Tre Cime di Lavaredo — Attraction in Auronzo di Cadore

What to know before deciding on doing this hike:

Firstly the getting there; if you want to drive all the way to the hike you have to pre-book a space, we were here at the beginning of July and there were no available spaces for the entirety of our 4 night stay, so book well in advance. If no parks are available at the top DO NOT drive to the base carpark with the aim of taking the bus up; this is the last stop of a public line before the toll road, as such only a handful of people are able to get on at this point meaning that you will literally be waiting for 2-4hours. Again, we were there early in the season, after waiting for an hour and advancing maybe 20 people with two buses, we decided to drive back to get on the bus at an earlier stop by the lake. This saved us probably an hour of additional waiting, but if we had done this from the start we would have been on the mountain 2.5-3 hours sooner. So if you have a car and want to drive then simply follow this plan.

The hike itself; we did the main loop hike as a storm was expected in the afternoon and we had already wasted over 3 hours of our planned hiking time just getting to the hike. I highly recommend doing this loop anticlockwise, the main reason for this is that there is quite a steep incline section, if you went clockwise this would be downhill, it would basically be straight down (no switchbacks) and gravel, not fun. The hike is very popular and very busy especially at the beginning, but it does somewhat spread out after an hour or so.

In conclusion; I have hiked in many beautiful regions of the world plus other areas of the Dolomites, and I can say that this hike does have some stunning sections. I am however somewhat baffled by its main drawcard, which was really nothing special, and I found the hike itself largely boring. 2 stars for the natural beauty that it does still have, minus stars for popularity (so busy), ridiculousness of getting to the hike and sorry to say but it's just boring...

Straight to the point (my opinion) - If you are able to, walk there.

I spent ages looking at how to do this hike, parking at the bottom, parking at the top, getting there for 4am or 5pm... Finally, after reading lots of reviews, I decided to get there when we were ready to and not pressure ourselves with the view to hiking from the bottom. We arrived around 10.30am and managed to park long the road just before the lake and hiked there. (See picture) Parking was mental and watching cars trying to drive there was the same especially when they had shut the road to get there by the time we arrived, it was one huge carpark and knowing they were also paying a minimum of 30 euro each to be sat in line for hours before even getting there was mad. I think the only option at this point Is by bus but you still have to try and park.

It's a beautiful scenic hike there, approx 4 miles, obviously uphill sections but take your time and enjoy it. Once there, we went to the Misurina lookout where all the instagrammers want to go. (don't spend ages there taking the piss having a photo shoot like some of the runts were, it's not fair)! After telling them to hurry the foowk up, 5 mins later, I had a quick snap and moved on to do the circular route of the 3 peaks before desending back down. On the way down, the car tail back was huge with people thinking going later would be better - wrong ! It seems to be packed whatever time of day. Total 14.75 miles 6hrs 50mins total time 5hrs 44 mins moving time - very gentle pace. Youtube:...

Such an awesome hike today. We were a bit worried that it might be too hard to get up to the base but it couldn’t have been easier. We drove as far as we could and parked with everyone else where the snowmobiles are available for hire. This is before the toll area so saved 30 euros as they weren’t collecting it ahead at this time of year anyway. We opted for taking the ride up with them for 25 euros a piece. The wait to go was less than 5 minutes. We were up to the base in less than 15 minutes and started out. We only had hiking shoes and honestly other than the first 200m the rest was quite doable up to the half way point on the loop. Yes everyone else had poles and either snowshoes or skis (which definitely would make things easier) but we took our time and chose where to place our feet and all was cool. We came back on the trail we took because the second half of the loop is only doable right now with skis or snowshoes. Incredible views the whole trip. And hot! Honestly if I had shorts and a T-shirt I would have worn them. We passed on skier heading up with just swimming trunks on and I think he was probably still sweating. Once back at the base we opted to use the bobsleds vs the return trip on the snowmobile as it was included in the 25 euro price. Wow, sooo much fun. Honestly it was a total highlight and so made that 25 euros a piece worth it! Wear lots of sunscreen. We were on the mountain for 3.5 hours in the sun and SPF20...