Shorter Walks in the Dolomites: 50 varied day walks in the mountains

by Gillian Price

A popular guidebook to short walks in the Dolomites of north east Italy. The guide describes 50 walks, graded from easy to strenuous, and varying in length from 5 km strolls to 20km full-day expeditions. The Dolomites are suitable for summer walking, and the mountains are easily accessible, just across the border from Austria and easily reached from Verona, Treviso, Venice and Innsbruck airports.
The Dolomites are blessed with vast forests, high-altitude rocky landscapes and seas of beautiful wildflowers and the range is now a designated Unesco World Heritage Site encompassing a national park - Parco Nazionale Dolomiti Bellunesi - and several other protected areas. Highlights include the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, the Civetta, the Piz Boè circuit on the Sella massif and the Sentiero delle Odle. This guide offers something for every walking ability and preference, and includes all the background and planning information you need to plan a trip, including an Italian-German-English glossary and a list of accommodation providers and websites and details of all rifugios on or near the routes.

Genres: Travel

435 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 13, 2012

Reviews

[Aaron Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, if you're going to be near Venice or Verona, Italy---and you love the outdoors, you have to seriously consider spending some time in the Dolomites. Though the Eastern Alps have world class climbs, hikes and ski resorts, the place is not on the map for the vast majority of North Americans. Nuff said.

This is a fairly comprehensive guide book for someone planning a trip to the Dolomites and Eastern Alps. Gullian Price outlines dozens of hikes for all different levels of difficulty. There is something for everyone: Hikes to castles, glaciers, alpine meadows and lakes---you name it.

The guide book also outlines the "rifugio's" (accommodations and food found along the trails) and their contact information that can be found on each hike, in case you want to eat a meal or stay the night. The book is compact enough to throw in your daypack, though I would get a good map of whatever region of the Dolomites you are hiking in.

My 2 main complaints:
1. I really wish she rated each hike, or at least had a "best of" for some different categories (like regional hikes, best refuges/rifugios, best high alpine, etc). I know it's kind of like asking someone which kid they love the most, but it would really be helpful.

2. The compact size makes it challenging to have a decent map.

[Jim]

Great little guidebook to walls in the Dolomites.