Reviews

Absolutely loved it!

Wow what a fabulous holiday! Our guide Thomas was brilliant, so easy to get along with, just a really nice guy! The hotel Adler was also great, the rooms are small but have everything you need plus you never spend any time in them. The food is outstanding especially the evening meal where you have 4 courses! We were very well fed and the people who work there were lovely and couldn’t do enough for you! The pool area is also really nice and great after a long hike! Be prepared for naked people in the sauna though 🙂

On to the hiking! I was a bit worried if it would be too hard but it wasn’t (level 3) it was perfect! You do need a fairly good level of fitness to make it enjoyable though. The stair stepper in the gym helped a lot. Hiking poles were a knee saver so take them if you need them but you can also borrow them from the hotel.

The scenery was absolutely stunning, it almost doesn’t look real. It’s hard to pick which was my favourite walk as they all had different things to enjoy. I particularly enjoyed the plentiful mountain huts for coffee & strudel stops!

The pace was good, everyone kept together and we had a really lovely group! After the hikes we all enjoyed a much deserved drink sat outside the hotel which was so nice.

It was a fabulous trip, our 4th one with Exodus and I can’t recommend them enough!

Trekking the Dolomites

The accommodations at the Adler were better than expected. The room was lovely and the staff (especially Jesus) were very friendly and efficient.
The hiking agenda had to be adjusted due to deteriorating weather conditions but it did not take away from the experience for me. Such a beautiful place!

Dramatic Dolomites

Wow…we have done years of hiking and climbing in mountains all over the world and the Dolomites do not disappoint . The geology and WWI history make the mountains very unique. Add in the charm of walking through green pastures with the sounds of cow bells and church bells, and you have quite the scene. Be ready for some good elevation gains and not a lot of switchbacks. The strudel and coffee stops at the Refugios help fuel the hikes. Hotel Adler is a great base camp. Spacious rooms and equipment storage with boot dryers plus old world charm. I wish I could say good things about the dinners. The billed Tyrolean special dinner was all fish (?). The vegetarian offerings were sad. The pasta was hard as was the risotto, and when I mentioned it to the waiter I was told dismissively it was “al dente”. The breakfast was delish and varied.

Awesome hiking destination

The hiking in the Dolomites was awesome. One day was a little long 20km and not very interesting given the extra distance. But overall, I enjoyed all the hikes. The food is the hotel was disappointing. As a vegetarian, my choices were limited and the servings were quite small. One day we had 3/4 of a potatoes as our main. Another day it was a marinated vegetable. The advertised Tryrolian dinner was also not very good. Although the waiter was able to secure a chicken schnitzel and fries for those of us not eating beef.
Dinners were also too long after. Full day of hiking.

Excellent trip

What a fabulous week in the Dolomites

Hiking without camping

Just finished a week of classic premium Dolomite hike. It was so much fun and we learned so much about this area. This is a beautiful area. So much history. We stayed the historic Adlers Hotel in Villabassa ( Niederdorf). Its location is very convenient with convenience stores and bus and train station just a few steps away. The rooms were spacious and comfortable. There is a pool and sauna in the hotel. Every meal was fabulous. There are no complaints about the food or service. There will be transport every morning to take us closer to the trailheads. The ability to come back every night to the same hotel is a great luxury. The hikes can be pretty strenuous but it is also incredible fun. We usually leave around 8:30 and comes back around 5pm. Picnic lunches at locations with spectacular views. Stiina, our guide takes us to different terrains and views every day. Not one day is the same. There are routes that I would not have thought it was a route and yet she took us through it. Stiina was fun and gave us clear instructions the night before so we know where we are going and what to expect. The group max at 16 including Stiina and this seems to be a prefect number. There is a variety of ages that comes to this trip. Loved it and definitely recommend this to anyone who loves hiking but prefer not to camp.

The walking was great

The walking in the Dolomites exceeded my expectations. The scenery was spectacular & the walks a good Level 3. However the hotel and food were less than expected for 4 star premium experience and really let the overall experience down.
As a solo traveller I was once again relegated to the back of the hotel in a room that, although a decent size, was very much in need of refurbishment. The tiny handkerchief size curtains on the windows afforded no privacy as my room looked straight out into the windows of the house behind. There were 2 single beds but luckily I found out that they could be made up into a double if requested, which basically meant pushing them together.
As another reviewer has said, the food was really poor and I can honestly say I didn’t enjoy any of the evening meals. The food that was delivered to the vegans & vegetarians was absolutely shameful.

Classic Dolomites

Good itinerary on holiday

Good in Parts

The Dolomites are amazing, rugged and beautiful; no one could fail to be impressed by them. Still, it would have been better if there had been less rain, then we might have seen a bit more of them! But mountain weather is often unpredictable and not something anyone can complain about; you just have to take what comes. Anyway, best to remember to take decent rain kit.
Hotel Adler is a nice place. The superior room that my wife and I opted for was roomy and very comfortable. Houskeeping was good and the staff in the hotel were friendly. However, the food was, to say the least, undewhellming. While breakfast was fine, the food at dinner was not great. Food was, while usually edible (although a piece of raw veal I was served was not) it was too often poorly cooked. We got the impression that the kitchen was a bit stressed, probably a result of being understaffed. Indeed, the hotel as a whole seemed to be shorthanded. Service in the bar, for example ,often seemed chaotic, with bar staff running around in the morning asking guests if they had purchased such and such. My guess is that it was a little early in the season and the hotel was operating without a full complement of staff. Frankly, the food was not what one would expect on what is described as a ‘Premium’ trip. We would have preferred to eat in the Adler’s a la carte restaurant, but when we were there it was closed, although were informed by hotel staff that it would be reopening later in June.

The best Exodus Adventure I have been a part of!

I took part in this tour from May 25-June 1, 2024. We had a fantastic tour leader, Stiina, who fit in so well with our group. She looked out for us during the hikes, making sure the group was safe and together and she had a great sense of humor and bonded very well with each of us. We had to be a bit flexible with a few days of hiking due to some rainy weather, but this is to be expected in the mountains. Flexibility and trust in your tour leader is KEY! She suggested alternative walks when it would not have been safe to do the ones as planned and we were able to still see amazing mountain views and partake in walks that have not been done before! Our group was great with the flexibility as well and we even as a whole decided to switch our free day so we could walk during a nicer day and explore nearby areas on a slightly more rainy day. The Hotel Adler is also fabulous! The staff are very attentive and go the extra mile for the guests. The rooms are beautiful, comfortable and clean. The spa was such a nice thing to come back to at the end of each hiking day as well. The food was phenomenal the entire week and they did an amazing job to cater to different food restrictions such as gluten free, vegetarian and vegan! We had two groups doing this tour during the same week and the leaders did a fantastic job to not make us feel like we were part of an overall large group. The other tour leader, Kris, was also fantastic and it was so nice at the end of the day to recoup with the other group members during dinner and chat about what they did and saw that day. Fantastic trip, great leaders, amazing hotel and the food will not disappoint!