Welcome to our Selva page for our 2008 summer holiday.
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Guide to Selva
If you have any questions, or suggestions to improve information given, please e-mail D and J.
Our holiday
Selva was our Summer holiday destination for 2008. This was our second visit to the Dolomites after our Rambler's Holiday to the Val di Fiemme in 2005. Selva turned out to be another excellent walking area and we had a very enjoyable holiday.
Selva
Selva lies in the Val Gardena in the Province of Bolzano in the Trentino Alto-Adige region of Italy. The Val Gardena is part of the Dolomites.
Selva is a popular resort at the eastern end of the Val Gardena. To the west of Selva and down the valley lie the resort of San Christina, and the main town of the valley Ortisei. The area is a very popular skiing area, and hosts one of the World Cup Downhill races every year. Selva is a spread out resort so be careful when choosing your hotel if you want a central location. Some of the hotels are a good 15 to 20 minutes walk away from the centre.
Selva is in a area that used to be part of Austria before the first world war, and both Italian and German are spoken by most people. It is also one of the few Ladin speaking areas, you will see signs and publications in all three languages. Although it is always useful and polite to know a few words of German or Italian, English is widely spoken, especially amongst younger people.
There is quite a range of shops in Selva, certainly everything to cater for your day to day needs, as well as a number of craft and gift shops. Woodcutting and sculpting are still a major industry for the area, and there are a few specialist shops in the area. There are quite a few shops specialising in outdoor equipment where Via ferrata gear could be hired. There is a large and modern Spar supermarket at the top of the streda Nives which sells a good range of food and drinks. There are is a number of banks, and the post office is in the Culture Centre close to the Hotel Oswald.
The Culture Centre is where the local mountain rescue group were giving slides shows of the area. On a Thursday evening the local band gave a concert in the large seated area in th municipal building complex off streda Nives. Opposite the Spar is the parish church of Selva. There is a large ice rink and stadium "Pranives" and a sports centre where you can play tennis and bowling. There is no public swimming pool in Selva, however there is a large public pool in Ortisei.
There is a large tourist office on streda Meisules where you can get general information and buy maps and the Val Gardena card. The also have a map showing walks around the village area which is free and worth getting.
We stayed at the Linder a 3 star superior hotel set just above streda Meisules. The hotel was in an excellent location, very close to the tourist information office and just across from the Ciampinoi cable car station and bus stops. The centre of the village and the Spar were about a five minute walk away. This was a really good hotel and it actually looked as pretty in real life as it did in the brochure, we would recommend it on the evidence of our two weeks stay. We had a good size room at the back of the hotel on the first floor with a sitting area with a very modern ensuite with bath and powerful shower. The room had a small balcony as well. On the ground floor were the public rooms, reception, a very pleasant dining area, bar and a small lounge. Breakfast was a buffet with a good choice of cereals, cold meats, cheeses, boiled eggs, breads and pastries. There was a choice of fruit juices and tea or coffee was brought to the table. Evening Meals were 4 courses preceded by an excellent help yourself salad buffet, The 4 courses were waitress served and comprised a pasta course, soup, main course and dessert. The food was of a very good standard with some excellent pasta. They also had a very good selection of local wines. Another bonus of staying at this hotel was use could be made of the swimming pool and spa at their sister hotel Nives, about 5 minutes walk away.
Our holiday was with Inghams You could make your own arrangements and drive there or fly to one of the Northern Italian airports such as Verona or Bergamo, then train to Bolzano and bus to Selva. There is a large choice of accommodation so you could go self catering or bed and breakfast. There are a number of restaurants in Selva, however with the pound weak against the euro meals out will probably be expensive.
Transport
There is a very good transport system for walkers in the Selva area. Walkers will need to use both the buses and the lifts to get the best out of the area. There is a very useful leaflet "Val Gardena Mobile Guide" available from your hotel or tourist information, which gives details and timetables for the various buses and lifts.
There is a pass, the Valgardena Card, which you should consider buying. You actually get two passes with the card, a lift pass covering 12 lifts in the area (we used 10 of them!) and a regional bus pass "Mobilcard East" which covers quite a large area. The cost of the Val Gardena card in 2008 was 60e, with the lift pass being valid for six days, and the bus pass was valid for 7 days, from 1st day of use.
There are two main bus routes that we used - one was the bus running up and down the Val Gardena, and the second was the Sella Ronda Bus.
There are a lot of lifts in the area. We used the following:
The "Coffin Lift" between Passo Sella and Forcella Sassolungo
The cable car between Selva and Ciampinoi.
The cable car betwen Selva and Dantercepies.
The cable car between Selva/San Cristina and Col Raiser.
The chairlift between San Cristina and Monte Pana.
The chairlift between Mont de Seura and Monte Pana.
The chairlift between Ortisei and Rasciesa.
The cable car between Ortisei and Mont Seuc.
The cable car/gondola between Ortisei and Furnes and Seceda.
The chairlift between Seceda and Fermeda.
The two lifts we did not use covered on the Valgardena card were:
The charilift between Passo Gardena and Dantercepies.
The Sole chairlift on the Alp di Siusa.
There were two lifts that we used in the Corvara area on the Piz Boe walk. Although these were not covered on the pass, we did receive a substantial reduction with the Valgardena card.
Walking
Selva and the Val Gardena is an excellent walking centre. There are four main walking areas close to the resort.
Puez Odle-Geisler Nature Reserve :- to the north of the valley. This is an area with meadows, grassy plateaus and rocky peaks and an extensive system of footpaths for all abilities. It is served by the Dantercepies, Col Raiser, Seceda and Rasciesa lifts.
Sassolungo Massif :- Selva's local mountain to the south of the village. This is a very impressive massif with paths around the mountains, most of the peaks in the massif are for climbers only but the Sasso Piatto has a path to the summit. This is served by the Ciampinoi and "Coffin" lifts.
Alpe di Siusa/Seiseralm Region :- To the south of the valley. This is a large high grassy plateeau with the Sciliar mountain range to the South. This is accessed by the Mont de Seura, and Mont Seuc lifts.
Sella Massif - to the east of the valley. A very large massif with the nearest access from Selva being the Passo Gardena. Piz Boe is the highest summit and there are lifts from Corvara and Passo Pordoi which take you up onto the massif.
In general the waymarking of the footpaths is very good with signposts and the traditional red and white paint splashes. There are a large number of huts, farms and cafes where you can get refreshments. The area is very popular so you you will tend to see a lot of hikers around.
Walks we did.
The walks have been described in chronological order.
Some extra photos.
Sellaronda bus trip
There are additional photos in our Selva set - float the cursor down the set till you come to "Sellaronda, Selva Day 5"
From Selva you can catch the bus to do the Sellaronda - it takes about we hours. We stopped in Corvara for facilities - there are some at the cable car station. We also stopped at Canazei for lunch. Then we stopped at Passo Sella to play on the coffin lift and intended to catch the bus - but Jackie had a head ache by this time and instead we walked back to Selva.
Mostly hotel
This page was last updated on 14th March 2009.