La Villa summer holidays

Holidays in La Villa

In the middle of Alta Badia, this lovely Ladin village is a sight to behold: a gaggle of Tyrolean houses around a 16th century castle and church, pine forests and flowery meadows sloping behind it, the colour-changing Dolomite peaks peering overhead. But don’t sit and stare too long – you’ve some of Europe’s best footpaths and bike routes on your doorstep and food worth working up an appetite for.

Highlights: • UNESCO protected landscape • Charming village • Great for foodies

La Villa Walking

We can’t get enough of the Dolomite walking trails and the region around La Villa has some corkers. Serious hikers can head into the Puez-Odle Nature Park (via the Gardenaccia chair lift), where the peaks famously resemble a row of needles. The Santa Croce (Holy Cross) Pilgrimage Site is a very popular hiking spot and it’s also possible to scale the Sasshonger mountain from here if you want a full day of legwork (with knee-weakening views to boot). If you take the Piz La Ila lift from the village, it leads to some gorgeous routes through forests and meadows including trails leading down into Corvara.

There are plenty of shorter, gentler routes too - like the Tru di artisc between La Villa and San Cassiano, which has locally made sculptures dotted along it. If you’re here with little ones, there’s a lovely, buggy friendly walk from La Villa church, around the Sompunt lake then down to Pedraces and along the river back to La Villa. Another we like is the path from Colfosco to the Pisciadú waterfalls.

La Villa Cycling

Cycling’s a huge part of summer life in La Villa - this is where the Maratona bike races set off each July, bringing thousands of athletes from all over the world to ride between Dolomite villages and mountain passes. The tourist office (on Strada Colz) often run guided road tours to show you the most scenic spots, or you can head off and explore under your own steam. Whether you want something family friendly or fiercely challenging, you can’t run out of places to explore on two wheels.

For mountain bikers, the Movimënt zone up at Piz La Ila and Piz Sorega has three staffed downhill runs of varying difficulties plus a couple of fun pumptrack loops to get the blood pumping. Beyond this, the 80km+ of off-road trails in the region are some of the most scenic you’ll ever ride. To start with, an easy route goes upriver to Corvara and on to the Campolongo Pass, following wooded singletrack back to La Villa (stop off at the Rifugio Cherz for a seriously scenic lunch break). A more challenging trail takes you via hairpin turns through San Cassiano and Malga Valparola towards the Valparola pass, then climbs a forested path to the Falzarego pass and the Col Gallina viewpoint before heading back via an interesting WWI museum (for some leg rest and local history).

The Sellaronda tour is an absolute must – clocking up around 60km through the Campolongo, Pordoi, Sella and Gardena mountain passes and some incredibly pretty mountain roads (including a few parts of the Giro d’Italia route).

A longer tour totalling around 100km is the Tour Fedaia, a loop leading over to Corvara, past Arabba and the Marmolada glacier, all the way round to the Val di Fassa then through Val Gardena and back to La Villa.

Last time we checked, the Piz La Ila lift station and La Villa tourist office had E-bike rental points – two of a number dotted around the valley so you can pick up, charge and drop off wherever’s most convenient. These are a super way to try some of the more testing trails without reducing your legs to utter jelly – fitted with a nifty motor that takes care of the extra pedal power.

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