Dolomites Summer Tour

We’ll meet in the arrivals hall at Venice Airport at 11:00 AM before driving into the spectacular Italian Dolomites. After checking into our hotel and enjoying lunch, our Dolomites Summer Photo Tour begins at Passo Gardena.

Beyond the famous viewpoints, this area is filled with hidden compositions. You can explore independently, follow Max’s guidance, or combine both as we photograph through the evening.

Our sunrise location is just 25 minutes from the hotel, where a classic Dolomites peak rises above fields of weathered tree trunks and, depending on the season, colourful summer flowers.

For sunset, we’ll make the short hike to Lago Limides. There are excellent telephoto opportunities along the trail, while the lake itself offers reflections and plenty of foregrounds to explore. We’ll finish near the parking area, photographing flower-filled meadows beneath the setting sun.

We’ll begin at Alpe di Siusi, one of the Dolomites’ most iconic landscapes. Alongside the classic view of the mountain huts, Max will show you several less familiar compositions.

In the afternoon, we’ll take the cable car to Seceda and photograph its dramatic ridgeline into the early evening. We’ll then continue to St. Johann Church, where two different viewpoints offer beautiful sunset compositions.

We’ll return to Passo Gardena for sunrise, photographing the peaks from a completely different angle and in softer morning light. After breakfast, we’ll check out and continue to our second hotel.

For sunset, we’ll visit the world-famous Tre Cime di Lavaredo. A mostly flat one-hour hike brings us to a spectacular side view surrounded by summer flowers. If the conditions allow, we’ll stay for blue hour and the first stars, with the Milky Way perfectly aligned above the peaks.

We begin Day 5 at one of my favourite locations, Passo Giau. There is plenty to explore here, from a small mountain lake and summer flowers to wide views across the peaks. For photographs like this, I often use a focus stack of three or more frames to keep the foreground and mountains sharp. No real hiking is required, and we will have time to work with several compositions, including longer-lens views with a person in the landscape.

For sunset, we’ll photograph a towering mountain wall crowned by a narrow spire. Its sheer scale calls for our widest lenses. Clouds often build here in the afternoon, giving us the chance to capture some of the most dramatic conditions of the tour.

We’ll photograph Passo Rolle at sunrise.

For our final sunset, we’ll hike for about an hour into one of the most beautiful valleys in the Dolomites. We’ll take our time along the trail, with plenty of chances to photograph forest frames, rivers and wildflowers. Once we arrive, we’ll stay through sunset and, if the sky is clear, perhaps even photograph the Milky Way.

Day 7 – Final Sunrise and Departure

Our final sunrise takes us to a quiet valley, where a river leads toward an impressive mountain range. After breakfast, we’ll return to Venice Airport by 1:00 PM, ending the tour with memory cards full of unforgettable images.