When I was deciding where to stay in the Dolomites, Cortina was an obvious choice. Only a 2.5 hour bus ride from Venice, with plenty of cable cars and scenic hikes nearby. But what about Cortina d’Ampezzo itself?

In this post I’ll share some of the things to see and do in Cortina d’Ampezzo. At the end of the post I’ve included a 3 day itinerary for visiting this part of the Dolomites.

Things to do in Cortina d’Ampezzo

Cable cars

There are 2 cable cars right in town:

• Tofana – Freccia nel Cielo (get off at the intermediate station and switch to another cable car to go even higher)
• Funivia Faloria

Cima Tofana di Mezzo

The Tofana cable car will take you up the highest of the 2 cable cars. It goes so high up that Cortina becomes a tiny cluster of buildings in the valley below. Tofana di Mezzo is the third highest peak in the Dolomites which gives you a sense of scale of the Dolomites, but you lose a lot of the details going that high up.

By the end of the trip I actually liked the view from this cable car the least, and much preferred the cable cars where you’re lower down and can still see the scenery.

There’s a hike you can do at the top but it’s amongst the rocks and there are signs saying you need a helmet and proper PPE. When I visited in August there was the tiniest bit of snow at the top, otherwise it was quite barren with rocks. It’s not the scenic green rolling hills I’d seen in photos of the Dolomites online.

Some people take their hiking seriously – I just want nice views for minimal effort!

I visited first thing at 9am in the morning which probably wasn’t the best decision as the sun wasn’t high enough overhead, my photos look hazy.

Still an impressive view from the top where you can appreciate the size and number of mountains in the area.

View from Cima Tofana di Mezzo

I just enjoyed the view from the viewing deck up top, then made my way down to the middle station: Funivia Col Drusciè / Ra Valles. I liked the views better from this location.

I was going to do a hike to Lago Ghedina which is supposed to take about 1hr 30min each way, but the trail had too much lose gravel. When I saw a man in hiking shoes and with a hiking pole slip, there was no way I was going to make it in my sketchers. So I turned back and continued back down the mountain in the cable car and went to the cable car on the other side of town.

The part of the hike that I was able to do was very peaceful. This side of the Dolomites was quieter than the Ortisei side

If you want to hike to Lago Ghedina, you need proper hiking shoes. My sketchers didn’t have enough grip on the loose gravel

This part of the Dolomites is for more ‘serious’ hiking. If you’re looking for more family friendly hikes with gradual inclines, visit the other side of the Dolomites (Ortisei & Selva di Val Gardena)

Funivia Faloria

It’s a 20 minute walk across town to the other cable car: Funivia Faloria. This cable car doesn’t go as high, I liked the view better as you can see Cortina d’Ampezzo more clearly. I visited at 3pm and there was barely anyone around, much less crowded than the Tofana – Freccia nel Cielo cable car had been.

There isn’t much to do at the top and the view is a bit same-same in both directions from the station, so I just wandered around at the top for about half an hour then came back down.

There’s no need to pre-book these cable cars, just show up and join the queue to buy a ticket. It’s better not to pre-book in case the weather is bad.

Walking Paths at the back of town

After exiting the Funivia Faloria cable car station at the bottom, there’s a bitumen walking path that is stroller friendly and has some nice views of the town, then meanders through the countryside for a bit. Search Lunga Via delle Dolomiti on Google maps to find it.

Also on the high side of town, past the Tofana – Freccia nel Cielo cable car station, is some nice scenery if you wander up into the hills along the footpaths beside the roads. That’s where I took this photo in late afternoon.

Wander the town

The town is small, you can wander around it in less than an hour. The main street is pretty and had the flower boxes out during my visit in August.

There’s a bell tower in the middle of town. If frequent bells chiming is likely to bother you, stay at a hotel that is farther away from the centre of town

Some things to see in Cortina

• Cortina d’Ampezzo Olympic Rings – there’s a nice view from them as well
• Go to the grocery store Conad City – it’s near the Olympic rings on the road where the buses comes into town via (I always like to taste test foreign chocolate brands). Plus supermarket food is a lot cheaper than restaurants in this area.
• Wander all the cobblestone alleyways in town
• Pop into the church (Chiesa della Beata Vergine Maria della Difesa – Cortina d’Ampezzo)

There’s not that much to do in town. If you do both cable cars with no walking routes at the top, then 3/4 of a day will be plenty to see both of them and wander around Cortina for a bit.

The more interesting part of visiting Cortina, is the walking trails you can access from Cortina including:

• Lago di Sorapis – a famous turquoise lake (seemed a bit too difficult for me)
• Cinque Torri – an easy loop with great views and some WWI history (highly recommend)
• Passo Giau – Short walks with good views for minimal effort (this was too hard for me to get to via public bus, ok if you have a car)
• Tre Cime Lavaredo – a popular hike with great views, you’ll need 3-4 hours for this hike

3 day Cortina d’Ampezzo itinerary

Here is my recommended itinerary for a visit to Cortina:

• Day 1 – arrival day. Wander around Cortina d’Ampezzo in the afternoon
• Day 2 – Cinque Torri hike in the morning, Cima Tofana di Mezzo cable car in the afternoon (as the bus to get back to Cortina drops you off at that end of town)
• Day 3 – Tre Cime Lavaredo hike in the morning, do the Funivia Faloria cable car in the afternoon
• Day 4 – Depart Cortina d’Ampezzo, arrive back in Venice in the afternoon

One of the best views from the Cinque Torri hike

Don’t make the mistake I did, which was spend too much time at the Cima Tofana di Mezzo cable car. I should’ve done the above itinerary instead, then I would’ve been able to squeeze in the Tre Cime Lavaredo hike as well. I underestimated my own ability to do hikes (there’s nowhere to really go hiking near Brisbane where I live, so I’d never really done proper hiking before this trip). 3 hour hikes sounded intimidating when I was researching, but as I found out on this trip, they’re really not! The time goes quickly because there’s lots to look at, and you’ll be stopping often for photos. The mountain huts (rifugios) have bathrooms and food along the way, a 3 hour hike really isn’t a big deal!

The bus timetables and frequency is a bit all over the place, so if you want to explore Cortina, then do that in the afternoon after you do a hike outside of town. If you have a car and are driving yourself, get to the walks outside of town early. The carparks were always full by mid morning and people must stay there most of the day because I never saw anyone leaving when I was waiting for buses.

I thought I’d like the views from the cable cars more, but I actually preferred getting a variety of views from the hikes. I would prioritize the hikes over the cable cars. Plus the cable cars are really expensive.

I’ll be doing a separate post on the cinque torre hike, as well as the Ortisei & Selva di Val Gardena region of the Dolomites – make sure you’ve subscribed to know when those posts go live on the blog.

More posts to help you plan your trip to the Dolomites

• Where to stay in the Dolomites: Bolzano, Ortisei or Cortina d’Ampezzo?
• How to get from Venice to the Dolomites via the Cortina Express bus
• How to Efficiently Plan a Month-Long European Itinerary in Just One Week

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