UKC

Anyone got experience of van camping in the Dolomites?

Also of how busy and expensive in early August?

And suggestions for "quiet" Dolomites...

Ta!

Campsites in the Dolomites are outrageously expensive and can often be full. Camper vans are consequently a common site in laybyes and roadside verges, technically it's illegal but this is Italy so nobody seems to give a toss.

There are always lots of camper vans overnighting at the upper car park below Marmolada N.face. Not necessarily easy to know where it is, but at the same time "you can't miss it" cos you just follow the road until it turns into a piste! Basically, you drive across the dam at the W end of Passo Fedaia and just keep driving up (S), heading past the start of the "Bidonvia" (the crazy stand-up "chairlift") for another 50m or so. It's at just over 2000m.

This is a stunning Granite area just S. of the Dolomites. https://www.summitpost.org/cima-d-asta/229514

If it were anywhere else I think it would be much more famous, but because it's so close to the Dolomites it is much less frequented, and consequently "unspoilt". That said, the Dolomites are so world class it's sadly inevitable that prices are high.

I once went to the Dolomites in early August intending to camp. I looked at half a dozen sites and each was more packed than the last. A foot clearance from the next tent isn't my idea of fun and I booked into a hotel instead, which wasn't hugely expensive. 

That north face car park is usually only served by a Navette bus during August...