high rolling meadow that runs on for kilometres, and the day is spent walking across it at whatever pace suits. It is the gentlest day of the eight by design: the last full day before the drive home, spent on your feet rather than behind the wheel.

For sunrise or sunset on the plateau, you would need to drive up: the road is closed to private cars from 09:00 to 17:00, and outside those hours only with an online parking reservation at Compatsch, which can be booked up to six days ahead. Harder walkers can climb from the plateau toward the Sciliar, whose flat-topped wall closes the view to the south — a long, steep day that needs an early start. In rain, the plateau is still walkable in a light shower, but in a real storm stay low and take the museum options from Day 6.

Tonight: Ortisei, Val Gardena

1. Morning📍

   The gondola up to Mont Sëuc

   

   The Mont Sëuc cabin leaves from the middle of Ortisei, a walk from the hotel, from 08:30. Ten minutes later you step out at 2,000 metres onto the northern edge of the plateau, with the Sassolungo and the Sassopiatto on your left and the Sciliar wall far off to the south. Take a few minutes at the top to get the lie of the land: the farm tracks fan out across the meadows below you, and all of them are signposted.

   Time here: 45 min

2. Midday📍

   Across the meadows to Compatsch

   1 hr 30 min from the previous stop

   The walk to Compatsch is about five kilometres of farm track and meadow path, gently downhill, an hour and a half at a slow pace — and the obvious way to spend the middle of the day is to make it longer. Detour to one of the huts scattered across the plateau for lunch, sit in the grass, and let the afternoon go. Hay barns, grazing cows, and the Sassolungo on the skyline the whole time. Come back the way you came — the plateau bus only runs between Compatsch and Saltria, so it won't take you back to the gondola — and ride down to Ortisei before the last cabin.

   Time here: 4 hr

Day 8: Val di Funes, Then the Drive Home

The longest drive of the trip, placed on the day it can't be avoided. Val di Funes lies just off the motorway on the way south, and the church of Santa Maddalena with the Odle behind it is a fitting last view. Then it's motorway to Venice: about four hours of driving in all today, which is why this stop is optional.

With a flight before about 17:00, skip Val di Funes and drive straight to the airport — about three and a quarter hours from Ortisei. Flying out of Verona instead of Venice takes an hour off, if a one-way drop-off works for your rental. With an early-morning flight, don't try it on the day at all: spend the last night near Marco Polo and make the drive the afternoon before.

1. Morning · Optional📍

   Santa Maddalena, Val di Funes

   

   Fifty minutes from Ortisei, down to the motorway at Chiusa and then up the side valley. Day visitors can no longer drive up to the church or the viewpoint from May to November: park in the car park in the village and walk up — twenty to thirty minutes, with the church, the meadows and the Odle wall together at the end of it. Give it an hour and a half at most — the drive ahead is long.

   Time here: 1 hr 30 min

2. Afternoon📍

   South to Marco Polo

   3 hr 20 min from the previous stop

   Back down to the A22 at Chiusa, then motorway most of the way: south past Bolzano and Trento to Verona, then east on the A4 across the Veneto plain. About three hours and ten minutes to the airport, with the rental car to refuel and return at the end. Leave room for a stop — this is a long run at the end of a week of hairpins.

   Time here: 30 min