A quick bit of history. Val Gardena (Grödental to most locals) is in the autonomous province of SüdTirol / Alto Aldige. It is bilingual because until the aftermath of World War 1 it was part of Austria (who lost) and was given to Italy (who were on the western allies side). Mussolini had a bit of a half hearted attempt at driving out Austrian culture but failed. So the architecture and culture (and food) is still mostly Tirolean. Think of it as Austrian Tirol with more reliable weather! Prices are a bit higher than Austria, mostly due to a higher VAT rate. Anyone involved in public service, even bus drivers, will speak both languages, and many will speak English as well. Looking at the council's website there also seems to be some use of Romantsch but you don't have to worry about that once you realise!

Selva's German name is Wolkenstein. Anything published in "real" Italy or UK will probably use Selva, anything published locally or in a German speaking country will use Wolkenstein. The best walking maps come from Germany and Austria. The village is a ski resort in winter and accomodation prices may be lower in summer.

The tourist office website in English is http://www.valgardena.it/en/selva-gardena/page393.html and there is a link to a map in the middle. This shows some of the walking paths. These will probably be maintained to Austrian standards with proper signage. You often find they link villages at similar altitudes and you can get up to them using the chair lifts or buses.

There is a link on the left side menu for "catalogues" and they will send you printed brochures.

There is also a site for organised walks at http://www.valgardena-active.com/cms/?excursiuons-fun-in-the-midst-of-nature_en

SüdTirol public transport is excellent and cheap if you get the right pass. You can also use the buses to visit the bigger towns of Brixen and Bözen (provincial capital). The latter has a beautiful old centre, a lot of shops, an excellent brewery (!) and some museums.

Hi Steve

Thanks for the info on Selva - and also for the info you gave me on Ruhpolding. I was torn between the two for a while but the larger number of cable cars in Selva finally swayed my decision - we love cable cars! So I booked last night and we are going for a week in mid-July, staying at one of Thomson/Crystal's catered chalets. We normally prefer hotels with more facilities but the Salvan looks like really good value for money as most meals are included. We are going to get Valgardena cards which aren't cheap but will hopefully cover most of our sightseeing. I just hope the weather is kind to us! Will post a full report when we get back.

You need to think a bit about the ValGardena card. They are much dearer than the Mobilcard http://www.mobilcard.info they include for bus (and train) travel. The summer 2010 chairlifts included are listed here http://www.valgardena.it/en/valgardena-card/page45.html and their date/price details are here http://www.valgardena.it/download/gardena/pdf/Lifts_Summer2010.pdf

By my maths you need to be making one round trip per day on a big cabin lift for the Val Gardena card to be worth having. Both cards offer 3 day versions but both set them as three consecutive days so you can't get one of each and alternate!

Hi Steve

Thanks for the tips. We fully intend to try and go on every single one of the 12 lifts if possible so we will definitely get our money's worth out of the Valgardena card. We did the same in Mayrhofen last summer and it was great!

Just over a month now until we go to Val Gardena. Was just wondering if anyone else had been there and had tips etc they could pass on?

I think I'm the only one here who visits SüdTirol and I'm not due to go until September.

The summer bus timetables are now available to download as PDF files at http://www.sii.bz.it/en/siipdftimetables then select Salto-Sciliar and Summer 2011 from the lists, tables 350 and 357 definately worth printing off and possibly a few more.

If it rains, or your feet can't take any more walking, a day trip to Bozen (Bolzano) is worth it. Really nice centre area, close to the bus station and perfect for wandering around. And Hopfen & Co on the Obstplatz serve one of the best beers in Europe!

Whilst you're waiting keep an eye on the weather using the cameras at http://www.val-gardena.com/de/live--und-webcams/page94.html ,if you have internet access whilst there this is also useful because the weather can change in a very short distance.

steve8482 wrote:

I think I'm the only one here who visits SüdTirol and I'm not due to go until September.

Not entirely true Steve, I've visited SüdTirol many times but it's been mainly in winter for the ski-ing. I have had a few short breaks in Summer but living in Bavaria I can check out the weather forcast and pick when to go for a couple of days hiking, so I can't be much help on what to do if the weather isn't good. Must admit though that these days I'm not up to much serious mountain walking so it's quite a few years since I actually stayed in the area.

Anyhow have a great holiday in Val Gardena (or Grödnertal as it's called in my part of the world) Corinne.

Hi,
sorry my english, but I don't speak very well this language.
I have read your posts... Val Gardena is one of the best places that I ever been. In the last 5 years I visited the Dolomites 4 times...the views are very beautiful.

Every week I look at the livecams of Val Gardena on valgardena.it, today it's foggy...but try tomorrow or in the next days...when the sun is shining...this is a spectacular view.

The Val Gardena Card is only a good idea if you take every day a bus or a cable car, this is my opinion.

bye tinele

Judith is winding me up! Tripping over to SüdTirol on a whim if the weather's fine - here's me just trying to get to Asda without getting wet!! Getting to SüdTirol in the summer from here is a transport nightmare and I'm very jealous!

Thanks to Tinele for the opinion of the card, I was wondering how good it would be if the weather was changeable given that it covers consecutive days.

Anyway, a local speciality trip has occured to me but you need to be careful in all senses. That area of SüdTirol is basically world centre of Via Ferrate walking routes. There's loads of info about their history and current routes, with gradings, on the internet and Google will find it all. But there is one vital bit of info missing - many UK issued insurances policies specifically exclude them. If you do fancy trying even an easy one check your small print.

Thanks for the tips guys - much appreciated. I've already tallied up the individual lift prices and it definitely makes sense for us to get the ValGardena card as we plan to use the buses and lifts every day. I am a bit confused about the coverage of the Mobilcard South Tirol part of it though - will this cover the whole journey to Bolzano or just buses within ValGardena?

We are obviously hoping that the weather will be nice, otherwise we'll be spending a lot of time in the Mar Dolomit pool in Ortisei - we've even got ourselves some swim hats as they are compulsory there. Not looking forward to looking like a tadpole.

Thanks for the tip about Via Ferrate, Steve, it's not my cup of tea but my husband might be interested so I'd better check our insurance policy to see if it's covered!

Now then , it gets very interesting! When we started this we only had the 2010 card conditions so this including Mobilcard is a bonus. I've checked the German and Italian versions of the page and they link to a page about Mobilcard which confirms the whole province. But all three language versions of the Val Gardena Card info only mention buses whereas the German/Italian links to Mobilcard confirm that it can be used on the regional trains as well - all the way to the Austrian border at Brenner. So you are covered for the bus to Bozen but it seems there's another useful excursion possible as well - Brenner is only 40 minutes from Innsbruck and the trains are regular, would cost about €15 return for the Austrian part. I can work out the times for a day trip if you want to keep it as a standby.

Hi Steve

Thanks for the offer but I expect it'll be too long for a day trip - we're only going to Selva for a week plus we'll be staying firmly in the valley if it's dry. Only 3 weeks to go now!

Selva Val Gardena is surrounded by the mountains Sella and Sassolingo. It features about 1563 meters above sea level and is one of the most famous and wonderful villages in the Alps areas.

Every year many travelers from round the world come to Selva Val Gardena to enjoy their holidays. Selva Val Gardena is really a hospitable destination that welcomes any friend from any place in the world. The guests have wide offers to choose from, from delicious local foods to five or four star hotels.

There unique peaks and fascinating landscapes in this place are perfect for walking or climbing. It welcomes walk alone as well as group activities.

Just a quick post to say we are back from Selva and had a lovely time. Will post a full review in due course but am happy to answer any other questions in the meantime.

Corinne76 wrote:

Just a quick post to say we are back from Selva and had a lovely time. Will post a full review in due course but am happy to answer any other questions in the meantime.

Did you get good weather as it's been pretty mixed down here in Bavaria over the past few weeks, although it almost always seems to get better when we are south of the Brenner.

Four weeks to go for me - both sides of Brenner!! Hopefuly this year I might see the Wendelstein.....

The weather was quite mixed to be honest - with the usual rapid weather changes you get in the mountains. In Selva itself, I think the warmest we reached was 20c, the coldest was 8c on the day it rained and we got snow on the tops of all the surrounding mountains. I hadn't quite appreciated how much colder it would be there in comparison with the rest of Italy given the altitude - on the day we arrived it was 28c at Verona but only 11c by the time we arrived in Selva. In the end we only got two mornings of rain so we able to do everything we wanted. Definitely a destination where you need to pack for all weathers! Full report to follow later this month...

Maybe I should have warned you about the altitude, Wolkenstein village is 200 metres higher than the summit of Ben Nevis (highest point in Britain!!) and the lifts go higher. But as well as it being obviously cooler there is the less obvious danger of an increased risk of sunburn, even on a hazy day.

As promised, here's my report:

Italy Review - July 2011

We spent 7 nights in Selva Val Gardena in the Italian Tirol in July 2011. Here follows an account of our trip:

The Journey

We flew out from Birmingham to Verona with Thomson and had no problems at all with the outbound flight or 2 ½ hour minibus transfer to Selva. The day we returned, the baggage handlers at Verona airport decided to go on strike so we had an awful 4 hr minibus journey through Italian holiday traffic to Brescia airport - at one point we really thought we were going to miss the flight. We then had to queue for an hour and half to check in so were really glad to finally take off only an hour later than planned. Credit should be given to Thomson for sorting this all out at short notice though as things could have been much worse. In-flight meals were included in both directions but Thomson has announced that these will cease from November this year. There was no in-flight entertainment in either direction.

The Weather

The forecasts had shown quite a bit of rain in the week before we travelled so we were prepared for some wet weather. In the end, we only had rain on 2 days with the remaining time split between sun and cloud. As you might expect at altitude, the weather changed very rapidly so it is always worth taking warm layers and a waterproof jacket with you just in case. In general, temperatures were lower than we expected, ranging from 8-20c in Selva and reaching a low of 3c at the top of the Passo Sella coffin lifts. We even had snow on the tops of the surrounding hills on one of the days in rained - which was a bit of a contrast to the 30c temperatures elsewhere in Italy that week.