Ortesei...The Best Home Base in the Dolomites with kids

The Dolomites are unreal. Truly, getting to hike and bike in the Alpine meadows is a dream come true. When my parents gifted all of us kids and grandkids a special trip to the Dolomites, we spent a lot of time researching the best place to stay with 14 people! After much research, we landed on the incredibly charming town of Ortesei...and let me tell you, it has now become one of our favorite places in all of Italy...here's why:

1) Oretesi is conveniently located at the base of multiple cable cars. This means that we did not have to use our rental cars for the entire week! We woke up in the morning and literally walked the 5 minutes straight to either cable car! We couldn't believe how convenient this was! Having 3 small children and being pregnant with my 4th, the last thing I wanted to do was load kids into a car or bus and have to drive somewhere every day! 

2) Oretsei is gorgeous. You will feel like you stepped in to an Alpine dream. The bright colored buildings, the charming architecture, the cobbled streets, and the Tyrolean vibe will transport you to another time. 

Biking in the Dolomites with Kids

Truth be told, you certainly get the most bang for your buck on bikes in the Dolomites! There is literally so much to do and see in the gorgeous alpine meadows, and with a bike, you can cover twice as much ground in this gorgeous heaven on earth! And...the good news is, the Dolomites are incredibly kid friendly when it comes to all the kid bike gear.


My dad's dream has been to take his entire family to the Dolomites and do a bike ride with everyone. In the last 20 years my dad has become a HUGE Tour de France fan, has taken up cycling as a hobby, and has even carted his cycling bike on an airplane to Europe with him (on one of our trips to France a few years back haha). So...this day was a dream come true.

We stayed in the town of Ortesei (see my post about this magical home base here), and walked to the bike shop at the base of the Alps di Suisi cable car. The bike shop is called Ski & Bike Rental Bamby. They were able to outfit our entire crew of 14 with the appropriate bikes and helmets and all the baby gear.

The adults all had electric bikes (with turbo boost! thank God haha), and then the kids were given each a Helmut and were buckled in to either a bike seat on the back of the adult bikes, or a bike trailer. My sister-in-law and I had our babies (ages 15 months and 8 months) in a bike seat on the back of our bikes. My two older kids (ages 5 and 3) sat in a bike trailer on the back of Kevin's bike.

Once we all had our bikes, we proceeded to the cable car where they put your bikes inside the cable car with you. Unloading them all at the top was fairly simple. Once all the kids were strapped in, our crew of 14 took off down the mountain.

The ride was glorious. Definitely make sure you rent the electric bikes as the hills are no joke. Having the "turbo boost" allowed the bike to do the heavy lifting on mountain climbs. With a baby on the back of my bike I was especially grateful for this!

We rode to the base of Compatch and stopped at a restaurant and all ordered a drink. We sat outside on the gorgeous grassy patio and stared up at the magnificent view. Then we hopped on our bikes for a while longer, stopping shortly after at a grassy meadow to have a picnic lunch and let the kids run around. Back on the bikes we went to ride even further.

AFter a while, my parents and siblings went on ahead, and Kevin and I stopped at a hut to let our kids play and get a snack. Then we headed back up the hill to ride the cable car back down with our bikes.

An amazing day! If your family is in to biking, this is the absolute best place in the world to soak in glorious views all around you!

As usual, don't hesitate to reach out via comment, email or on IG (@worlds.of.hope). Have a great day!