A Weekend in the Dolomites

The long weekend in June was spent with my little family in my favorite place, The Dolomites. This was our “Second Annual Mallory Family Reunion” and consisted of my husband, my dog, and myself. I fell in love with the Dolomites last year and was so excited to get back in the mountains during summer.

Where to Stay

Badia, Alta Badia

Badia is the perfect location for hiking Armentara Meadows and nearby several other chairlifts and cable cars. I absolutely loved staying in this little mountain town with the most amazing views.

We stayed at Hotel Badia Hill and cannot recommend it

enough. There is a rooftop infinity pool with panoramic views, a relaxing spa area, very modern rooms, and stunning mountain views from bed. The food was amazing and they really catered to our pup, Gunnar. When we sat down for dinner the staff brought out a huge fluffy dog bed and big bowl of water so our dog would be comfortable. The only reason the rating went down was that there are no services (massage & facial) offered and we like to indulge in a treatment after a long weekend of hiking or skiing.

Hotel Rating- Mary: 9.0/10

Cortina d’Ampezzo

Cortina is a very popular town where some events of the 2026 Winter Olympics will be held. There are many high end shops, restaurants, and walking streets to explore.

Our favorite hotel option in Cortina is the beautiful luxury Hotel de Len. Last June we stayed at Hotel de Len and loved the beautiful spa area, views of the mountains, and proximity to the town center of Cortina. The breakfast was incredibly and the hospitality was above and beyond.

Hotel Rating- Mary: 8.9/10

Where to Hike

Tre Cime

Distance: 10.3km/ 6.4 miles

Time: 3.5-4 hours based on stops for snacks, pictures, or pup swimming

Difficulty: Easy to Medium

Elevation: +/- 400 meters/ 1,312 feet

Distance from Sacile: 2 hours 15 minutes via car

Distance from Cortina d’Ampezzo: 40 minutes via car

Tre Cime is a very popular circular hike around three iconic peaks in the Dolomites. We took the Tre Cime Toll Road which cost 30 euro per car and parked at Rifugio Auronzo. We began hiking around 10:00am and would absolutely recommend starting earlier because there were so many people on the trail it took away from the hike a bit. The views were incredible and the trail is very easy to follow making it a great starter hike in the Dolomites. There was still a bit of leftover snow on the ground but the weather overall was nice. It was about 59 degrees but the sunshine made it feel warmer. When we stopped for a snack the wind picked up and was a bit cold but luckily we packed jackets.

According to several blogs the best spot to eat along the hike is around the halfway point at Rifugio Locatelli. Unfortunately on June 16 the Rifugio hadn’t opened for the season. I always travel with snacks to avoid situations of “hanger” and my friends have named me the snack queen. We stopped at Malga Langalm for a beer and a crumble cake and soaked up the sunshine.

Armentara Meadows

Distance: 8.3km/5.2 miles

Time: 2.5-3 hours based

Difficulty: Easy to Medium

Elevation: +292m/958 ft -513m/1683 ft

Distance from Sacile: 2 hours 35 minutes via car

Distance from Cortina d’Ampezzo: 50 minutes via car

I loved this one so much, it reminded me of Alpe di Siusi which we strolled around last year.The meadows are located on the Armentara Plateau in Alta Badia. We took the cableway to the top and Gunnar went on his first chairlift, the cost was 25 euro roundtrip for one person and free for dogs. We took the La Crusc 1 chairlift then the La Crusc 2 cablecar to the top. After doing absolutely no hiking we decided to reward ourselves at Rifugio Santa Croce with a beer and macchiato.

Finally we started on our way towards Ranch da André Refuge for lunch. It took us a little about an hour to arrive because we didn’t follow the main trail which would have been a bit faster. Nolan and I both ordered pasta for lunch and loved the delicious giant portions while admiring the beautiful mountain views with cows and goats.

Rating- Mary: 8.5/10 Nolan: 8.0/10

Since we bought roundtrip tickets on the cableway we chose to hike to the middle of the cableway where the two meet so we could take La Crusc 1 down to the bottom. If you choose to hike all the way to the bottom it takes around the same amount of time. The blog MoonHoneyTravel.com has a great post about hiking to the bottom along with amazing insight to so many other hikes in the Dolomites. It took us about an 1.5 hours to reach the chairlift and we were exhausted because the last 30 minutes was completely uphill.

Cinque Torri

Distance: *I don’t have my stats from last year but it was probably around 5-6 miles

Time: ~3.5 hours

Difficulty: Medium

Distance from Sacile: 2 hours 5 minutes via car

Distance from Cortina d’Ampezzo: 21 minutes via car

This year we opted for a short leisurely loop to get some movement before heading home but last year we did a really great hike. Both times we visited Cinque Torri we parked at Passo Falzarego 3 parking near Baita Bai de Dones. Since we knew Gunnar could take the chairlift we bought roundtrip tickets for the chairlift which cost 23 euro per person and dogs are free. We walked around less than an hour then stopped at our favorite lunch spot, Rifugio Scoiattoli. We both ordered the Tris and it was as good as we remembered from last year.

Rating- Mary: 9.0/10 Nolan: 9.5/10 (If the bread was a bit more fresh it would have been a 10)

The Cinque Torri hike we completed last year also started at Passo Falzarego 3 parking lot and hiked to Rifugio 5 Torri where we soaked up the views and rested for a little. There were some small rocks we had to climb over but there weren’t too many and our medium sized dog hiked them easily. From there we hiked to Rifugio Scoiattoli where we had lunch. Then we opted to hike straight down to the parking lot although if we knew our pup could join us on the chairlift we would have just taken it down.

Where to Eat

We had breakfast at the hotel, lunch at the Rifugios listed above, and dinner at the hotel. One night we ventured to Corovara and had dinner at Adlerkeller. We really liked the food and I would highly recommend the sampler plate. The staff was really kind to our dog and I loved that they were dressed in dirndls and lederhosen too.

Rating- Mary: 8.4/10 Nolan: 8.1/10

Full YouTube Vlog Coming Soon!

In the meantime check out our Dolomites Adventures from last year below