UKC

Hello UKC hive mind. We're planning a family trip to the Dolomites in early July. 'We' are my wife and I in our early 50's (in rude health, fit, but we'd feel it the morning after a hard Munro) and our 19 yr old son, with the fitness and recovery than comes with youth. Lucky fella....

We're aiming to camp, but there does appear to be a paucity of campsites in the area, especially around Sella, Moena, anywhere east of Bolzano. 

Any top tips? I'm trying to avoid the Fort William equivalent of the area. Somewhere a bit off the Instagram beaten track, good hills, not the first place Google suggests when you type 'Camping Dolomites'  

Thanks in advance.

Camping Marmolada? It's just below Marmolada. If you've got a car, you're at Passo Sella/Passo Pordoi in 45 mins. Passo Giau/Falzarego in just over 30 mins. Marmolada cable car's right there. 

https://campingmarmolada.it/en/services/

Beardy Mike can give you loads of info...

Haha, here I am!

Campsites in South Tirol, I.e. val Gardena are basically non existent. In Alta badia there is one, Camping Colfosco.

In val di Fassa on the Trentino side there are three, one in Canazei, one in Campitello and one in Pozza di Fassa. The one in Canazei and Campitello are IMO not super nice as they are basically designed for hard standing requirements. Good luck with your pegs. The one in Pozza is up a hidden valley, has grass etc. It's nice enough.

As Kean says, on the far side of Passo Fedaia there is Camping Marmolada, which is in a really beautiful location. It is however expensive. But the advantage is that there are less people in general in that valley. Less facilities for sure too. Moving east, there are two, one on either side of Passo Staulanza. Both are apparently nice. And one just south of Alleghe, again mainly hard standing.

Early July is a little early in the holiday season, most people in Iraly haven't yet kicked out. The hordes really arrive in mid July and August. That said, if you want quieter mountains, the Veneto Dolomites are in general much much quieter than South Tirol and Fassa which I am sad to say have become increasingly like a circus over the last few years. Case in point, try getting parked at passo Sella, or driving back at the end of the day from the pass to Canazei. I've sat in traffic for 45 minutes to just get ti the round about at the bottom of the hill. Turning off to get to my home valley, the traffic disappears immediately... the southern and Eastern areas are perhaps less well publicised but the mountains are often bigger and more severe, so less well suited for "tourists". Mountains/ranges like Civetta, Moiazza, Pale di San Lucano, Pale di San Martino, the Lagorai, Pelmo, Lastoni di Formin, Tofana are all impressive and less busy...

Thanks Kean - all good intel, and I've already noted Beardy Mike as the font of all Dolomite knowledge. More goggling awaits for me!

Thanks - this is really useful info, and I appreciate the time you took to reply. There are some decent humans left in the world... I'll get my google skills honed and do some more research.

Any idea what camping Sass Dlacia is like? I always thought it looked like a decent spot and handy for the climbing there abouts…

Sass D'lacia is a nice campsite with good facilities including a good restaurant. The main downside here is the ground, which is a few blades of grass stuck into hard gravel. When I went there in 2005 the campsite shop sold extra-thick groundsheets (to protect your tent from the ground below) and 8 mm thick tent pegs. After giving up on getting my normal Quasar tent pegs into the ground and briefly trying to anchor the tent with pitons I went and bought the groundsheet and pegs from the shop, and hammered the latter in with my piton hammer. When I was there last year the shop no longer sold these items, so if planning on camping, then come prepared!

The campsite also has fully equipped holiday flats and little wooden huts, which they call utia. The utia have rudimentary equipment including a table and benches with together can be turned into a bed, a cupboard for food and one hot plate. I have stayed in both of these and would do so again. They get booked out in advance.

The campsite is dominated by the Conturines, a not so well known 3000-er, the walk up which can start directly at the campsite. It is also possible to walk in to the Southwest Corner/Dall'Oglio (IV+) (and, I think, the Lacedelli (VIII-), if your ambitions extend that far) direct from the campsite. Otherwise, as you can see from the map, it is just a short drive up to the Falzarego Pass with Tofana di Rozes, Falazarego Towers, Lagazuoi, Cinque Torri, Nuvolau, etc.

Sass Dlacia is fine but mostly hard standing so you need to bring really tough tent pegs and a mallet. We were there in early July last year and found a carpenters suppliers in Cortina (I think there's also one in La Villa) where we bought some 8" nails which were perfect and cheaper than tent pegs. It's a beautiful area with loads to do.

Cheers.

Don't know that one. Beautiful area though.

Theres also a basic one in Misurina for Cadini & Tre Cime, as well as Camping Olympia in Cortina (less basic and right under the Fiames).

Depending on your mode of transport - it seems to be OK to stay overnight in a car at Passo Valparola, as well as some tornanti down north of Passo Giau.

Strictly speaking, camping anywhere outside a campsite is illegal. Practically, if you pitch up late and break camp early and leave it tidy, unless it's somewhere silly I think you can get away with it. But being discreet is wise... 

We've been a bit further west to Andalo to Molveno and around to Pinzolo in the Brenta Dolomites; bit away from the usual madness (fairly busy with Italians and we hardly saw any Brits).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenta_group

(may not be technically part of the geographic 'Dolomites', but they are geologically within the Dolomites).