Sustainable holiday tips for a winter escape to Cortina, the Queen of the Dolomites: snowshoeing, ski touring, sustainable food and accommodation.
Sustainable holiday tips for a winter escape to Cortina, the Queen of the Dolomites: snowshoeing, ski touring, sustainable food and accommodation.
Cortina d’Ampezzo, also known as the Queen of the Dolomites, is an ideal spot for a sustainable holiday. With a series of activities to enjoy winter responsibly as well as hotels and restaurants following environmental best practices, the destination invites its guests to use a sustainable approach and go back to the essential.
Some activities combine sports and nature in a way that allows guests to fully live the Dolomites while limiting their impact on the local environment.
Cross country skiing is a wonderful way to contemplate the beauty of nature, even more so when practiced in the Natural Park of the Ampezzo Dolomites. This sport provides a complete aerobic workout, without exercising excessive stress on any single muscle. The valley’s 70km of cross-country pistes, part of the Dolomiti Nordic Ski carousel, range from an area suitable for beginners at Fiames to one for expert skiers at the higher Tre Croci Pass, in an almost untouched environment.
Snowshoeing is the ideal activity to enjoy the stillness of a snowy landscape in complete peace. It delivers the most authentic fresh snow experience, to take in the beauty of the snow-laden landscapes of the Dolomites and breathe pure air. The wide Ampezzo Valley, with its variety of landscapes, has countless snowshoeing itineraries to be discovered with local mountain guides.
Ski touring, also known as ski mountaineering, is a thrilling option to make the most of the winter landscape of the Dolomites. This sport puts together the slower, more contemplative phase of ascent with the higher-paced phase of descent, for a complete experience. Local mountain professionals are available to organise itineraries of different levels as well as for ski touring courses.
To make these experiences even more authentic while keeping them sustainable, it is possible to pick an itinerary passing by or arriving at one of Cortina’s mountain farms or agriturismi. These are not simply restaurants, they are farms or places where cattle graze in the summer, and some of them produce their own cheese, vegetables and other alpine delicacies in accordance with sustainable practices.
Sustainability is key also when it comes to accommodation. Cortina’s Hoteliers Association has defined a sustainability protocol for hotels to reduce waste and energy consumption with Green Key, one of the world’s most trusted ecolabels. Two of the town’s properties have obtained the label: classic 5* luxury hotel Cristallo, a Luxury Collection Resort and SPA, and 4*, family-run Hotel Càmina Suite and SPA, a recent addition to Cortina’s accommodation offer.
And what's more sustainable than locally sourced and self-produced food? Restaurant San Brite brings it to the next level using such ingredients to prepare incredible dishes that earned it a Michelin Star. In November 2021, Michelin has also awarded it a Green Star, which "highlights restaurants at the forefront of the industry when it comes to their sustainable practices"
