Gray Rock Horizon: A Day Trip to the Dolomites
This past weekend, a friend came down to visit me in Innsbruck for the weekend (hopping on a train from Munich) and we rented a car and drove to the Dolomites for the day on Saturday.
We didn’t plan anything in advance so we had to make this popular destination work on short notice!
Where we visited:
Lake Braies
Cable Car Tofana in the town of Cortina d'Ampezzo
Tre Cime di Lavaredo or Drei Zinnen
Drive times:
Innsbruck to Lake Braies - 2 hours
Lake Briaes to Cortina d'Ampezzo - 1 hour
Cortina d'Ampezzo to Tre Cime di Lavaredo - 40 minutes
Total cost of gas: €36
Rented a car from Europcar Innsbruck Airport
Schedule:
Departed Innsbruck at 8:15 AM
Arrived at Lake Braies at 10:30 AM, departed at 11:30 AM, ate lunch at the lake
Arrived at Cable Car Tofana in the town of Cortina d'Ampezzo at 12:30 PM, boarded the car at 1:00 PM, at another light meal at the cafe, departed Cortina d'Ampezzo at 5:00 PM
Arrived at Drei Zinnen gate at 5:40 PM for our 6:00 PM parking reservation, parked at 5:55 PM, hiked for 90 minutes, departed at 7:30 PM
Arrived in Innsbruck at 10:00 PM
Friday evening, I realized we needed a parking or shuttle reservation to visit the most popular site: Drei Zinnen. Given that this is one of the most popular destinations in the world, I was sure we’d missed our chance. I checked the website: shuttle, no tickets available. Car parking, only spots available from 6:00 PM on. “Well, we could hike for an hour during the magical sunset hour,” we thought. “Let’s do it!” It turned out to be a perfect visit!
The drive itself was marvelously beautiful!
Lake Braies
This is a stunning emerald lake in the mountains that you may have seen in other people’s Instagram posts—it’s an extremely popular spot! It wasn't on my radar until a Bumble date told me about it. Then, a few weeks later, I met an American couple at a coffee shop in Innsbruck who had just finished the Dolomites part of their trip. “You must go!” they told me.
We got here during full sunlight hours, so we couldn’t capture the best photos, but we did get to see the boats open up at 11:30 and people get on the boats to row out in the lake, which was cute.
Parking: reservation-only parking ended on September 11th, so we were able to roll up (on September 21st) and park right near the lake, no problem or delays. It was €15 and weirdly, cash only. You can find parking information here.
“The Pragser Wildsee, or Lake Prags, Lake Braies (Italian: Lago di Braies; German: Pragser Wildsee) is a natural lake in the Prags Dolomites in South Tyrol, Italy. It belongs to the municipality of Prags, which is located in the Prags Valley.
While the lake earned the nickname "Pearl of the Alps" due to its increasing popularity among tourists, tourism had become excessive as of 2020, with 17,000 people visiting the area on a single summer day. As of the summer 2023, vehicle access was restricted because of overtourism.” (Wikipedia)
After walking around the lake, we ate at the cafe, and it was pretty good and not too expensive.
Sparkly water! 😍
Cable Car Tofana, Cortina d'Ampezzo
Because our parking reservation for Drei Zinnen wasn’t until 6 PM, we had several hours in the afternoon. This spot was recommended in travel blogs, and the town was the gateway to the road we had to take to get to Drei Zinnen, so it worked out great.
Parking: We drove around in circles looking for free parking, but all the lots were full with cars backed up waiting. So we shelled out the €10 to park at the cable car lot.
Tickets: €40 each to go all the way to the top of the mountain. There were 3 gondola stops and folks could pay less to go to a lower stop.
We ate dinner of toasties on the first level with a gorgeous view of the town below.
Hiking: At the top, there was a small trail where you could go to the highest point. I recommend real hiking shoes as there were a lot of loose rocks (but I managed in tred-less sneakers).
The views were breathtaking!!! It was worth the high price! We loved it.
Tre Cime di Lavaredo or Drei Zinnen
Even though the Dolomites are in Italy, it’s an Austrian-German speaking region, so all of the places have names in Italian and German.
Drei Zinnen was the most-recommended place to visit on travel blogs. Once we arrived we could see why! The entire hike we kept saying, “It’s too beautiful, I can’t handle it!” It truly was otherworldly beautiful and we both pledged to come back.
We had only 90 minutes of sunlight. We did a lollipop hike from the parking lot
Parking: As I mentioned above, parking was sold out the day before, except for 6 PM. We arrived at 5:40 at the gate, and they let us through. Parking was nearly empty, so we got a close spot. We walked up to the cafe and took the trail that was right there up to the main lookout point by the three peaks. We swooped around and came down a different way, meeting up with the main trail. €44. Here’s the site to book parking.
Trail: We walked up to the cafe and took the trail that was right there up to the main lookout point by the three peaks. We swooped around and came down a different way, meeting up with the main trail. It was 3.7 miles round trip, with 630’ of elevation gain. We stopped many times to take photos, so it took 1 hour and 20 minutes.
When we got back to our car, a guy waved us over. He’d missed the last bus and could we give him and his girlfriend a ride down the mountain? Another guy came over, too. The three of them piled into the back seats. As we drove down the mountain, there were probably 30 people with their thumbs out, hoping to catch a ride. It was dark and quite a long way! I felt sad for them and wanted to pick them all up! So we met a couple from London and a solo guy from Singapore.
