Travelling to the Dolomites

Fly-driving is popular and most of our guests choose this option, many using our own competitive, safe and no hidden extras car hire arrangements.

Having a car in the mountains gives you complete flexibility during your stay and also on your days of arrival and departure. It guarantees access to everything that is featured in our brochure and if you get a rainy day, a car will allow you to visit numerous places of interest (including several attractive alpine towns) that are within easy driving distance of us.

The journey from our nearest airports is simple. Driving conditions are good and motorists are civil - the spectacular surroundings tend to remove the need to hurry.

From Venice, Treviso and Innsbruck you can be with us in under 3 hours. Other popular destinations for fly-drivers are Verona, Milan, Brescia, Bergamo and Munich, which are 4 to 5 hours from us.

If a stay with Collett’s is part of a bigger holiday itinerary, then it is easy for us to arrange one way car hire for you. (although a one-way drop off fee may apply, which is payable locally). If you require a People Carrier or a 9-seater, book early.

how it works

If you require a hire car, we will send you a quote when you book your holiday.

This quote is valid for 14 days. If you choose to proceed, we take care of all the relevant administration. Three weeks before your holiday we send you your car hire voucher along with detailed, step by step directions to your destination.

Payment for car hire is due with your holiday balance, 8 weeks prior to your departure.

Collett's can arrange car hire from any European airport or city. We can also arrange one way car hire within Italy – i.e. pick up at one airport, drop off at another.

£75 per person return.

Our transfer service is not a personal taxi service and waiting can be unavoidable, so please do not book a transfer unless you are relaxed about the possibility of having to kill time either in Venice or Treviso (if time permits) or at the airport. We can arrange car hire or taxi transport (expensive) for you if you would prefer to eliminate the possibility of waiting.

In short, we send one vehicle down to the airport to drop off all our departees for their flights home, whilst the same vehicle will collect all our arrivals to take them up to the mountains. The transfer vehicle will drop off and collect from both Venice Marco Polo and Venice Treviso airports, which are about 25 minutes from each other. Thankfully, Treviso Airport is just off the motorway that takes you from Venice Marco Polo Airport to the Dolomites, so dropping in at Treviso is only a short detour.

Transfer Times – We will contact you about 2 weeks before your holiday with the times of your transfers. These are determined by the flight times of everyone we collect on that day but 5pm is the deadline for a transfer, as this allows us to get everyone up to the mountains in time for dinner. We try to keep waiting to a minimum but we can make no guarantees. For example, if your flight lands at 11am and we have other arrivals landing at 4.30pm, the transfer is likely to set off at 5pm. On the other hand, you might be our only arrivals on that day, in which case we will meet you from your flight and take you straight to your destination.

Journey Time to Corvara and Pedraces Badia - 3hrs

Homebound Transfers on your day of departure, be prepared for an early start. If someone has a flight home at 11.00am, we have to leave the mountains at about 6am - 11.00am is the earliest we allow guests to book a return flight (not in bold). Again, departure times are dictated by the flight times of all our transferees.

Venice & Treviso Hotels – many people choose to tag on a short stay in Venice or Treviso at one end of their holiday. Being in Venice already at the start of your holiday means you can make your way to meet a transfer at your leisure. Booking into Venice at the end of your stay means you can relax at your hotel in Venice and catch up on a few hours sleep in the event of you having to get out of bed for a 6am transfer down from the mountains.

Alternatives – the alternatives to the airport transfer are as follows:

• Consider a fly-drive – we can help you arrange a safe, comprehensive and competitive car hire package giving you ultimate flexibility during your stay in the mountains.
• Taxi – efficient but expensive – about €350 one way.
• Public Transport – efficient, cheap but longwinded and time consuming – almost impossible to do if you arrive at the airport after 12 noon. Contact us if you would like to know more.

lose – print

Take the train to Venice
overnight via Paris

With people increasingly using train travel to move around Europe, here are some notes that might be helpful.

The train route to Venice goes via Paris.

Fairly soon you will be able to book trains from any major UK railway station to Venice Mestre or Venice Santa Lucia via the Eurostar website.

Currently, however, you can only book from London through to Venice . This can be done at www.eurostar.com

Other options include booking London/Paris using www.eurostar.com and then using www.raileurope.co.uk to book the second leg from Paris to Venice. See www.seat61.com/Italy.htm for details of travelling to Venice by train.

Unless you are staying in (or visiting) Venice, our advice is to disembark at Venice Mestre (every train stops there).

From here, you can hire a car or jump on a bus. They make the 15 minute bus trip to Venice Marco Polo Airport about every 30 minutes.

Self-drivers should allow 12 hours from Calais via the impressive Brenner Pass and may want to include an overnight stop en route, although with more than one driver it is feasible to do the journey in one stint. We reccommend P&O Ferries for crossings from Dover to Calais.

Please contact us on 01799 513331 for more information, help or advice.