Dolomites hiking tour, round the Tre Cime.

The guide meets you in Misurina and drives you 15 minutes up the toll road to Rifugio Auronzo, so you skip the hardest bit of planning a Tre Cime day yourself. From the hut the walk climbs to Forcella Lavaredo, at 2,450 m in the listing the highest point, crosses to Rifugio Locatelli opposite the north walls, then returns over Forcella Col di Mezzo.

On foot it is 10 km with 400 m of ascent, and the listing calls it suitable for beginners. The duration label says 5 hours and the itinerary lists 6 hours of hiking, so think of a long morning or a long afternoon, with the guide explaining the rock, the war and the wildlife as you go.

They look completely different depending on where you stand. From Misurina you see them from the south-west, with Cima Piccola almost hidden; the classic picture with all three side by side only appears at Forcella Lavaredo, and the north walls fill the view from Rifugio Locatelli. The loop is the way to see every side in one go.

They also carry a long story. In 1869 the Viennese climber Paul Grohmann made the first ascent of Cima Grande. During the First World War the front ran through the Dolomites, and the history of the Great War is part of what the guide tells you on this walk. The UNESCO Dolomites Foundation counts the Tre Cime in the Northern Dolomites, the largest of the nine systems of the World Heritage Site.

Pacing is the second theme. One guest wrote that the guide adjusted the hike to make it harder or easier as needed, and another that the climbs come in short, manageable steps with a view as the reward each time. One reviewer even noted that the guides moved the date to catch better weather.

The third theme is the logistics. Guests liked being collected at the car park by Lake Misurina and driven up, with no stress about the toll, the parking at Rifugio Auronzo or the queue for the bus. On a mountain where the road has to be booked, that is a real part of the value.

The booked road to Rifugio Auronzo opens from late May to October, depending on snow and ice. Huts close one by one in autumn: in 2026 Rifugio Locatelli shut on 27 September, Rifugio Lavaredo on 11 October, while Rifugio Auronzo stayed open until the end of October, weather permitting.

In winter the road is closed to cars and the huts are shut, and the municipality advises against going up unless you are equipped for winter hiking or with a mountain guide. For this tour, plan on the summer and early autumn months.

The climate chart on this page comes from the South Tyrol weather service station at Toblach / Dobbiaco, a valley station at 1,219 m, because no official station sits on the plateau itself. In July it averages a high of 23 °C and a low of 9.4 °C, with 12 days of rain of at least 1 mm.

Up at the Tre Cime it is markedly colder than that, so read the table for the shape of the year rather than the temperature you will feel at the pass. Pack a fleece and a waterproof shell for the pass in midsummer too; the listing makes the rain jacket part of the mandatory kit.

Buses are the alternative: Dolomitibus from Auronzo and Cortina and shuttle 444 from Dobbiaco from mid-June to the end of September. In July and August the municipality advises against boarding in Misurina because of long queues.

With this tour none of that is your problem. The guide drives you up from Misurina and the toll is included in the price; the listing names it as 40 euros per car. Your only booking is the tour itself, which you can cancel free of charge up to 24 hours before.

On the way back the path passes the small lakes of the Piani, where the walls reflect on a still morning. Wide-angle lenses help at Locatelli, where the peaks stand close and tall, while a short telephoto picks out the climbers on the Spigolo Giallo from Rifugio Lavaredo.

The famous alpenglow, Enrosadira, colours the walls pink and red at dawn and dusk, outside the hours of a daytime tour. If you want it, sleep in one of the huts that take guests on the loop and walk out at first light.

Add a windbreaker and warm layers, a hat, sunglasses and sun cream; the municipality's own list for the Tre Cime adds a map or GPS app and a light backpack. Cortina's tourism office advises carrying cash, because cards may not work at mountain huts, especially in bad weather.

Do not rely on your phone for directions. The municipality notes that the signal along the Tre Cime trail can be limited, though some huts have it. With a guide that matters less, but it is still worth knowing that the emergency number in the mountains is 118.

In Italy guiding in the mountains is a regulated profession under Law no. 6 of 1989, and hikers have the right to ask a guide for the professional card and check the register of the regional Collegio. Professionals must also carry insurance for their clients.

Most reviews mention their guide by name and praise her knowledge and patience. The listing offers English and Italian only, so pick one of them for the day, and do not hesitate to ask questions on the way.

If you have a spare day, Lake Sorapis starts from Passo Tre Croci on path 215: about 4 hours and 10.5 km for experienced hikers, with ladders and wire-protected ledges before the turquoise lake. There is a guided version too, a loop of about 12 km to Rifugio Vandelli.

On the Cortina side, the Cinque Torri combine rock towers with an open-air museum of the Great War, and a chairlift takes you up from Bai de Dones. Together with the Tre Cime they make a strong short Dolomites hiking holiday without changing hotel.

It is a walking tour, not a climb: there is no via ferrata and no summit, and if you want the Innerkofler route up Monte Paterno you need via ferrata kit and, ideally, a mountain guide. It is also a shared tour, not a private day; private and small-group Dolomites walking tour options are compared on a separate page of this site.

Be honest about altitude and weather. You walk all day high above the valleys; even Malga Langalm, the lowest hut on the loop, sits at 2,285 m. The guides may move a date for weather, and the season is summer and early autumn. If those conditions suit you, this is the easiest way to stand in front of the north walls.