rustlerski, Sella Ronda is an excellent choice. I'd agree withmurdocgj's suggestion of the Val Gardena valley, since as well as the direct connection to the Sella Ronda at Selva, there is good skiing in the valley itself (there's the Men's World Cup Downhill Sass Long course with its famous "camel bumps" that ends in St Cristina). From St Cristina you can take the lift up the other valley side to the Seceda from where you can take the 10.5km long red run no.2 La Longia down to Ortisei/St Ulrich (all the towns have both Italian and German names, as well as a different third name in the local Ladin language!) . Someone has posted a YouTube video of them skiing La Longia here, note the frozen waterfall by the side of the piste at 6:50!
Ortisei also has a lift on the other side that goes up to the Seiser Alm/Alpe di Siusi plateau which has some quite gentle skiing.
I've stayed in both Selva and Ortisei, and although Selva is directly on the Sella Ronda you might care to consider staying in Ortisei since:
a) Ortisei is undoubtedly the prettiest of the Val Gardena towns
b) It would probably appeal to your non skiers since there are a number of local wood carving shops there, there's an interesting museum about the history and culture of Val Gardena, pedestrians can take the gondola up to the Seiser Alm plateau where there are some nice walks, and it's somewhat closer to Bozen/Bolzano if they fancy a day trip there to see the Iceman (recommended). For the skiers amongst you if you stay in Ortisei and want to get quickly to Selva to do the Sella Ronda you can always take the frequent bus from Ortisei to Selva.
You didn't say whether you were intending using a tour operator or DIY. DIY is very easy, for Val Gardena the most convenient arrival airports are Innsbruck in Austria and Verona in Italy, both of which are served by budget airlines from the UK, and both of which have transfer busses in Winter to Val Gardena run by Terravision. You can find accommodation via http://www.valgardena.it/en/
I only watched 2/3 of the video, but is this run really red? Looked blueish/greenish in many places? Is this typical of IT Dolomites side?
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
The trip is coming up in a few weeks and we are looking forward to it!
We have one full day and night between when our lodging ends in Selva and when we fly home from Munich. Any suggestions of where to spend the time, skiing or otherwise? We will have a car.
Thanks again!
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
rustlerski wrote:
We have one full day and night between when our lodging ends in Selva and when we fly home from Munich. Any suggestions of where to spend the time, skiing or otherwise?
Munich. Plenty to see at lots of different levels (one of the highest levels is the view from the top of Alte Peter church) with museums (traditional and interesting modern ones too) shopping (including Dalmeyers) beer gardens (give the Hofbrauhaus a miss and instead go to the 'brewery tap' for one of the other breweries such as Schneider - get a good basic meal in there in traditional style) or just wander around the market and have a coffee, look at the town hall as an interesting building if that interests you.
Then there is BMW / Olympic gardens / English gardens / Bayern Munich's stadium / etc
If you are flying Lufthansa, see if you can still check in your 'hold baggage' up to 24 hours before your flight so you can wander around with just hand baggage (if you can cope without bottles of liquids etc that would have to be in your hand baggage. Excellent public transport system including a train link direct to the airport
I don't think theres much in distance between Venice and Innsbruck airports, but the approach to Innsbruck is so much nicer and really gets you in the mood. There are plenty of transfer companies, but the one I use is with Moutain Sun, might be worth a look, but I'm sure there are many people with more in-dpeth knowledge on transfers. I do remember raeding htere is a bus transfer from Venice to Selva, so a google search will probabaly give you that. Enjoy Italy, it's so much better than France, and the Dolomites are stunning.