Alpe di Siusi
Val Gardena & the Sciliar · South Tyrol, Italy
The same mountains as Alta Via 1, walked a completely different way: across Europe's largest high alpine meadow, with cable cars everywhere, hotels with swimming pools, and arguably the best food in the Alps. Shorter days, softer ground, and nobody has to be brave. If the goal is that twenty-one people all enjoy themselves, this is the safest bet on the page.
- Nights
- Hotel base + 2 nights at mountain inns
- Total distance
- 36 km / 22 mi
- Total ascent
- 1,680 m / 5,510 ft
- Highest point
- 2,563 m — Monte Pez
What you'd be looking at
Day by day
Ortisei → across the Alpe di Siusi
Moderate, or easy with the cable carA cable car lifts you out of Ortisei onto the plateau, and then you walk across it — rolling meadow at 2,000 m, hay barns, cows, and the Sassolungo standing over everything. Huts serve lunch every few kilometres, which is a very different experience from carrying it. Evening light on the Santner tower is the reason to stay up here.
- Distance
- 13 km
- Ascent
- +820 m
- Descent
- −370 m
- On foot
- 5 h
Monte Pez → southern Alpe di Siusi
ModerateA short climb of about 100 m puts you on Monte Pez with a full 360° — the Marmolada's north face, the Antermoia peaks, and the plateau laid out below. Then across the rugged top of the Sciliar and down its southern side to sleep at the foot of the Sassolungo.
- Distance
- 13 km
- Ascent
- +500 m
- Descent
- −630 m
- On foot
- 5 h
Around the Sassolungo → Passo Sella
The easy dayA full circuit of the Sassolungo massif with the scenery changing completely every hour — the plateau behind, the Puez-Odle ahead, the Sella group alongside. Almost no climbing. It finishes at Passo Sella, and a bus takes you back down to the valley.
- Distance
- 10 km
- Ascent
- +360 m
- Descent
- −490 m
- On foot
- 5 h
The honest part
The hardest bit
Day 1, if you walk up from Ortisei instead of riding the cable car — 820 m of gain. Take the lift and the hardest thing about this route is that five hours is still five hours. There is nothing technical, nothing exposed and nothing frightening anywhere on it.
If someone's had enough
Lifts run up onto the plateau from Ortisei, Santa Cristina, Selva, Siusi and Compaccio, and buses serve the passes. On most of this route you are within an hour of a way down.
Where you sleep
A hotel in Val Gardena at either end — three and four star, half board, many with pools and spas — and mountain inns on the plateau in between, which in South Tyrol means private rooms and serious cooking rather than bunks. The most comfortable Italian option by a distance.
Fitting twenty-one people
Easiest of the four. Val Gardena is a full resort valley with hotels that routinely take groups, so twenty-one people is an ordinary booking rather than a problem, and families can be in adjacent rooms.
Getting there
Verona (VRN) 2h30, Innsbruck (INN) 1h45, or Venice (VCE) 3h
When to book
Less pressure than the hut routes, but peak July in Val Gardena still books up. Six to nine months ahead is comfortable, so autumn 2027 keeps the good options open.
Days either side
Bolzano is an hour away — vineyards, arcaded streets and the Ötzi museum. Lake Garda is two and a half hours, and Venice three.
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