AUGUST 2024
Tre Cime di Lavadero (Drei Zinnen) is one of the most famous destinations in the Dolomites. Internet told me that there was a “secret” viewpoint that not a lot of people know about, which can be found on the Cadini di Misurina hike. Well… people certainly know in 2024. In this blogpost I will give you my honest opinion about this hike, so you don’t have to make the mistakes that we did.
Practical information
The hikes to Tre Cime & Cadini di Misurina both start at Rifugio Auronzo. There is no gondola up to Rifugio Auronzo, you can come by car, campervan, take the bus/shuttle or go hiking. The road up to the Rifugio is a toll road, we had to pay € 45 for our campervan, cars are € 30 (2024 prices). Once the parking at Rifugio Auronzo is full, no more cars are accepted until cars leave. This creates very long traffic jams, so you either have to come really early, or later during the day. We arrived at 9AM in June and there was a huge queue at the toll booth which took us 45 minutes extra. When we drove down at around 1PM there was no queue anymore and cars could drive up. Obviously it depends on your plans for the day what is sensible. The food at Rifugio Auronzo was not well rated, so we had our lunch on our way back at Malga Misurina and would highly recommend it!
Cadini di Misurina hike
Choices had to be made and I heard such great things about the Cadini di Misurina hike that I decided to do this hike as it features the Cadini di Misurina viewpoint as well as offers great views of Tre Cime. If you are fit you can combine the Tre Cime hike to the grottos with the Cadini di Misurina hike, but I expected this to be too hard on my herniated disc recovery.
The Cadini di Misurina hike is about 30 minutes to the viewpoint and about 30 minutes back. The views along the way are absolutely stunning and highly worth it. We didn’t start the hike until 10AM, because of the traffic jam at the toll booth and this is just too late. I really wanted to take pictures at the Cadini di Misurina viewpoint and underestimated the waiting time. When we arrived there was a small queue, but this ended up taking 1,5 hours!! We visited in June and I cannot imagine how bad it must be in the high season. We didn’t bring the drone and I do not love our pictures as much as I had seen on Instagram… Of course we could have brought the drone, but with the queue that is waiting for you this seemed insufferable. I would recommend coming to the viewpoint as early as possible, with a drone, and otherwise it is best to skip the pictures at the viewpoint. You can still enjoy the hike if you arrive late, but the pictures are a real hassle and a bit of a disappointment. You judge for yourself 😉
If you walk a little further than the viewpoint itself you will encounter grottos and some other picture opportunities that I ended up loving much more.
Tre Cime views
If you do the Cadini di Misurina hike you also get great views over the Tre Cime di Lavadero. You can do an easy hike by walking around the Tre Cime, which takes about 4 hours. If you also want to get the pictures framing the Tre Cime from the caves you have to factor in additional time. We weren’t able to factor this in, as it seemed a bit too much for my physical condition. You can combine both hikes in one day if you factor in sufficient time.
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