Dolomites Foliage Tours

The Dolomites have two famous colours: the pale grey-pink of the rock at sunrise and sunset, and the gold of the larch forests in October. The second lasts only a few weeks and moves around, so it’s easy to arrive a fortnight early and see mostly green, or a week late and see bare branches after the first snow. This page covers when the larches turn, where the best colour is, and which day tours drive through it.

What actually turns gold

Most of the forest on Dolomites slopes is evergreen spruce and pine. Mixed in with it, especially near the treeline and around the lakes, is European larch, a conifer that drops its needles every winter. In autumn it goes from green to yellow to deep gold and finally copper before the needles fall. With the spruce staying dark green around them, whole hillsides turn into patches of gold, and that’s the view people come for.

Lower down, beech and maple add orange and red. The Dolomites tourist board singles out the Cansiglio forest, south of the main range, for its beech woods, and Val di Fassa and Val di Fiemme for larch and maple together.

When: late September to late October

The tourist board puts the foliage season from late September to mid-October, depending on altitude and exposure. In practice the larches usually peak in the second and third weeks of October. The colour moves downhill: trees near the treeline turn first, and the valley floors around the lakes often keep their gold into the last week of the month.

Two things move the dates. A warm, dry autumn delays the colour and makes it last longer. An early cold spell or a heavy snowfall brings it forward and can strip the trees within days. If you can, keep your Dolomites day flexible and pick it a few days out from the mountain forecast.

Where the colour is

Lago di Braies. Larch forest runs down the slopes to the water under the cliffs of the Seekofel, and in October the gold reflects in the lake. After 15 September the booked-parking rule on the road ends, so it’s quieter than in summer. See Lago di Braies tours in autumn.

Cortina and the Cadore valleys. The drive north from Venice through Cadore, the forests around Lake Misurina, and the Cortina basin under the Tofane and the Pomagagnon are all lined with larch. The tourist board names Lake Federa, the Sorapis trail and the Mietres hut near Cortina for autumn walks.

The Alpe di Siusi and Val di Funes. The classic autumn images — gold larches and brown meadows under the Sassolungo, the Santa Maddalena church under the Odle — come from the western Dolomites. The Alpe di Siusi lifts run until 2 November in 2026. It’s a long way from Venice, but see Seceda and Val Gardena in autumn.

Lake Carezza, Val di Fassa and Val di Fiemme. Larch and maple, and lakes that reflect the colour. These are closer to Bolzano and Lake Garda than to Venice.

Which day tours pass through the larches

From Venice, the tours that stop in the larch valleys are the practical choice. A long stop at one lake with the colour around you is better than many five-minute photo stops.

The lakes loop with drone video, featured at the top of this page, picks you up at your Venice hotel. It stops at the Auronzo lake, Lake Misurina and the Cortina valley, with a Tre Cime viewpoint and a short walk to the suspension bridges. That makes it a day spent almost entirely in the larch valleys of Cadore. 212 guests rate it 4.8 out of 5, and it had dates through October and November when we checked.

The highlights and hidden gems day from Venice or Treviso has a licensed guide. It crosses the pass from Cibiana, walks at Lake Landro under the Tre Cime and spends ninety minutes in the Cortina basin. Its GetYourGuide gallery includes golden-larch shots from this route. Fewer October dates were open when we looked, so book early.

For Braies in colour, the Braies and Misurina day with a hiking guide gives the lake an hour and a half.

If you’d rather walk than drive, a local guide near Cortina runs a custom-made autumn-colours hike. It had October dates when we checked, up to 18 October. See the guided hiking page.

Getting the most from a foliage day

• Go in the second or third week of October if your dates are flexible, then adjust from the forecast.
• Sun matters more than timing. Gold larches under a grey sky look brown in photos, and a sunny day a week early often beats a grey one at the peak.
• Morning and late-afternoon light is warmest on the larches, which is one reason the photography tours start early.
• Dress for cold mornings. Frost is common at altitude in October, and lakeshore paths can be icy until the sun reaches them.

For the rest of the autumn season, see what’s open in the Dolomites in October and the autumn tours overview. Check availability for the larch-valley lakes tour.