mtb in the Dolomites?

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I'm getting married next year and we are considering honeymooning in the Dolomites.

Has anyone here ever MTB'd in the dolomites? Did you bring your own rig, or did you rent? We're looking at a place in Sappada, which is way up near the border. Beautiful area, however. Did you ship your bike or bring it on the plane?

Cheers,

-Andrew

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Andrew - I have a good friend who's been there twice. He raves about the place. I will email him and CC you as an introduction, and you can swap info.

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[hdmsmz]

I have never been anyplace more beautiful,or anyplace with worse riding. We went on a guided tour for 10 days then around by ourselves for 10 days. Europeans it seems have a different idea of mtbing than we do .Lots of pavement to access fire roadsand if youare lucky 5%singletrack. seriously . and did i mention climbing,hours of climbing, climbing til you push climbing til you break . no joke . That said i lovedeverything else about and would highly recomend it for any vacation , just not a mtbing one .Harry

[Slider]

Were you specifically in the Dolomites? My friend has some amazing pix and has shown me his routes on a topo map. It was truly extreme, fully exposed in rocks above treeline most of the time.

If you were in northern Italy, I'm guessing you just didn't find the good stuff.

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[FriedRys]

I seem to remember an old GT add with Hans Rey riding some old army trail in the Dolomites, about three feet wide, cut into the side of a cliff. Great picture, but I got no interest in riding stuff with that kind of consequences. But if you do go to the Dolomites, definately check out the Via Ferrata (http://ontopmountaineering.com/cortina.php)

[Slider]

Lake Garda is sometimes called the mountain bike capital of Europe. My bud recommends it highly.

There are a bunch of tour companies listed here:

http://www.garda.com/inglese/context_bike_tours.asp

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[hdmsmz]

We were based in Torbole. at the top of lake garda , great town beautiful scenery . the locals spent HUGE amounts of time on the road to acces s the riding or shuttled for freeride trails.We had an excellent vacation , but i would not make mtbing my main focus . Harry

[jh_on_the_cape]

Hi. We go skiing every year in Predazzo, Italy in the Val di Fiemme in the Dolomites. It's my mother-in-law's home town. We are headed back this year for Christmas and New Years.

It's a beautiful place, but I have never been in the summertime. Our friends there all ride and the maps show huge epics all over the place. I want to go sometime in the summer someday.

A great resource is www.italybikehotels.com

Italy, like anyplace, has great riding, but also lame riding and you have to make sure you find the good stuff. The dolomites are very very steep. So you need to find trails that you can ride instead of hike/climb.

If you are set on a place, I suggest just going there and asking at the tourist office or bike shop. You could luck out, or find nothing. It's you honeymoon, so you need to save your energy for romancing!

We took a mtb trip to Finale Ligure Italy once in the spring and it was fantastic. I put an article in Singletracks about it. It's not the dolomites, though. It's on the Med near the French border where the Alps meet the sea. Great riding, great rental bikes, great guides, email me if you want details.

Bringing your bike is a pain, but the only way to ensure you have a nice rig. It's worth it if you are going to ride alot. If you are going to ride some, and do some other stuff, it's a huge pain to lug around.

Have fun!