Trekking in Alta Via 1, Dolomites

Alta Via 1 is the most approachable of the Dolomites' high routes, and the reason is simple: it threads between the great limestone towers rather than over them. For nine days you walk south from Lago di Braies toward Belluno, and the walking itself is never technical — five or six hours a day, one optional via ferrata, and the Italian mountain-hut system taking care of the rest.

The rifugi are the heart of it. You wake in one with a view most hotels could never buy, walk to the next, and eat proper mountain cooking at a shared table each evening. The pale rock of the Dolomites — glowing pink at sunset, sheer and surreal at midday — is unlike any other range in the Alps.

The rifugi open roughly late June to late September and take bookings from spring; the popular ones fill fast. It is the ideal first long alpine trek: spectacular, well-supported and within reach of anyone reasonably fit and willing.

Rifugi open roughly late June to late September and take bookings from spring.