Val Gardena & Alpe di Siusi Guided Hiking Adventure

Your Dolomites adventure begins when you arrive in Val Gardena and check into your base camp hotel. There are three possible starting points, depending on availability, each with its own character. Ortisei is the valley’s main hub, a lively town with shops, restaurants, and a vibrant town center where you can soak up the local atmosphere. Santa Cristina sits quietly between its neighbors, offering an intimate village feel with stunning mountain views. Selva, positioned at the valley’s head, delivers pure alpine ambiance and immediate access to mountain trails.

Take this day to relax, explore your surroundings, and meet your guide for a tour briefing. The mountains are calling, and tomorrow you’ll answer.

Accommodation: 3-star hotel in Val Gardena

The real adventure begins as you ascend to Alpe di Siusi, Europe’s largest high-alpine pasture stretching across 56 square kilometers of rolling meadows at 2,000 meters elevation. This isn’t just big, it’s breathtaking. For over a thousand years, local farmers have brought their cattle here each summer to graze, maintaining traditions that shaped this remarkable landscape.

As you hike across this vast plateau, the Sciliar massif dominates the southern horizon. Its distinctive profile, crowned by the Santner and Euringer towers, has become South Tyrol’s most recognizable symbol. The trail is gentle but engaging, allowing you to drink in panoramic views that shift with every step. To the east, the Odle spires create a jagged skyline. To the south, the Rosengarten massif glows pink in the afternoon light.

Your destination is a mountain hut perched perfectly for sunset viewing. As evening falls and alpenglow sets the Rosengarten ablaze in shades of rose and gold, you’ll understand why this phenomenon has inspired legends for centuries. Dinner is served communal-style, where hikers from around the world share stories over hearty South Tyrolean cuisine.

Hiking: 13 km | ↑820m ↓370m | 5 hours
Accommodation: Mountain hut with dormitory-style rooms

Wake early for one of the tour’s most rewarding moments. A short but invigorating 100-meter climb from the hut brings you to Monte Pez, the highest point of the Sciliar massif at 2,563 meters. In the crisp morning air, when visibility is at its peak, you’ll enjoy an unobstructed 360-degree panorama. The entire Alpe di Siusi spreads below you like a green carpet, while Dolomite giants surround you in every direction. This is the view that graces a thousand postcards, but experiencing it in person, with the wind on your face and achievement in your heart, is entirely different.

Today’s trail leads you across the high plateau of the Sciliar massif, a landscape that feels otherworldly in its stark beauty. You’ll skirt the northern edge of the Antermoia group, a remote and rarely visited area that locals call the “Lost World.” The contrast is striking as you descend toward the Sassolungo group, where the trail brings you to another excellently positioned mountain hut at the foot of these dramatic rock towers.

From your evening vantage point, the chain of peaks surrounding Val di Fassa unfolds before you. If conditions are clear, you’ll spot the Marmolada, the Dolomites’ highest peak, its famous vertical north face gleaming white even in summer. As sunset approaches, watch how the light transforms the Sassolungo towers into silent watchmen against the darkening sky.

Hiking: 13 km | ↑500m ↓630m | 5 hours
Accommodation: Mountain hut with dormitory-style rooms

Your final day on the trail takes you on a scenic circuit around the Sassolungo group, one of the Dolomites’ most imposing massifs. This is a relatively gentle day in terms of elevation change, allowing you to focus on the constantly evolving scenery. The trail winds through high meadows and across rocky sections, each turn revealing new perspectives on these ancient mountains.

Looking back, you’ll see the Alpe di Siusi from an entirely new angle, appreciating just how far you’ve traveled. Ahead, the Sella group rises in a massive block, while the needle-like peaks of the Puez-Odle group create a dramatic backdrop to the north. For those seeking an extra challenge, an optional higher route climbs to 2,700 meters, offering even more spectacular views of the Sella massif.

Your destination is Passo Sella, one of the major mountain passes connecting Val Gardena to Val di Fassa. Once a formidable obstacle for medieval traders, this pass is now a crossroads of hiking and cycling routes. As you descend toward the pass, civilization gradually reappears, but the sense of accomplishment from your three-day mountain journey remains strong. From here, transportation returns you to your base camp hotel, where a hot shower and comfortable bed await.

Hiking: 10 km | ↑360m ↓490m | 5 hours
Accommodation: 3-star hotel in Val Gardena

Your Val Gardena adventure concludes this morning. After breakfast, you’re free to depart at your leisure or extend your stay to explore more of what this remarkable valley offers.

Want to dive even deeper into Val Gardena’s mountain paradise? Our extended tours add one or two spectacular day hikes from your comfortable base camp hotel, focusing on the magnificent Puez-Odle group. These are true base camp style days, meaning you’ll return to your hotel each evening with your luggage already waiting.

You can choose from either or both days:
Extra day option 1: Your hike ventures through the legendary Seceda region, home to some of the most photographed mountain scenery in all the Dolomites. Here, the Odle spires rise like a natural cathedral, their distinctive needle-like peaks creating a skyline that photographers and hikers travel across the world to witness.

Extra day option 2: This route explores the wild Vallunga gorge, a pristine valley cutting deep into the Puez-Odle highlands, where you’ll feel truly immersed in untouched alpine wilderness.

Both routes match the challenge level of the main hut-to-hut trek, offering the same rewarding mix of physical engagement and stunning scenery. These extensions are perfect for hikers who simply can’t get enough of Val Gardena’s magic and want to explore beyond the classic circuit. You’ll experience the best of both worlds – the adventure of mountain hiking combined with the comfort of returning to the same cozy hotel each evening.