Garden globetrotting: The Dolomites

For a mountain holiday with a difference, Catherine Mansley found that South Tyrol offers something for all the family to enjoy, including gardens and plants galore

- Catherine Mansley, Head of Digital

It's not often that you can visit somewhere breathtakingly beautiful that's only a two-hour flight from London and that's largely undiscovered by British tourists. My family and I travelled to South Tyrol, a province of northern Italy that was part of Austria until World War One. It's nestled in the Dolomites mountain range. As we drove, zigzagging up into the mountains, with dramatic valleys falling away to the side and cable cars zipping over us, I was grateful that I'd given everyone a travel sickness tablet before we set off. We stayed at the AKI Family Resort in Plose, where we were the only Brits. In the winter, the hotel caters to skiers, but in spring and summer, when we visited, it's a dream destination for walkers and nature lovers.