Planning Our 10-Day Dolomites Trip
The Dolomites had always been at the top of our travel list since we’re big nature and hiking lovers.
Kevin is an experienced trekker, having completed the Mount Everest Base Camp trek and other multi-day hut-to-hut hikes. On the other hand, my experience is a bit more limited — the longest multi-day trek I’ve done was a two-day hike at Mount Toubkal, and I once did a bullet climb of Mount Fuji. The rest of my hiking adventures have been limited to day hikes.
With that in mind, we decided to tackle the Alta Via 1 (AV1) route, which is considered the most beginner-friendly of the Dolomites’ iconic treks.
Cadini di Misurina
Choosing Our Route
The big question was how to best use our 10 days. Should we attempt the entire Alta Via 1 and risk missing out on famous tourist day hikes like Tre Cime and Misurina? Or should we do half of the AV1 and leave time to explore the day hikes as well?
We ultimately chose the latter — we couldn’t resist those stunning day hikes, and we felt that if we didn’t visit them now, we’d have to come back soon!
How to Split Our Time
Next, we had to decide how many days to dedicate to the hut-to-hut portion of the trek and how many days for day hikes. The biggest factor that would influence our itinerary was hut availability.
Fortunately, the first half of the Alta Via 1 covers a few iconic locations like Lago di Braies, Cinque Torri, and Passo Giau, so we opted to focus on this section if we could secure hut accommodations.
That left us with enough time to explore other famous day hikes like Tre Cime, Seceda, Alpe di Siusi, and Misurina.
Ultimately, we settled on a 5-day hut-to-hut trek followed by 3 days of day hikes, plus 2 days for travel to and from Venice (our arrival city).
Cadini di Misurina
Our 10-Day Itinerary in the Dolomites
Day 1: Arrival in Venice
• Explore Venice for the afternoon/evening.
Day 2: Pick Up Rental Car and Drive to the Dolomites
• 2.5-hour drive from Venice
• Attraction: St. Maddalena.
Day 3: Val Gardena Day
• Buy a cable car pass.
• Activity: Paragliding.
• Attraction: Alpe di Siusi, Seceda.
Day 4: Lago di Misurina Hike
• Drive to Lago di Misurina Car Park.
• Hike around the area.
Day 5: Tre Cime di Lavaredo Hike
• Drive to Tre Cime di Lavaredo Car Park.
• Hike the iconic Tre Cime route and Cadini di Misurina Viewpoint.
Day 6-10: Alta Via 1 Hut-to-Hut Trek
We started from Cortina and parked our car at the free parking (map here) and walked to the bus station (map) and took bus 445 and bus 442 to Lago di Braies.
• Starting Point: Lago di Braies.
• Ending Point: Cortina.
• Huts Stayed At:
• Day 1: Rifugio Pederü.
• Day 2: Rifugio Scotoni.
• Day 3: Rifugio Cinque Torri or Rifugio Nuvolau.
• Day 4: Rifugio Croda da Lago
• Day 5: Hike back to Cortina, then drive to Venice.
Check out our 5-day hut to hut trek map on Alltrails here. (Use my code: vivchow30 for 30% off on Alltrails+ to get access to offline maps and real-time GPS tracking.)
