Hikes in South Tyrol

The most beautiful hikes in South Tyrol, around Val Gardena, Seceda, the Puez and the Alpe di Siusi, with grade, duration, elevation gain and our score.

The Dolomites of South Tyrol are the ones with meadows beneath the rock walls, and the three hikes on this page are their most faithful portrait: Seceda and the Rifugio Firenze, which we rated 10, the Alpe di Siusi plateau up to the Rifugio Bolzano on the Sciliar, and the Rifugio Puez loop above Val Longia.

All of them are long hikes but without technical sections, and they can be shortened with the lifts of Val Gardena and the Alpe di Siusi when legs or time run short.

Good to know about South Tyrol

The Alpe di Siusi, at about 56 square kilometres, is presented as the largest high-altitude alpine pasture in Europe, and protecting it includes managing traffic: during the seasons when the cable car runs, the road up from Siusi is closed to private cars from 9 am to 5 pm, except for guests staying on the plateau. In the other months the road is open all day, but the season dates change from year to year, so it is worth checking them on the official website before planning the day. Arriving before nine or taking the cable car is, in practice, what almost every hiker does.

All three hikes on this page lie within the Dolomites World Heritage site, which is divided into nine systems: Seceda and the Puez belong to the Puez-Odle system, the Sciliar to the Sciliar-Catinaccio-Latemar system. Val Gardena also speaks Ladin, in its Gherdëina variety, one of the five of Ladinia, which you will read on the signs next to Italian and German. In South Tyrol Ladin is a language of instruction in the schools of the Ladin valleys, and it is not unusual to hear a hut warden switch languages three times while taking a single order.