Best time to visit The Dolomites

Italy · Europe

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in The Dolomites

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Sweet spot
Good
OK
Avoid
Busy

Go in May–Oct — these months score within a whisker of each other; 13C max, 8 rainy days. Apr is the next best.

Plan this trip

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Things to do in The Dolomites

Tre Cime di Lavaredo Mountain range in the Dolomites
Lago di Braies Lake in the Dolomites
Seceda Mountain in Italy
Lago di Carezza Mountain lake in the Dolomites
Sella group Mountain range in the Dolomites
Völs am Schlern – a historic village at the foot of the Sciliar mountain
Catinaccio Mountain range in the Dolomites

Tours and tickets in The Dolomites

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (South Tyrol), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

Month	Max °C	Rain days	Humidity	Sun h/day	Verdict	Why
Jan	2°	6d	69%	6.9h	avoid	bitter cold: 2C daily max
Feb	4°	6d	70%	7.7h	avoid	bitter cold: 4C daily max
Mar	6°	8d	74%	8.8h	ok	6C max, 8 rainy days
Apr	10°	10d	76%	9.8h	ok	10C max, 10 rainy days
May	14°	19d	81%	10.0h	sweet spot	14C max, 19 rainy days
Jun	20°	18d	80%	12.6h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Jul	21°	19d	79%	12.9h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Aug	22°	16d	81%	11.7h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Sep	17°	12d	82%	9.7h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Oct	13°	8d	81%	7.9h	sweet spot	13C max, 8 rainy days
Nov	7°	8d	77%	6.3h	ok	7C max, 8 rainy days
Dec	3°	7d	73%	5.9h	avoid	bitter cold: 3C daily max

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at Cortina d'Ampezzo: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest from June to September; quietest in January, March, April, May and October.

Then and now

The Dolomites's June days now average 20.3°C, 3.0°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 5 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1981–90	-0.0°	1.7°	4.8°	7.8°	12.5°	17.3°	20.8°	20.0°	17.4°	13.0°	5.8°	1.0°
2017–26	1.9°	4.5°	6.2°	9.6°	14.0°	20.3°	21.5°	21.5°	17.2°	13.3°	6.8°	2.9°
Change	+1.9°	+2.7°	+1.4°	+1.8°	+1.5°	+3.0°	+0.7°	+1.5°	-0.2°	+0.4°	+1.1°	+1.9°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

Fly into Venezia (VE) (VCE), then drive. The flights under Where to book are to Venezia (VE).

The drive from each airport is the road's, from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT: typical, not a schedule.

How far The Dolomites is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type C and F and L plugs at 230 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Euro. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for Italy: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

Paying — By law, shops, cafés and bars must take a card payment of any amount, and refusing one is fined. Carry a little cash for tips.
UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
Tipping — Not customary; restaurants outside Rome often add a cover charge (coperto). Leaving the change in cafés and taxis is common.

Getting around The Dolomites

From Venice airport, Cortina Express and Dolomiti Bus coaches reach Cortina in two to two and a half hours, and ATVO's line 29 also runs there; book online, as ATVO requires it and Cortina Express sells on board only while seats remain. In town, a Dolomiti Bus single costs €1.80 bought beforehand (€3 on board) and lasts 75 minutes; a day on the town buses costs €5. A three-day Guest Card (€14.90, for non-residents of the province) also covers the country buses, though not the ski buses or the Tre Cime shuttle. Validate paper tickets on board, and activate app tickets by scanning the QR code at the front of the bus.

Apps — Rides: FreeNow, itTaxi, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WhatsApp. In Rome these apps book licensed taxis; Uber also offers the dearer Uber Black.

Based on convenience and the cost of a taxi, you are best advised to bring a car. However, for many that will not be possible so buses are the next best option. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Cortina d'Ampezzo, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

Emergency — police 112 · ambulance 118 · fire 115.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (105)

The Dolomites in pictures

Frea pass Sella group Pisciadu Dolomites South Tyrol — i

Wolfgang Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Drei Zinnen Tre Cime di Lavaredo Dolomites — i

Wolfgang Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Brenta Dolomites, view from Ritorto lodge 02 — i

Marco Ober, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Brenta Dolomites, view from Ritorto lodge 01 — i

Marco Ober, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What The Dolomites is like

Cortina d'Ampezzo is a ski resort in the province of Belluno in northeastern Italy, near the Austrian border. In 1956 it hosted the Winter Olympics, and again in 2026, along with Milan and other resorts. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing: Mario Rimoldi Museum of Modern Art (Museo d'arte moderna Mario Rimoldi), Corso Italia, 69. Modern art museum in the Ciaṣa de ra Regoles building. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing: During the summer the main draw is hiking in the surrounding mountains. There are many different trails, easier and more demanding ones. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in: Cortina has a heliport and nearby Bolzano has flights from a couple of German destinations. More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe: There aren't any bigger safety issues. Carabinieri, Via Guide Alpine, 14. Municipal police (Polizia Municipale), Viale Marconi, 3/a. More on Wikivoyage
Staying healthy: Cortina hospital (Ospedale di Cortina), Via Codivilla, 1. Farmacia, Corso Italia, 25. Farmacia, Corso Italia, 236. Farmacia, Corso Italia, 151. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Cortina d'Ampezzo, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around The Dolomites

Also in Italy

Nearby

Kind of place

Mountains

The Dolomites is in Italy, Europe. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

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