Dolomites Explained: areas and highlights

A few weeks ago, I was browsing the internet looking for a structured guide to the Dolomites. Over the years I have explored most of the main routes, and some off the beaten path places, in winter and in summer, and I wanted to find somewhere new to head for our next exploration.

Interestingly, I could not find anything comprehensive and well structured that explained the different valleys and areas of interest. Most itineraries focused on the same spots, and jumped between photo locations that were kilometres and valleys away from each other, leaving so much beauty behind.

The Dolomites, and mountains in general, have a big challenge nowadays: sustainability. Both in terms of environment, and when it comes to culture. Overtourism is shaping how residents live and survive in these areas. Some villages thrive, others get cancelled by lack of opportunities. The same happens to traditions, local recipes, stories. I hope this little guide brings some light to the valleys and corners that deserve to be explored and preserved a little more.

I divided the areas by mountain range. The names are a bit harder to remember than the famous valleys, but this is the only grouping that actually keeps places that belong together close to each other. Grouping by valley or by point of interest would make this guide longer than a Bible. I made one exception for the central area around Val Gardena, where the valleys are much better known than the mountain groups themselves, so I named the section after them.

Enough said. Let's begin.

Get oriented in one paragraph

The Dolomites are not one mountain. They are nine groups of peaks sitting across four provinces: Trento, Bolzano, Belluno and Pordenone. The Brenta is the outlier to the west, on its own across the Adige river. The famous postcards cluster in the centre and north: Val Gardena, Val di Fassa, Val Pusteria, Cortina d'Ampezzo. The wild and least developed groups are to the south (Dolomiti Bellunesi) and to the east (Dolomiti Friulane). I will walk through them roughly from west to east, ending with the two quietest ones.

Which area is for you?

If you are reading this on a Sunday evening trying to pick where to go, here is the short version.

• First time, want a bit of everything close together: Val Gardena and Val di Fassa. Easy bases, good food, short distances between famous spots.
• Skiing as the main reason: Val Gardena, Cortina d'Ampezzo or Madonna di Campiglio.
• You want the famous postcards (Tre Cime, Lago di Braies, Seceda): Val Pusteria for Tre Cime and Braies, Val Gardena for Seceda. Go in June or late September, never in August.
• You want quiet, real mountain wilderness: Dolomiti Bellunesi or Dolomiti Friulane. Bring proper hiking shoes.
• You want one striking, less-known landscape: the Altopiano delle Pale in the Pala di San Martino. Or the Val di Funes for the postcard without the crowds of Braies.
• Travelling without a car: Val Gardena (best public transport), Val Pusteria(also good thanks to the train line) and Cortina (well connected by bus).
• Travelling with kids: Alpe di Siusi, Val di Fiemme, Plan de Corones. Wide spaces, easy walks, lots of small attractions.

Dolomites of Brenta

The specialty: the wildest group. The Brenta sits almost entirely in Trentino, west of the Adige river, at the edge where the German speaking valleys begin. It is the only Dolomite group separated from the rest, and despite a few well known resorts like Madonna di Campiglio and Pinzolo, it remains the emptiest part of the range. You can walk for days and barely meet anyone. Over eighty alpine lakes, almost all of Italy's brown bear population, and a serious chance of meeting marmots, chamois and eagles on the same trail.

The group is part of the wider Adamello-Brenta Natural Park, which extends west into the Adamello range and its glaciers. South of the Brenta, Molveno sits next to its postcard lake. To the north, the Val di Non is a softer detour, scattered with castles and apple orchards.

Val Gardena, Val di Fiemme and Val di Fassa

The specialty: the easiest place to base yourself in the Dolomites. This is the geographical heart of the range, in South Tyrol and northern Trentino, surrounded by three iconic mountain groups: the Sciliar to the north, the Catinaccio (Rosengarten) to the east and the Latemar to the south. Everything is close: in a single day you can be hiking on Alpe di Siusi, eating lunch in Ortisei and watching sunset on the Catinaccio.

Val Gardena is the central hub, with Ortisei as its capital. From here, cable cars reach Alpe di Siusi, Europe's largest high-altitude meadow, and Seceda, with its iconic ridge. In winter this is the western node of the Sellaronda, the mythical ski tour that links four ski resorts and over 480 km of pistes.

To the south, Val di Fiemme and Val di Fassa run between the Catinaccio and the Latemar. They are touristy, but they still feel like mountain valleys, and they are cheaper than Val Gardena. Canazei, Vigo di Fassa and Moena are the main bases. From here you also get the enrosadira, the phenomenon for which the peaks turn red at dawn and sunset, and which the Catinaccio (literally "Rosengarten", the rose garden) made famous. Two other things worth the detour: Lago di Carezza, the small green mirror under the Latemar, and the Bletterbach canyon, a kilometre-deep geological cut where you walk through 250 million years of rock layers.

Puez and Odle

The specialty: needle peaks and quiet villages. Odle means "needles" in Ladin, and it is the perfect description of these peaks: sharp, jagged, vertical, contrasting violently with the soft green floors below them.

The gateway is Bressanone, an elegant small city in the Isarco valley with a layered old town (Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, all in three squares) and the Abbazia di Novacella just outside, one of the oldest active monasteries in the Alps. Above the city, the Plose mountain offers easy walks and quiet skiing.

The real heart of this area is the Val di Funes, where Reinhold Messner grew up, with the chapel of Santa Maddalena sitting in front of the Furchetta and the Sass Rigais. You have probably seen it a hundred times already without knowing where it was, and yet the valley itself is still surprisingly slow.

A note on autumn: this is the home of the Törggelen, the seasonal walk between vineyards and masi (mountain farms) to taste the new wine, roasted chestnuts and freshly cured meats. One of the few seasonal rituals in the Alps that locals still actually do for themselves, not for visitors.

Sesto and Fanes

The specialty: the postcard side, plus Ladin culture in Val Badia. The Val Pusteria is the east-west corridor north of the main Dolomites, and it gives access to the two most photographed spots of the entire range: Lago di Braies and the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. Both are real and spectacular. Both are also overcrowded in July and August. Visit early, late, or shoulder season.

The valley itself is wide and friendly. Brunico is the main town, with one of the Messner Mountain Museums and the Plan de Corones ski area above it. Dobbiaco and San Candido are quieter, and the Pusteria cycle path runs almost flat all the way to Lienz in Austria.

The side valleys are where things open up. Val di Sesto, the easternmost balcony of the Dolomites, looks east onto the Croda dei Toni, the Popera, the Cadini di Misurina. Val di Landro strings together small alpine lakes under the Tre Cime. And on the west side, the Parco Naturale Fanes-Sennes-Braies drops into the Val Badia (Gadertal), the Ladin-speaking valley that stayed isolated long enough to keep its viles intact: small clusters of farms organised around a fountain, a bread oven and a shared path. The Ladin Museum in San Martino in Badia is small but excellent. Corvara and Colfosco sit at the top, under the Sella, and connect directly to the Sellaronda.

Cortina d'Ampezzo and Cadore

The specialty: glamour up front, quiet history right behind it. Cortina is the celebrity of the Dolomites, an Austro-Hungarian summer resort that became the host of the 1956 Winter Olympics and will host the 2026 edition with Milan. It sits in a wide bowl ringed by the Tofane, the Cristallo, the Sorapiss, the Cinque Torri and the Lagazuoi, with one of the best open-air Great War museums in the Alps at over 2700 m.

Cortina is busy and expensive, and will get more so. The good news is that the Cadore, the valley that opens twenty minutes south, has stayed almost untouched. Historically this is the side of the mountains that belonged to Venice for centuries (while Cortina was under Austria-Hungary), and you can still hear it in the local dialect, closer to Venetian than to German or Ladin. Pieve di Cadore, the historic capital of a small autonomous federation of mountain villages, is the birthplace of the painter Tiziano. The Val Boite runs along the Antelao (3264 m, the second tallest peak of the Dolomites) and the Sorapiss, with its small turquoise glacier lake. The Alta Val di Zoldo, sitting between the Pelmo and the Civetta and reached via the very scenic Passo Giau, is the quietest of the three. Zoldo is also the historic home of Italian gelato makers, and a small museum in Forno tells the story.

Marmolada

The specialty: the highest peak and the biggest glacier of the range. At 3343 m, Punta Penìa is the roof of the Dolomites, and it carries the only large glacier of the entire range on its north face. It is also the place where climate change is most visible: the glacier has been retreating fast over the last decades, and it is becoming a powerful, if bittersweet, reason to visit while it is still here.

The Marmolada sits between four valleys. To the north-west, the Val di Fassa with Canazei at its top, a beautiful Ladin village at the crossroads of three passes (Sella, Pordoi, Fedaia). To the east, the Val Cordevole descends through Alleghe, a small village squeezed between the Civetta and a lake formed by a landslide in 1771. At the top, the Passo Fedaia and its glacial lake sit directly under the north face.

For walkers, the side valleys around the Agordino (Val di San Lucano, Val Corpassa, Val di Gares) are some of the most overlooked corners of the Dolomites, with vertical walls of over 1500 m and almost nobody on the trails.

Pala di San Martino

The specialty: a lunar high-altitude plateau, and Stradivari's forest. The Pala is, in my opinion, the most underrated group of the Dolomites. From below, you climb the SS50 toward the Passo Rolle and the peaks rise gradually until you find yourself at the foot of a perfect ring of white walls: the Cimon della Pala, the Sass Maor, the Vezzana (3192 m).

What makes this group geologically unique is the Altopiano delle Pale: a high-altitude desert of undulating limestone at around 2500 m, almost without vegetation, broken by patches of snow. Walking it feels like landing on another planet.

The whole area is protected by the Parco Naturale Paneveggio-Pale di San Martino, which also hides the Foresta dei Violini: the spruce forest from which Stradivari sourced his violin wood, and still today one of the most prized acoustic woods in the world. The two reference villages are San Martino di Castrozza (the cable car gateway) and the older Fiera di Primiero a few kilometres south.

Dolomiti Bellunesi

The specialty: the secret, wild side of the Dolomites. South of all the other groups, between the Piave river and the Trentino border, the Dolomiti Bellunesi form the southernmost wall of the range. They were the last to develop touristically and the least built up. The Parco Nazionale delle Dolomiti Bellunesi (32 000 hectares, established 1990) protects almost the entire group, and inside it you can walk for two days without crossing a road.

The peaks feel different here: heavier, darker, more layered. The Schiara, the Talvena, the Vette Feltrine, the Pramper-Mezzodì. Some of the wildest stretches of the Alte Vie n. 1 and 2 cross the park.

The two main towns are also worth a stop on their own. Belluno, with its porticoed streets and frescoed palaces, is sometimes called the "small mountain Venice", a reminder that for centuries this was the inland gateway of the Serenissima. Feltre is smaller and prettier in a different way: a vertical borgo climbing a ridge, with Renaissance frescoes on almost every house, often called the open-air museum of Dolomitic Renaissance. Wildlife is more visible here than almost anywhere else in the Dolomites: chamois, mouflons, golden eagles, even the rare wildcat.

Dolomiti Friulane

The specialty: the most overlooked, with the bluest water. The Dolomiti Friulane are the easternmost part of the range and the least touristic by a wide margin. The roads barely cross them, the villages stop where the valleys narrow, and the rest is mountain. They are part of the UNESCO Dolomites site like the others, but you would not guess it from the lack of crowds.

The result is a landscape that feels older, quieter, and unusually aquatic. The streams that cut through the Val Tramontina, the Val Cellina and the Val Còlvera carve natural pools and small canyons in a turquoise that looks almost tropical. The Pozze Smeraldine in Val Tramontina and the Forra del Cellina between Barcis and Andreis are the best known.

The signature peak of the Parco Naturale Regionale delle Dolomiti Friulane is the Campanile di Val Montanaia, a 300-metre stone needle rising from the middle of the Spalti-Monfalconi group, one of the most beautiful climbs in the eastern Alps. The main alpine villages are Forni di Sopra and Forni di Sotto at the top of the Val Tagliamento, both small and very Carnic in feel.

One stop that belongs here on principle: the western edge of the park is the site of the Vajont disaster. In 1963 a landslide fell into the artificial lake behind the Vajont dam and triggered a wave that killed almost two thousand people in Longarone. The dam still stands, and the memorial museum in Longarone is one of the most important things you can visit in this part of the Alps.

When to go

Each area has its sweet spot, but here are the general rules.

Late June to early July is the best window for hikers: long days, all the trails open, the meadows still green and flowering, and the high season has not started yet. September is the close second: stable weather, fewer people, larches turning gold in early October.

Mid July to late August is high season everywhere. Famous spots (Lago di Braies, Tre Cime, Seceda) need to be visited at sunrise or in the late afternoon. The wild areas (Bellunesi, Friulane, Brenta) are still mostly empty.

Winter runs from early December to early April for the ski areas, with the best snow conditions usually between mid-January and mid-March. The Sellaronda, Plan de Corones and Cortina are the major circuits. Smaller resorts (Forni di Sopra, Monte Avena, Madonna di Campiglio) are cheaper and less crowded.

November and May are the in-between months: many lifts and mountain huts are closed, the high trails can still have snow, and the valleys are quiet but greyer. Good for a city stop in Bressanone, Belluno or Feltre, less good for the mountains themselves.

How to get there

The Dolomites are well surrounded by airports, but none of them is inside the range.

For the western and central groups (Brenta, Val Gardena, Val di Fassa, Val Pusteria, Puez-Odle): fly to Verona, Innsbruck or Venice. Verona and Innsbruck are connected directly to Bolzano and Bressanone by the Brennero motorway and the Brennero train line. From Bolzano you have buses into every valley.

For Cortina, the Cadore, Belluno and Friuli: fly to Venice (Marco Polo or Treviso). Cortina is reached by direct shuttle bus (Cortina Express, around 2 hours). Belluno is on the train line from Venice via Conegliano. Friuli is best reached via Trieste or Udine airport.

By train the spine is the Brennero line (Verona-Trento-Bolzano-Bressanone-Innsbruck), with branches into Val Pusteria (to San Candido) and into Val di Non. The Belluno side is reached by the Padova-Calalzo line. If you don't want to drive, the best base for car-free travel is Val Gardena or Val Pusteria, both well served by year-round bus networks.

One last thought

If you have one takeaway from this guide, let it be this: skip one of the icons, and spend that day in one of the quieter groups instead. Lago di Braies will be there next year, and the year after, surrounded by the same crowd. The valleys of the Bellunesi, the Pala plateau, the Val di San Lucano, the turquoise pools of Tramontina, the masi of Val di Funes in autumn: these are the places that still feel like the Dolomites used to, and they need visitors who care, not visitors who only stop for a photo.

The mountains are changing fast. The glaciers, the seasons, the villages. The best thing you can do for them is to slow down, stay one extra night, eat where the locals eat, and walk a trail that nobody told you to walk.

That, in the end, is why I wrote this.