Exploring Seceda
I visited Seceda in October 2019 with my boyfriend Colin and his sister Aris. Since it was the first time I had been out of the country, I was absolutely speechless when I came face to face with the views of this mountain range. At this point in our Europe Trip, we were just leaving Venice and heading north to visit various locations throughout the Dolomites. We decided to visit Seceda that evening after the four-hour-long car trip through Italy. This was a great choice because it’s fairly quick and easy to get to these mountain peaks.
Here are some snapshots from the drive to the base of Seceda!
Once we arrived and park in the garage in Val Gardena, we bought our one-way tickets for less than $30 a person. You can find more info on ticket prices, parking, address, and hours here on Seceda’s official website. We chose to do the one-way ticket and take the two-mile walk back down. We chose to do this because the lift closes at sunset and we wanted to stay up there to see it!
Some of the views on the way up in the two-part cable car ride! (My first time ever in one!)
The way the cable car goes up the mountain you can’t quite see the entirety of the view until you reach the top. Once we got out of the cable car, we were all speechless for a few minutes while we just took it all in. There are several different lookouts to walk around and visit. Colin was SO excited to get his drone in the air. While he was doing that I did my best to capture the enormous 360 views! I have never felt so small in my life. I loved it.
We got our fix of photos, the sunset, and we headed towards the trail. In our last moments on the peaks, about 8 paragliders that had been waiting at the very top wisped over our heads. They were so close to us I felt like I could have given them a high-five! It was so beautiful and I hope I can go back one day.
I am the first to admit that I am not big into hiking. My boyfriend is a natural outdoorsman and his sister spent months hiking the Appalachian Trail. The two miles down would not have been bad, but my little ole knees almost burst. This was actually the first time I realized I have knee problems! Walking downhill sounds easy but it can bring up other problems such as that. Overall I would recommend this to anyone. We even saw some wild reindeer in our headlamps!
We arrived at the bottom around 10 PM and found a pizzeria that still served food. It was my favorite food of the entire trip but I’ve searched the maps of this area and I cannot figure out what the name of the restaurant was. After dinner, we set out to our Airbnb in a small Austrian town called AuBervillegraten. The next day we visited Tre Cime and had a faux elopement shoot with Aris… But that’s for another blog post. :)
