THE valley of the Dolomites par excellence in the UNESCO World Natural HeritageBënuni te Gherdëina

Home Infos & Service Magazine

The digital travel magazine

We present you the new “Dolomites Val Gardena” digital travel magazine. Take the opportunity to browse through and discover the different aspects and the unique features of the Dolomites in Val Gardena. The new Dolomites Val Gardena digital magazine will help you get to know Val Gardena in a very special way.

The skiing experience of a lifetime

The skiing experience of a lifetimeVal Gardena: skiing to your heart’s content, 500 km of slopes across local and cross-regional networks in the Dolomites. The Sellaronda, one of the ten best skiing carousels in the Alps; the Saslong World Cup slope in S. Cristina where, once a year, champions compete to win World Cup points in the downhill and Super-G disciplines. How can you beat that?

Snow Angels

Winter fun for young and oldI’m sure you all know what happens when the first snow falls: you run outside, twirl once, twice, and let yourself fall, back first and with your arms stretched out against your hips or legs, onto the soft white cover. Close your eyes, and sweep your arms arc until they meet atop your head.

Sport, fun and games in the Dolomites

It seems unlikely that in the past Val Gardena was purely known as a summer location. Today the alluring valley is even more renowned as a winter sports region. That’s because we’re strolling in the wake of the Alpine elite, as well as gazing at a beautiful scenic view, unlike any other in the whole world. Welcome to the Dolomites.

The legendary Dolomites

How did the ‘pale mountains’ first receive their name? Legend has it that two inhabitants from the moon returned from the dark, rocky fiefdom on Earth to the silver satellite with a Prince who was fascinated with their homeland. There, the prince fell madly in love with the Moon Princess, yet the blinding light on the Moon would have robbed him of his sight had he stayed there for too long.

Burning Dolomites

Enjoy an Indian summer by flying all the way to Canada? Sure, why not. But why go to all that trouble and fly all that distance when beauty is just around the corner? You can find a special natural phenomenon in Val Gardena, namely the Burning Dolomites. During September, October, and November the valley gradually calms down, and the larch woods don their brown-yellow-red-orange shimmering garments, and very special sunrays shine on the pale mountains, they being pale no more! You simply have to see it with your own eyes.

Totems and taboos

If it’s indeed true that art comes with experience, then Adolf Vallazza must be a great artist. Because his craftsmanship is understood by the artist, born in 1924 in Ortisei, like no other. Art, however, also has to rely on taste. And in this case Vallazza relies on foreign voices for recognition: renowned sponsors the like of well-known American art critique and Guggenheim curator Fred Licht, for example.

The Dolomite obsession

First, there was the ocean. Better said, the mother of all oceans, the Tethys Ocean, a gargantuan bay to the west of the Pangea supercontinent whose borders make up today’s modern Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia. The Dolomites are a spectacular sight to behold today, and the same applies to their origin story.

A doorway to other cultures

Tyrol is a word of Ladin origin. Its root derives from the word ‘troi’, meaning ‘path’. It’s an ancient language, and the whole Ladin culture in the Dolomites is just as ancient: a good 2,000 years old, to be precise. Religious rituals, rural festivities and processions, music and songs changed more than once over the course of the centuries.

Happy Holidays

Let’s be honest for a second: having a family holiday is great and all, but sometimes the kids just want to be with other kids. That’s not a problem in Val Gardena thanks to ‘Kids Active’, a holiday programme specifically developed for children between 6 and 12. Between June and September, the Dolomites will transform into a treasure chest full of surprises!

Living is easy

Water and wine aren’t the only ones to flow. ‘The lifestyle of the guests has changed. When I started working in the 70s, the guests often remained for the whole summer in Val Gardena. Today, most of them stay just a couple of days, but more frequently than before’, recounts Franz Lageder. The trained barman observed another phenomenon over the course of the years, ‘The night life has changed.

In good hands

It’s the journey that counts. This maxim could have been thought specifically for Val Gardena. Regardless of where you go, you’re constantly surrounded by an incomparable scenery: the Dolomites, the most beautiful mountains in the world.

Let’s go on an adventure!

‘Once upon a time…’ that’s how most stories start, right? Wrong. At least, in Val Gardena. You’re steeped in a legendary and fairy-tale like land for all the summer in Val Gardena. And, as prince and princess of this magical real, you get to decide on a new adventure with your parents or other princelings every day!

Beautiful nature

Small and colourful is what Val Gardena looks like in its full bloom spring, with swathes of crocuses, violets, snowbells covering the land. A couple of weeks later, dense blankets of rhododendrons brighten the feet of the ‘pale mountains’. White and green Alpine poppies reach for the sunshine, rising out of gravel and rubble piles.

Only time will tell

With a PhD in Paleontology, Herwig Prinoth knows how to interpret the geological signs of time. But his speciality is that of understanding how to explain them to laypeople more than anyone else in his field. We walk with him on the GEOTRAIL Bulla, taking a journey spanning 300 million years of geological history in Val Gardena: an excursion from the primeval times to our present days.

The proof is in the Strudel

Helga Mussner is the chef of the Chalet Gerard befor the Passo Gardena. Over the course of the decades, together with her family, she’s transformed the humble mountain hut into an exclusive, small mountain hotel with a restaurant. She was practically brought up in a Val Gardena bakery and patisserie, where she learnt the most important and sweetest arts of temptation.

In Val Gardena

Curiosity trumps everything else. Our curiosity has led us to finding many noteworthy things. We’ve always been a curious bunch, really. Even back in the 14th century we had a knack for finding stuff. Back then, the field’s yield was pretty low, every farm in the valley was located well above 1,200 m. In that dire situation, farmers had to look for another source of income during winter… and lo and behold, they found one: they made keys and carved wooden toys.

Tracking nature

A man true to his word: Diego Deiana was born in 1971 in S. Cristina and his main goal is to ensure, ‘every excursion in Val Gardena and the Dolomites is an unforgettable experience.’ He’s a qualified excursion and hiking guide, knows the healing properties of herbs and plants like no other and, as if that weren’t enough, he’s also a talented gilder. His attention to detail is what makes him stand out in all of the above.

Giorgio by Moroder

It was a larger-than-life dream,’ says Giorgio Moroder, born in 1940 in Ortisei. A dream he never imagined he would fulfil one day: to become a musician and a successful composer. Indeed, the success of the man who greets us with a fist bump in his house in Val Gardena is way more than anyone could have imagined. His mother least of all.

Language, the reflection of our soul

Ladin is extraordinary. Sadly, I don’t speak the oldest language in South Tyrol, even though it has always accompanied me, from my school years in Brunico to today, in the shape of friends from the Ladin valleys of Val Gardena and Val Badia.

Stars of cuisine

Eating well in South Tyrol is not an art. Because local cuisine can rely on a rich variety of traditional recipes with delicious, local ingredients such as tasty Speck, smoked sausages, scrumptious cheese and crunchy “Schüttelbrot” as well as many other downto-earth specialities. Barley soup, Schlutzkrapfen (local ravioli) or apricot dumplings accompanied by the best wine there is.

The Carol of the Bells

It’s not only children who stop in awe when the most cheerful time of the year kicks off in Val Gardena. At the start of December the days shorten, the first snow covers the valley in a glimmering white blanket, and the Christmas markets set up again. Ortisei turns into a real Christmas village.

Val Gardena Trip Planner