Dolomites, Italy via Backroads
- More about your Oliver Guide: Courtney Leary
- Trip type: Family, Group getaway, Mountains
- Activity level: high
- Ideal length of trip: 5 nights, 6 days
to & from
We took this trip through Backroads, an active travel company based in Northern California, after hearing a lot of amazing things about Backroads travel from friends. Even though we were prepared to be impressed, we were quite blown away by our experience with Backroads from beginning to end.
Their sales team is very knowledgable and will help you select the trip that is right for you. Most trips are group trips although you can arrange for a private trip if your own group is large enough. The sales team will help match you with families with similar aged children if you ask.
Our Backroads trip met at the Venice airport and ended at the train station in Bolzano. We allowed for one night in Venice before embarking on our Backroads trip but if I would start out with a few nights in Venice or at a close by beach town to get over jet lag. We stayed in Venice proper and took a water taxi in and out of the city. This is a treat however it is not cheap and takes a bit of time (an hour or so depending on where your hotel is) so be prepared.
Once you begin your trip with Backroads, they manage all of the logistics so all you need to do is get up and GO. We found this especially to be a treat in an foreign country.
Make sure you carry-on all of your essentials as you will not want to be running around Venice trying to find bike shorts.
Where to Stay
The Backroads Dolomites trip we took was premier and casual hotels. We loved our first two hotels, Hotel Cristallo and Hotel Ciasa Salares, but the last one, Romantik Hotel Turm, was the most casual and though the town was delightful we did not love our room. True to Backroads’ commitment to excellence, they have already replaced Hotel Turm with Hotel Emmy which looks like a much nicer set up.
In all hotels, Backroads was able to arrange a “triple” for our three children. All triples were large, all of our kids had their own beds and the first two were very pretty rooms. The kids felt as spoiled as we did.
Backroads handles most of the check-in/check-out and our luggage was usually in our room by the time we got to the hotel.