Val Gardena Travel

The ski resorts of the Val Gardena are probably some of the easiest to get to in the whole of the Dolomites. The valley branches off from the main north-south route between Verona and Austria (it is known in German as the Grödnertal) and thus is only relatively few kilometres away from excellent motorway connections.

Ortisei, or St Ulrich, is the first of the villages, followed by Santa Cristina (St Christina) and Selva (Wolkenstein). Distances given below are measured to Santa Cristina - Ortisei is 5km to the west and Selva 4km to the east.

Travel by Car

As the map above shows, the Val Gardena is most easily reached from the Valle Isarco and the motorway route between Bressanone and Bolzano. The exit coming from the north is at Chiusa (Klausen) while from the south it is located at Ponte Gardena (Waidbruck). Of course, it is also possible to use the local roads through the small villages, although these are often busy with traffic attempting to avoid motorway tolls.

Once away from the motorway the route takes narrow single lane roads up to the resorts. These can be problematic in bad weather and or high season changeover days.

From the west, the Val Gardena can be reached either over the Passo Gardena from Alta Badia or over the Passo Sella to Canazei and the Fassa valley.

Distances
Innsbruck 114km - north over the Brenner pass to the Austrian motorway junction at Innsbruck
Venice 311km - the route given is via Verona as this is easier in winter
Verona 193km - west to the motorway and then south to the major junction at Verona

Travel by Air

The resorts of the Val Gardena are spoilt for options when it comes to airports, many of which are served with flights from the low-cost airlines from the UK or with travel company charter flights. The largest and most likely to have convenient scheduled flights from further afield are Venice (Marco Polo) Airport and Innsbruck Airport, which has a wide range of winter flights also aimed at the Tyrolean resorts.

Although some Italian airports do offer a shuttle bus into the Dolomites on a weekend, it may well be easier to hire one's own transport from the airport.

Distances
Bolzano Airport (nearest airport in the valley) - 47km
Innsbruck Airport (over the border in the Austrian Tyrol) - 116km
Treviso Airport (just to the north of Venice) - 190km (direct route over passes)
Marco Polo Airport (located on coast of Venice lagoon) - 199km (direct route over passes)
Verona Airport (on motorway interchange to south of city) - 191km
Gabriele D’Annunzio Airport (south of motorway interchange outside Brescia) - 242km

Travel by Rail

The nearest main railway stations are at Bressanone (Brixen in German) around 18km away or slightly further at Bolzano (Bozen). Local coach services or taxis run from Bolzano or Bressanone to the Val Gardena. The local coach service is SAD (website www.sad.it - timetables available as PDF downloads).