Five friends and I recently spent ten days in the Dolomites. We were a mixed group of cross-country and alpine skiers, weighted more toward xc. For this reason I will cross-post a link to this report in the nordic forum.
My intent here is to provide stoke and also some insight into the logistics involved. Props to "Venmo Groups," which has simplified expense tracking and sharing hugely, especially for the designated accountant.
If you just want to look at pictures they're at the bottom of the post.
At a high level, our itinerary was to spend two thirds of our stay in Ortisei, one of the three villages that comprise Val Gardena. For the last last third we would travel closer to the Austrian border in Dobbiaco, in the Val Pusterina, which is known for its nordic skiing, including hosting World Cup and Tour de Ski competitions. The start / finish arena was right outside our hotel window, as seen here:
Some Travel Details
All of us live in southern Maine, in Portland and a bit north. Early in the summertime planning process we decided to book a nonstop flight from Boston to Munich on Lufthansa. We could have flown to Venice, or to Innsbruck, which is quite close to our destination. Neither destination had nonstop flights, and Venice had expensive car rentals. Departures from Portland, though very convenient, proved impracticable.
Notwithstanding a ground crew strike in Europe that forced us to stay an extra day, and notwithstanding a de-icing screw-up on the part of Logan Airport operations, the airline itself executed well in terms of getting us and our 8 checked bags to our destinations without undue delay or discomfort. The two palatable "free" meals each way - including a drink! - were a welcome change from domestic flights. On the down side, Lufthansa's website and smartphone app are buggy and painful to use.
We did have a hell of a time getting consistent answers and behaviors from the airline on the subject of ski bag charges and limitations, as discussed last summer in these pages. Our party of six had two ski bags among us, with three pairs of xc skis, boots, and poles in each. (Alpine skiers rented at our destination, about which more later.) So the bags were light. Officially, it appears that Lufthansa charges 230 dollars per ski bag, never mind that brand-mate airlines Swissair and Austrian Air - notably served by the same luggage and customer service offices and staff at the airports - do not charge more for ski bags than for any other checked suitcase within weight limits.
In the event neither of the two parties was charged at all for its ski bag on the outbound flight from Boston. Woo hoo. On the return flight we were checking bags simultaneously at two adjacent counters in Munich. Of course a bunch of other people in the line also had ski bags. Clearly ski luggage is not an unknown phenomenon at this alpine hub. Whaddaya know?
Our friends' ski bag again went for free, no questions asked. After a 15 minute wait for staff to figure out what to do, because they had never seen one before, our bag was assessed a 200 Euro fee. Then we were told that we couldn't pay the fee there at the counter, "because the system wasn't working." "You must go to the baggage service office to pay the surcharge." I was all for blowing that off, for obvious reasons. (They had accepted our bag, and we had the luggage receipt.) Wendy, being more of a rule-follower, went to the ironically named baggage service office and found a huge DMV-style "wait for your number to be called" line. The rest of us chorused: "Forget it. Let's go."
At the gate, Wendy was paged. "You haven't paid your luggage surcharge." Oh no. Here we go. Wendy waited and stared at them. Finally they said, "Unfortunately our system is not working properly, so we can't take your payment right now. Therefore proceed in Proper Bavarian Guilt." Or words to that effect. That was the end of it.
WTF??? My conclusion is that they have a written policy that their software doesn't and never has supported. (Probably it is shared with Swissair and Austrian Air!) Their experienced staff all know this and ignore the policy as a matter of course. However, newer staff, and staff that you get on the phone - as we found on multiple occasions - are obliged to quote the official policy chapter and verse. No one dares tell them not to; they have to learn this on their own, with a wink and a nudge from colleagues. For someone like me, with a low tolerance for ambiguity, this situation sets my hair on fire. Fortunately in the end it was a very cheap fire!
We rented two VW Tiguans from Europcar to get ourselves and our gear from Munich to Ortisei, Val Gardena. The cars came with nice looking snow tires! Apparently this is German law, and is one reason we decided to fly to Munich rather than to Venice. We didn't use the cars as much as we thought we would while in Italy, and unfortunately we didn't need the snow tires. With only a couple of exceptions, we only used the VWs to get from Ortisei to Dobbiaco. If we had to do this again, we would re-assess that part of the plan and see if we could make do with other transport modes.
At the Munich airport, on arrival, jet lagged but euphoric, we had lunch at Airbräu, recommended by ... someone here, I think. Good food. Slow service. It didn't matter. Killer weissbier, presaging every weizen I had on the trip. Augustiner was probably the best, but they were all yummy. The drive from Munich to Ortisei is scenic, but also requires some juggling of toll fees and "vignettes." The route goes right by Innsbruck, but we were not in a position to stop. If you are as tired as we were, the last 20 minutes of the drive up into the Val Gardena is a little trying, with narrow roads clinging to precipices, and sharp hairpins.
Some Lodging Details
After a long and unsatisfying search for American-style condo lodgings for six, we decided to float with the current and book "half board" hotel rooms. This means "includes breakfast and dinner" in Euro-ese. So it's more like "two thirds board." This turned out to be a good decision. We were pampered and fed in a way that allowed for real relaxation. No emergency trips to the grocery store for toilet paper or another carton of milk. No dishes. No allocation of chores.
It might have been different, but we lucked into superb accommodations and service at the Hotel Digon (https://www.hoteldigon.com/en/), which is owned and run by two generations of the Stuflesser family. The place is spotless, all the staff are skilled and cheerful - jokey, even - and the food and wine are excellent. Wendy, a cold-drink-loving American, had a nightly schtick going with Armando the bartender, apparently based on some Vanilla Ice track which they both knew. "Ice, ice, baby, ice." The place has just the right level of pampering without ever making you feel self-conscious about excessive luxury. The quality and extent of the breakfast buffet at this three star place would embarrass five star name-brand hotels in the states.
The Digon is not within easy walking distance of skiing, though you can walk into town easily on a day off, without gear. However, a van runs all morning back and forth to the lifts. Also, one of the local bus routes stops right at the hotel, when the van isn't running. A free bus pass is included with your stay. The up side of the location is that it is quiet and beautiful.
Ortisei is a real town. A touristy one, to be sure, but also one with auto mechanics and a clinic and a laundromat and real people. Many of the shops appear to be mom-and-pop operations, as are most of the lodging and eating establishments. Walking the streets on a rest day is very peaceful. I bought a more or less locally-made souvenir.
The predominant language in the region is German, with Italian not far behind. This is, after all, the South Tyrol, once part of Austria.
Alpine Skiing
The skiing. Well, I don't have much to tell you about the alpine skiing that others here like Primoz and Chiezz have not already said. And of course we were only there for one arbitrary 10 day spell.
The options for far-flung navigation on one modern lift after another are mind-boggling. The scenery at every turn is insane - so much so that I found myself having to ignore it after a while so as not to hit anyone, in my trance state. Similarly the options for on-hill snacking, dining, drinking, and sunbathing are overwhelming and almost all very good and very affordable. Most have table service if you want it. Tony's mandatory afternoon coffee and pastry were never hard to find. Basically it's just a matter of waiting 'til you find a place that looks cozy and sunny, then wading in.
But as for the skiing itself ... honestly if you were to put blinders on so you could only see the snow and the other skiers, the whole place could have been a giant Loon or Okemo or Sunday River. The runs were consistently crowded (although the liftlines were mostly short), with no obvious "slow" day. The snow was nicely groomed in the morning but quickly became push piles with lanes of boilerplate. Interestingly, skiers much preferred the boilerplate to the push piles! Similarly, our guide on one day kept insisting that we seek out the shady runs so as not to hit any soft snow. Heaven forfend!
Not a real mogul or a real glade or a real bowl was skiable during our time there. (Not enough natural snow, and what there was was many-times refrozen and unskied.) The kind of arc-to-arc skiing I like to do on wide groomers was not really practicable much of the time, due to the population density. Not even SL turns. There. I've said it.
The Sella Ronda. We didn't quite manage the full circuit from Ortisei. One of our party didn't have the stamina, so we called it at Selva and took the bus home. Meh. Sensory overload. Better to just explore one area at a time and give it a chance to sink in.
My favorite areas for alpine were the big broad slope on the Seceda above Ortisei, and the assortment of hero-pitch cruisers below the top of the Piz Sella cable car and over near the Sella pass. There were enough of them that you could usually find a wide, open lane to channel your inner Marco. Views are great. The problem with the looonnnng runs down into the valleys is that the lower you go, the more crowded they get. It's the funnel effect. Yuck. Save them for the end of the day.
But meanwhile do scroll down and look at some of the views. They were worth the trip by themselves.
Nordic Skiing
By contrast, the cross-country skiing, though slightly limited by lack of snow in the low valleys*, was wonderful. Everything you could want in terms of variety, trail layout, scenery, grooming, snow quality, and of course PLACES TO EAT.
*Wendy and Rachel had planned to participate in the Dobbiaco to Cortina race, but backed out when the course was shortened radically due to lack of snow in Cortina.
My favorite ski touring locale was up on the "Seiser Alm," which is a huge high plateau, lower in the middle and high toward the edges, like a deep platter. To get there from Ortisei, you take a gondola up to the rim. At that point you could probably ski down a blue run on xc skis if conditions were good. We just downloaded into the bowl on a chairlift frequently used for that purpose. On the way down you can look at the donkeys, alpacas, and sheep in the farmyard below. Once there were a bunch of deer mixed in. We figured they were "just visiting."
In clear weather, like we mostly had, the scenery there comprises 360* of wow. The frosting on the cake was the strudel at Hotel Sonne afterward, overlooking the wow. We became strudel critics during the trip, and this was the consensus winner. Illustration follows. It's pretty graphic. Don't faint.
Some breakfast food highlights from the two hotels, in no particular order:
Random things that struck this American.
Ski rentals. Here in the States, if you want to rent a really good pair of skis you generally have to "demo" them. Often there is an implicit or explicit assumption that you have an intention to buy, especially at smaller less cosmopolitan resorts. In the Dolomites, every rental shop has top end skis that appear to be in good shape. (The fine points of tuning are another matter.) Also the prices for renting these skis are lower.
What you WON'T find are many skis wider than 80mm. It's true. It's a world of groomer skis, with a smattering of wide AT gear in use only by the Young Adventurers.
Automatic sliding pocket doors. They're everywhere. Makes so much sense.
Staffing. In general, service in places like cafes, restaurants, ski shops, ticket windows, etc. was good. The pervasive understaffing we see here was not evident to me as a tourist. Moreover the attitudes of both customers and staff were better. This was a HUGE unexpected upside to our trip. (I've gotten to the point that I'm very negative about going out to restaurants here in the States. For one thing, you never know when one is simply going to be closed without notice.)
Saunas, yes; hot tubs, no. I like a hot tub after skiing. Didn't get anything exactly like that. Plenty of sauna opportunities, though, especially at our second hotel, in Dobbiaco, the Santer. They were a great second-best. (I chose to pass on the salt sauna, the infrared sauna, and the "hay bath." The "panorama" sauna, on the other hand, was neat. Giant picture window view of the mountains, discretely positioned so that folks outside were unlikely to be hanging out nearby.) If you are self-conscious about nudity, stay out. Management is strict about this. No bathing suits. Don't forget to drink a lot of water along the way or you will arrive at dinner in such a thick fog of well being that you will not appreciate the wine and food.
Ambient TV, radio, and the general electronic blare of 21st century civilization. There is much less of it. Thank. God.
Prices for food and drink consumed "out." They are low. See the wine thread for more detail.
"Let's get this trip started!"
Click on the thumbnails for higher-res images.
grappa
Vernatsch, a.k.a. Schiava ... gone.
The Sasso Piatte, from Seiser Alm
Our Sella Ronda crew
Seiser Alm
Compatsch
Dan in the Vallunga, above Selva
Ortisei
Dobbiaco / Toblach World Cup Venue
A door in San Candido
Dobbiaco
Seiser Alm
grappa consultation
Wood carving is a regional specialty and point of pride. This is in Saltria.
Exquisite Lagrein
Herself, outside Cortina
at the breakfast bar
This is very cool. You get off the train here - I took it from Dobbiaco - and get DIRECTLY onto the Kronplatz lift system less than 50 feet from the platform.
Kronplatz summit
'Splorin'
My intent here is to provide stoke and also some insight into the logistics involved. Props to "Venmo Groups," which has simplified expense tracking and sharing hugely, especially for the designated accountant.
If you just want to look at pictures they're at the bottom of the post.
At a high level, our itinerary was to spend two thirds of our stay in Ortisei, one of the three villages that comprise Val Gardena. For the last last third we would travel closer to the Austrian border in Dobbiaco, in the Val Pusterina, which is known for its nordic skiing, including hosting World Cup and Tour de Ski competitions. The start / finish arena was right outside our hotel window, as seen here:
Some Travel Details
All of us live in southern Maine, in Portland and a bit north. Early in the summertime planning process we decided to book a nonstop flight from Boston to Munich on Lufthansa. We could have flown to Venice, or to Innsbruck, which is quite close to our destination. Neither destination had nonstop flights, and Venice had expensive car rentals. Departures from Portland, though very convenient, proved impracticable.
Notwithstanding a ground crew strike in Europe that forced us to stay an extra day, and notwithstanding a de-icing screw-up on the part of Logan Airport operations, the airline itself executed well in terms of getting us and our 8 checked bags to our destinations without undue delay or discomfort. The two palatable "free" meals each way - including a drink! - were a welcome change from domestic flights. On the down side, Lufthansa's website and smartphone app are buggy and painful to use.
We did have a hell of a time getting consistent answers and behaviors from the airline on the subject of ski bag charges and limitations, as discussed last summer in these pages. Our party of six had two ski bags among us, with three pairs of xc skis, boots, and poles in each. (Alpine skiers rented at our destination, about which more later.) So the bags were light. Officially, it appears that Lufthansa charges 230 dollars per ski bag, never mind that brand-mate airlines Swissair and Austrian Air - notably served by the same luggage and customer service offices and staff at the airports - do not charge more for ski bags than for any other checked suitcase within weight limits.
In the event neither of the two parties was charged at all for its ski bag on the outbound flight from Boston. Woo hoo. On the return flight we were checking bags simultaneously at two adjacent counters in Munich. Of course a bunch of other people in the line also had ski bags. Clearly ski luggage is not an unknown phenomenon at this alpine hub. Whaddaya know?
Our friends' ski bag again went for free, no questions asked. After a 15 minute wait for staff to figure out what to do, because they had never seen one before, our bag was assessed a 200 Euro fee. Then we were told that we couldn't pay the fee there at the counter, "because the system wasn't working." "You must go to the baggage service office to pay the surcharge." I was all for blowing that off, for obvious reasons. (They had accepted our bag, and we had the luggage receipt.) Wendy, being more of a rule-follower, went to the ironically named baggage service office and found a huge DMV-style "wait for your number to be called" line. The rest of us chorused: "Forget it. Let's go."
At the gate, Wendy was paged. "You haven't paid your luggage surcharge." Oh no. Here we go. Wendy waited and stared at them. Finally they said, "Unfortunately our system is not working properly, so we can't take your payment right now. Therefore proceed in Proper Bavarian Guilt." Or words to that effect. That was the end of it.
WTF??? My conclusion is that they have a written policy that their software doesn't and never has supported. (Probably it is shared with Swissair and Austrian Air!) Their experienced staff all know this and ignore the policy as a matter of course. However, newer staff, and staff that you get on the phone - as we found on multiple occasions - are obliged to quote the official policy chapter and verse. No one dares tell them not to; they have to learn this on their own, with a wink and a nudge from colleagues. For someone like me, with a low tolerance for ambiguity, this situation sets my hair on fire. Fortunately in the end it was a very cheap fire!
We rented two VW Tiguans from Europcar to get ourselves and our gear from Munich to Ortisei, Val Gardena. The cars came with nice looking snow tires! Apparently this is German law, and is one reason we decided to fly to Munich rather than to Venice. We didn't use the cars as much as we thought we would while in Italy, and unfortunately we didn't need the snow tires. With only a couple of exceptions, we only used the VWs to get from Ortisei to Dobbiaco. If we had to do this again, we would re-assess that part of the plan and see if we could make do with other transport modes.
At the Munich airport, on arrival, jet lagged but euphoric, we had lunch at Airbräu, recommended by ... someone here, I think. Good food. Slow service. It didn't matter. Killer weissbier, presaging every weizen I had on the trip. Augustiner was probably the best, but they were all yummy. The drive from Munich to Ortisei is scenic, but also requires some juggling of toll fees and "vignettes." The route goes right by Innsbruck, but we were not in a position to stop. If you are as tired as we were, the last 20 minutes of the drive up into the Val Gardena is a little trying, with narrow roads clinging to precipices, and sharp hairpins.
Some Lodging Details
After a long and unsatisfying search for American-style condo lodgings for six, we decided to float with the current and book "half board" hotel rooms. This means "includes breakfast and dinner" in Euro-ese. So it's more like "two thirds board." This turned out to be a good decision. We were pampered and fed in a way that allowed for real relaxation. No emergency trips to the grocery store for toilet paper or another carton of milk. No dishes. No allocation of chores.
It might have been different, but we lucked into superb accommodations and service at the Hotel Digon (https://www.hoteldigon.com/en/), which is owned and run by two generations of the Stuflesser family. The place is spotless, all the staff are skilled and cheerful - jokey, even - and the food and wine are excellent. Wendy, a cold-drink-loving American, had a nightly schtick going with Armando the bartender, apparently based on some Vanilla Ice track which they both knew. "Ice, ice, baby, ice." The place has just the right level of pampering without ever making you feel self-conscious about excessive luxury. The quality and extent of the breakfast buffet at this three star place would embarrass five star name-brand hotels in the states.
The Digon is not within easy walking distance of skiing, though you can walk into town easily on a day off, without gear. However, a van runs all morning back and forth to the lifts. Also, one of the local bus routes stops right at the hotel, when the van isn't running. A free bus pass is included with your stay. The up side of the location is that it is quiet and beautiful.
Ortisei is a real town. A touristy one, to be sure, but also one with auto mechanics and a clinic and a laundromat and real people. Many of the shops appear to be mom-and-pop operations, as are most of the lodging and eating establishments. Walking the streets on a rest day is very peaceful. I bought a more or less locally-made souvenir.
The predominant language in the region is German, with Italian not far behind. This is, after all, the South Tyrol, once part of Austria.
Alpine Skiing
The skiing. Well, I don't have much to tell you about the alpine skiing that others here like Primoz and Chiezz have not already said. And of course we were only there for one arbitrary 10 day spell.
The options for far-flung navigation on one modern lift after another are mind-boggling. The scenery at every turn is insane - so much so that I found myself having to ignore it after a while so as not to hit anyone, in my trance state. Similarly the options for on-hill snacking, dining, drinking, and sunbathing are overwhelming and almost all very good and very affordable. Most have table service if you want it. Tony's mandatory afternoon coffee and pastry were never hard to find. Basically it's just a matter of waiting 'til you find a place that looks cozy and sunny, then wading in.
But as for the skiing itself ... honestly if you were to put blinders on so you could only see the snow and the other skiers, the whole place could have been a giant Loon or Okemo or Sunday River. The runs were consistently crowded (although the liftlines were mostly short), with no obvious "slow" day. The snow was nicely groomed in the morning but quickly became push piles with lanes of boilerplate. Interestingly, skiers much preferred the boilerplate to the push piles! Similarly, our guide on one day kept insisting that we seek out the shady runs so as not to hit any soft snow. Heaven forfend!
Not a real mogul or a real glade or a real bowl was skiable during our time there. (Not enough natural snow, and what there was was many-times refrozen and unskied.) The kind of arc-to-arc skiing I like to do on wide groomers was not really practicable much of the time, due to the population density. Not even SL turns. There. I've said it.
The Sella Ronda. We didn't quite manage the full circuit from Ortisei. One of our party didn't have the stamina, so we called it at Selva and took the bus home. Meh. Sensory overload. Better to just explore one area at a time and give it a chance to sink in.
My favorite areas for alpine were the big broad slope on the Seceda above Ortisei, and the assortment of hero-pitch cruisers below the top of the Piz Sella cable car and over near the Sella pass. There were enough of them that you could usually find a wide, open lane to channel your inner Marco. Views are great. The problem with the looonnnng runs down into the valleys is that the lower you go, the more crowded they get. It's the funnel effect. Yuck. Save them for the end of the day.
But meanwhile do scroll down and look at some of the views. They were worth the trip by themselves.
Nordic Skiing
By contrast, the cross-country skiing, though slightly limited by lack of snow in the low valleys*, was wonderful. Everything you could want in terms of variety, trail layout, scenery, grooming, snow quality, and of course PLACES TO EAT.
*Wendy and Rachel had planned to participate in the Dobbiaco to Cortina race, but backed out when the course was shortened radically due to lack of snow in Cortina.
My favorite ski touring locale was up on the "Seiser Alm," which is a huge high plateau, lower in the middle and high toward the edges, like a deep platter. To get there from Ortisei, you take a gondola up to the rim. At that point you could probably ski down a blue run on xc skis if conditions were good. We just downloaded into the bowl on a chairlift frequently used for that purpose. On the way down you can look at the donkeys, alpacas, and sheep in the farmyard below. Once there were a bunch of deer mixed in. We figured they were "just visiting."
In clear weather, like we mostly had, the scenery there comprises 360* of wow. The frosting on the cake was the strudel at Hotel Sonne afterward, overlooking the wow. We became strudel critics during the trip, and this was the consensus winner. Illustration follows. It's pretty graphic. Don't faint.
Some breakfast food highlights from the two hotels, in no particular order:
- A whole frame of comb honey (seen elsewhere in some post)
- An automatic juicer with a big hopper of fresh blood oranges on top. You just press a button and ... presto, a glass of blood orange juice to die for.
- Six kinds of local ham, all sliced paper thin and arranged like silk neckties at Barney's.
- Overnight muesli with about fifteen kinds of toppings, including "frutta morbida," which sounds scary but actually were perfect shiny dried berries of various exquisite and unfamiliar kinds and colors.
- A pitcher of hot steamed milk at the table.
- Kaiserschmarrn (look it up)
- Adorable little weisswurstl (well before the church bells rang)
- An open bottle of Prosecco on ice. If, you know, you just felt like spiking up your fresh blood orange juice a little.
Random things that struck this American.
Ski rentals. Here in the States, if you want to rent a really good pair of skis you generally have to "demo" them. Often there is an implicit or explicit assumption that you have an intention to buy, especially at smaller less cosmopolitan resorts. In the Dolomites, every rental shop has top end skis that appear to be in good shape. (The fine points of tuning are another matter.) Also the prices for renting these skis are lower.
What you WON'T find are many skis wider than 80mm. It's true. It's a world of groomer skis, with a smattering of wide AT gear in use only by the Young Adventurers.
Automatic sliding pocket doors. They're everywhere. Makes so much sense.
Staffing. In general, service in places like cafes, restaurants, ski shops, ticket windows, etc. was good. The pervasive understaffing we see here was not evident to me as a tourist. Moreover the attitudes of both customers and staff were better. This was a HUGE unexpected upside to our trip. (I've gotten to the point that I'm very negative about going out to restaurants here in the States. For one thing, you never know when one is simply going to be closed without notice.)
Saunas, yes; hot tubs, no. I like a hot tub after skiing. Didn't get anything exactly like that. Plenty of sauna opportunities, though, especially at our second hotel, in Dobbiaco, the Santer. They were a great second-best. (I chose to pass on the salt sauna, the infrared sauna, and the "hay bath." The "panorama" sauna, on the other hand, was neat. Giant picture window view of the mountains, discretely positioned so that folks outside were unlikely to be hanging out nearby.) If you are self-conscious about nudity, stay out. Management is strict about this. No bathing suits. Don't forget to drink a lot of water along the way or you will arrive at dinner in such a thick fog of well being that you will not appreciate the wine and food.
Ambient TV, radio, and the general electronic blare of 21st century civilization. There is much less of it. Thank. God.
Prices for food and drink consumed "out." They are low. See the wine thread for more detail.
"Let's get this trip started!"
Click on the thumbnails for higher-res images.
grappa
Vernatsch, a.k.a. Schiava ... gone.
The Sasso Piatte, from Seiser Alm
Our Sella Ronda crew
Seiser Alm
Compatsch
Dan in the Vallunga, above Selva
Ortisei
Dobbiaco / Toblach World Cup Venue
A door in San Candido
Dobbiaco
Seiser Alm
grappa consultation
Wood carving is a regional specialty and point of pride. This is in Saltria.
Exquisite Lagrein
Herself, outside Cortina
at the breakfast bar
This is very cool. You get off the train here - I took it from Dobbiaco - and get DIRECTLY onto the Kronplatz lift system less than 50 feet from the platform.
Kronplatz summit
'Splorin'
Attachments
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