My fiancee Harmony and I are getting married in October and we had thought we would go to Italy for our honeymoon. As plans are beginning to take shape, we thought what if we spent our times traveling the Alps rather than a lot of historic sites.

We are hikers not skiers, so we are curious what the hiking conditions are like in the Alps during mid-to-late October. Would we be better off visiting the Alps at a different time and sticking to other places this go around? Any input is much appreciated!

Thanks!

I agree with Borut, a few days in Venezia and then you can go up in the Dolomiti, in october you can climb a lot of summits below 3000 m.

Hello,

I just came back home after 20 days in Dolomites. And on the way back I've passed Venice for one night/half day. It could be really not very nice place, depends how do you like a lot of tourists... it's a very nice town between 11 pm till 9 am - then a milion people will step on your foots

About Dolomites - a lot of people preffer to go hiking there in September-October, I also hope to be near by at ths time (Julian Alps). Just keep in mind to be prepared for very low temperatures - just 2 weeks ago I've got some snow around Cimon della Palla at like just 2300 meters and before sunset it was minus few degrees with hard wind - in the middle of July. The best part - you will not meet many tourist at this time, now there are really a lot of people.

Good Luck!

September is the most popular month for hiking the Alps. Snow will be gone everywhere except the glaciars.

Oktober might be fine, too. But there is a risc of rain, snow and rather cold weather in autumn. Europe also had some recent years, when Oktober was "golden" with calm and sunny weather.

Since this summer is bringing thunderstorm after thunderstorm until now, maybe weather will calm down in autumn?!

If you can enjoy hiking also in bad weather, you should go. But bring good gear for going to higher areas.

Check out the tour de Mont Blanc: hiking a circle around Mont Blanc. Half way in Italy, half in France. Might be nice for honeymoon and definitely won't be overcrowded in Oktober.

It may depend of your air carrier ie. where in Europe/Italy are you going to land.
Venice is easy to get to by train.
Main train station (Santa Lucia) is close to historical part of the town.
And from Venice its easy to train to Verona. Verona is city of Romeo and Juliet,
good place for honeymooners
After those two historical sites, get either coastal coach service from Verona to Garda lake,
or train it to Peschiera di Garda.
There you have several hiking options, starting with Monte Baldo. There is regular gondola
service from Malcesina down on the coast up to Baldo main ridge.
Baldo is already uploaded here on SP, for further details one may contact site mantainer
Tiziana.
This way or another, best wishes to you and your spouse. Have a nice honeymoon.

I was in N. Italy the last week of September last year. Autumn had not yet arrived, the apple crop was tremendous and the petunias were still filling the widow boxes in the alpine villages. We stayed at a killer-good hotel that I would highly recommend for a honeymoon. Here is the link: http://www.hotel-miramonti.com/

The cost is reasonable for such a fine place (less than the Ahwahnee).

You can hike right from the hotel into the forest. A short bus ride takes you to the trail head for climbing a sweet peak called the Ifinger. You can also scope out huts that take you on trails and into the NW part of the Dolomites. This area is also called the South Tyrol.

Merano is so nice! We arrived after a 4 hr train ride from Venice. Take the trains everywhere they are great. Get a 1st class ticket but don't pay extra for a reserved seat, you won't need to. Venice is really good but super expensive. It's like a giant Disneyland for grownups. You can stay just outside the city for about a 3rd the cost and bus in and out on a day pass that is also good for all the water buses.