San Cassiano, a charming village nestled in the heart of the Italian Alps in the Dolomites, is not only known for its breathtaking mountain views and world-class skiing, but also for its incredible snowboarding opportunities – which is what we did during our visit.

If you’re a snow sports enthusiast, we think San Cassiano should be your next must-visit winter destination for your holidays. As well as snowboarding, they have skiing, activities for kids, tobogganing, winter explorations and snowshoe hiking. There are also a few spa’s you could try too. So there is something for everyone!

This is post is written and based on our first time ever trying snowboarding with lessons, based in San Cassiano in Italy.

San Cassiano

Our dear friends had already booked a hotel in San Cassiano for their family skiing trip, so when they invited us to join them, we couldn’t resist. We had no idea where San Cassiano was until then!

We arrived by car, which was most easiest for us with our luggage from Lugano. It was a nice drive via Lake Garda and easy to do in a day. We drove through Bolzano, which seems to be the largest city in the area near San Cassiano. We saw that most people did arrive with their own car to San Cassiano, however there is a local bus that passes through the valley that looked very convenient too.

We arrived as the sun was setting, which was beautiful in the valley. By morning, we were greeted by sunshine, good weather and the snow! Our exciting week of snowboarding and local explorations was about to begin!

Facts About San Cassiano

Here are some facts about San Cassiano, which we also learnt when visiting:

• It is nestled at an elevation of about 1,537 meters (5,043 feet) above sea level.
• San Cassiano is situated in the South Tyrol region in Northern Italy.
• The village is named after Saint Cassian, with the local church (middle photo above) dedicated to him is a notable landmark.
• Here they speak three languages: Italian, German, and Ladin, a Rhaeto-Romance language.
• For winter sports, San Cassiano is a great location to be in. It is part of the Alta Badia ski resort, offering access to extensive skiing and snowboarding facilities like our own snowboarding experience.
• There is a museum called Museum Ladin Ursus ladinicus that provides insight into the region’s Ladin culture and history, including the prehistoric bear species Ursus ladinicus discovered in the area.

WHere to Stay: Ciasa Soplà

We had booked ourselves into Ciasa Soplà, which was at last minute but a lovely little studio with everything we needed, from good kitchen facilities, fresh daily bread service and a comfy bed for after our snowboarding sessions!

The layout of our little apartment at Ciasa Soplà was quite spacious, with a living and dining room area combined into a large room. There was a separate kitchen area, and the bedroom that included a double bed and a single bed. The bathroom was good with a large shower, toilet and huge sink area.

For 7 nights during January, this was also a great price of around 800 EUR only. It was also just a short 10 minute walk (or to use their shuttle bus taxi service) to the San Cassiano ski lift. Very ideal!

The only downside is that during a Winter vacation, it’s always nice to have a spa or sauna facility for relaxing after a day on the slopes, which this apartment didn’t have. But for the price and everything else, it was perfect.

San Cassiano Snowboarding

San Cassiano Rentals

We rented our snowboards, boots and helmets at Ski & Bike Rental Skibar. This was really great as their location was right next to the ski lift and the start of where our snowboarding lessons would start.

Since we were brand new at snowboarding, they also helped make sure we had reserved the right sizes and gave us the right boots to try. We had worked it out when we made the reservation weeks before, but was good to have that check.

The rental cost for us was around 253,80 EUR.

As we rented from them, we also were allowed to store our snowboarding boots, snowboarding helmet and snowboard equipment in their storage facility for free. So that in the end saved us money renting from them directly. But you can also rent a storage spot from them if you have your own equipment. Then you need to carry your equipment back to your accommodation every day.

If you choose to rent from the same place, it’s really ideal as you can also check in and pick up your rented items after 18:00 the day before. So we checked all of this the day before our snowboarding lessons.

San Cassiano Snowboarding Lessons

We had reserved in advance to have snowboarding lessons from: Ski and Snowboard School San Cassiano. We decided to have lessons for 4 days worth, which we picked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday – so that Thursday was our free day to ‘practice’.

We found out after that they had only 2 snowboarder instructors (when we went in January 2024), as it’s not popular to snowboard in San Cassiano. Whereas they have quite a few ski instructors for all levels. However we did see quite a few snowboarders here, so we we were not the only ones!

Our instructor from the school was Magnani Luca, such a friendly, good English speaking teacher who clearly has a big passion snowboarding himself, and from our experience a really good teacher for us as beginners. But we also saw him teaching others at different levels. We really appreciate that he didn’t give up on us when we started struggling, gave us some good tips regarding the balance of the board and had the patience.

For the lessons, we met the first morning at bottom of the Piz Sorega cable car. Where everyone starts with your ski pass to head up to the lesson area. For the other mornings, we then met at the very top already.

We started on the ‘codes’ slope from Piz Sorega, and then by the end of the week we headed over to a few others such as ‘blok’ slope.

Nearby Tours and Activities during Winter

One day hike with snowshoes to discover Dolomites

Winter Hiking & Sledding Experience

The Dolomites at night with snowshoes

The Alta Badia Ski Pass

While staying in San Cassiano, you will need the ski pass for enjoying the winter activities at the top of the mountain. We decided to take the Alta Badia ski pass for the full Monday to Friday so that we would enjoy our lessons during the mornings of Monday to Wednesday, then enjoy Thursday and Friday for ourselves to practice.

The ski pass lets you leave San Cassiano with your gear and up into the mountain, but also with all the other lifts as well. So with our 1 pass we had access to all of the lifts we needed for our snowboarding lessons and practice.

For our 5 snowboarding days, we booked the ski pass as soon as we booked the accommodation. There was a discount when buying online in advance, so it costed us around 250 EUR each for 5 days, instead of like 300-350 EUR each. So worth doing the same if there’s a discount!

Where To Eat In San Cassiano

In the village of San Cassiano, we ate out a few times, but also made use from our little kitchen from the apartment. The region itself boasts high-quality cuisine, with the main influences from Italian, Austrian, and Ladin culinary traditions. Some Michelin-starred restaurants are also located here.

The places we tried included:

• Pizzeria Ristorante Bar La Vedla – They have the best pizza in San Cassiano!
• Café Ploner – a lovely little cafe with fresh cakes and treats. Was very busy every day, so you can also consider taking something away.
• Wine Bar Emoziun – We ate here with our friends at a table in the wine cellar, and it was a delicious 3 course meal followed by open buffet of cheeses and toppings. Delicious!

TIP: We suggest to always make a reservation for any of the restaurants in San Cassiano, as they can be pretty booked up during winter season.

While we were up the top of the mountain during our snowboarding lessons, we also ate at a few of the top restaurants. These included:

• Rifugio Ütia Bioch – great place for more fine dining, delicious hot meals and drinks and fantastic views from the indoor and outdoor seating. The photo below of the schnitzel and the two drinks are from here!
• Rifugio Piz Sorega – A popular place due to it’s starting location of the cable car, they have a bit of everything, but more canteen style vibe with
• Skihütte Las Vegas – this was our favourite place for soup and goulash (phot below) after a day of snowboarding!

Summary First Ever Snowboarding Experience

As first time snowboarders, snowboarding from San Cassiano and up with the Alta Badia ski pass was pretty amazing.

San Cassiano was a really lovely place to stay, small and quaint but cosy and fun. There were plenty of places to eat, as well as a little supermarket for us to buy and cook our own things. We loved exploring here by foot, as well as tobogganing (separate post on this soon!) and hiking in the snow.

It’s a great place also to spend time with friends, like we did. So even if you all have different levels and experiences, you can always meet up at lunch or for dinner to enjoy together.

After 5 days of snowboarding, I am still pretty beginner mode, but I definitely got to the point where I could complete wide turns successfully. Whereas Dawid was brilliantly flying down the slopes by day 5, even daring to do some little tricks and spins. Such a daredevil!

We would definitely head back to San Cassiano again, now that we have the confidence with a few slopes here. We would also try snowboarding again, it really got me out of my comfort zone and was not easy, but thats all part of learning something new!