Landing at Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)
Venice is the gateway most people searching for a Dolomites ski week already have in mind, and it has the widest flight choice of the four. It is 180 km and about 3 hours to San Cassiano, north off the coastal plain and up into the mountains, and a private car is £392.
Meeting your hoppa driver
Your driver waits in the arrivals hall, holding a name board with your surname. Twenty-four hours before pickup hoppa sends a final SMS or WhatsApp with the exact spot and your driver's contact details.
- Airport arrivals carry 60 minutes of free waiting after your scheduled landing, plus a 30 minute buffer on international flights
- Your driver tracks the inbound flight, so a delay moves the pickup rather than losing it
- If you cannot see them, stay where you are and call the number on your e-ticket. hoppa answers in an average of 11 seconds, and it is a person, not a chatbot
Tip: save the emergency number from your e-ticket to your phone before you leave the terminal. Signal is fine on the plain and thins out once the road starts climbing.
Baggage & ski gear
Skis and boards are checked in as special baggage and come off a designated oversized belt rather than the standard carousel. Tell hoppa how many ski, board and boot bags you are carrying when you book, so the vehicle sent has the space. The standard allowance is one bag per person up to 24 inches, and anything longer counts as two pieces, which a ski bag almost always does.
Landing somewhere else instead
Four airports price a transfer into this village and they are not interchangeable. Book the transfer for the airport you are actually landing at:
- Treviso (TSF) — from £358, the cheapest of the four, and the only one with no published distance or drive time
- Innsbruck (INN) — 130 km, about 2 hr 30 min, from £376. Cheapest from 5 seats to 14, and nothing above 14
- Venice Marco Polo (VCE) — 180 km, about 3 hr, from £392. Widest flight choice, and 16 seats for £2,298
- Verona (VRN) — 250 km, about 3 hr 30 min, from £625. The longest and the dearest at every size
Off the plain, then up
Three of the four gateways sit on the flat ground south of the mountains, so the journey has two halves: a fast run inland, then a climb into the Dolomites at the end. Innsbruck is the exception. It approaches from the Austrian side and crosses the frontier on the way down, and at 130 km it is the shortest of the four.
Worth knowing: you will see wildly different distances quoted for the Venice run — 123 km and 173 km both circulate — because operators measure the route differently. The figure used here is the resort's own 180 km, which is the actual road distance. Do not plan against anything shorter.
Where you are dropped, and why the address matters
Alta Badia is a valley with several villages in it, and San Cassiano is one of them, not a synonym for the whole area. Type the ski area into the booking and a driver can reasonably take you to a lift station in the next village along with the bags.
- Give the property name — hotel, apartment building or chalet, exactly as it is written on your accommodation booking
- Put San Cassiano beside it rather than Alta Badia or Dolomiti Superski
- Add a phone number that will work in Italy, so the driver can reach you at the door rather than circling
The climb at the end
The plain is ordinary winter driving. The last part is not: the road gains height into the mountains to reach the village, and that stretch takes weather hard while the valley floor below it is merely wet. It is exactly why the operators on these routes are local and winter-equipped.
Your first day on the hill
The lift pass here is Dolomiti Superski, linking over 1,200 km of pistes, so the first decision of the week is not which run but how far from your bed you are willing to get. The terrain runs from long easy cruising to genuine black runs, and the pale rock walls above it are the reason people come back.
Getting to the lifts
- On foot or by local ski bus — the village is small and the lifts are part of it, which is the advantage of booking a resort rather than a valley
- Your transfer — hoppa drops you at your accommodation, so the daily run to the lifts is a separate arrangement
- Further afield — Arabba is 19 km, Val Gardena 35 km and Kronplatz 50 km, some of it linked on the pass and some of it a drive
Tip: plan the long circuits for a settled day. On a 1,200 km network it is easy to finish a long way from the village, and the way home is a lift sequence with a closing time on it.
Timing your arrival
A morning flight into Innsbruck or Treviso has you in the village by mid-afternoon, which on a week's holiday is most of a day. An evening flight means a night arrival and a full first day instead. Transfers run through the night on these routes; a nighttime surcharge applies between 22:00 and 08:00 local time and is already inside the price you agreed.
If the weather closes in
South Tyrol is a good place to lose a day. The village has a serious eating culture for its size, Bolzano is 75 km away for a town day, and Cortina d'Ampezzo is 56 km and about 1 hour 30 if you want a change of scene rather than a change of piste.
Practical essentials
Your transfer, in numbers
- Free waiting on airport arrivals: 60 minutes after your scheduled landing, plus a 30 minute buffer on international flights
- Free waiting on departures and point-to-point: 15 minutes after the scheduled pickup time
- Cancellation: 24 hours before travel on 7 seats and under, 48 hours on 8 to 14 seats, 14 days on 16 seats and above, all for a full refund
- Child seats: the first one is free. Request it at booking
- Luggage: one bag per person up to 24 inches. Over 24 inches counts as two pieces
- Nighttime surcharge: 22:00 to 08:00 local time, already included in the price you agree
- Booking inside 24 hours: possible, with an expedited booking fee
- Pets and service animals: permitted, counting toward the vehicle's passenger allowance
Paying for it
Your transfer is paid once, upfront, in the currency you booked it in, so there is nothing to settle with the driver and no cash to find at the end of a long day. hoppa takes Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Maestro and PayPal.
Crossing the border from Innsbruck
The Innsbruck run starts in Austria and finishes in Italy. Carry the documents you would carry for any international trip and keep your GHIC or EHIC to hand. Your booking is one journey end to end, frontier included, and the driver handles the crossing as part of the run.
Winter driving on these routes
The approaches across the plain are ordinary. The climb into the Dolomites at the end of each of them is not, and it can be a question in heavy snow when everything below is clear. Every vetted operator on these routes runs winter-equipped vehicles and knows the roads. If you hire a car instead, check what is fitted before you leave the airport.
If something goes wrong
hoppa's support team answers in an average of 11 seconds, 24/7, across chat, email and phone, with a 99.7% call answer rate. The hoppa help centre is the place to start if you would rather read the answer than ask for it. Any complaint must reach customer service within 30 days of the date of service.