Rifugio Munt de Sennes

Rifugio Munt de Sennes is an alpine hut in Fanes-Sennes-Braies. It sits at 2176 m.

Hut to hut on foot

Nearest staffed huts on walking trails from Rifugio Munt de Sennes: Rifugio Sennes (~27 min), Rifugio Fodara Vedla (~1 h 12 min), Rifugio Biella (~1 h 12 min).

Estimated times for an average hiker, based on distance and elevation.

Staying at Rifugio Munt de Sennes

A fifteen-bed working farm on the Sennes plateau: the quiet alternative next door to the Alta Via 1 crowds, with cheese and butter made on site.

The Alpe di Sennes is one of the great set pieces of Alta Via 1: a rolling, treeless plateau inside the Fanes-Sennes-Braies Natural Park where cattle graze under Croda Rossa and the Fanes peaks. Most trekkers bed down at the big Rifugio Sennes, the route’s official stopover. Half an hour’s walk away across the same pastures, Munt de Sennes is the family-run alternative: a dozen-odd beds, a working dairy, and none of the queue. Lucia and Lukas run it as a working alpine farm first and a hut second, which is exactly its appeal.

Staying the night

Just a handful of small, simple rooms, more farmhouse than trekking factory, at roughly 2,150 m on the open pastures. There is no online booking system here: reservations go through email, phone or WhatsApp directly with the hosts, which suits a hut this size. Expect basic comfort rather than post-renovation polish; the setting and the welcome are the point, not the fittings.

The food

Guests consistently single out the breakfast and the dairy: eggs, butter and cheese produced right at the hut, and more than one reviewer calls the butter the best they have had anywhere in the Dolomites. The kitchen keeps to simple, local plates rather than a long menu, in keeping with the small-farm character.

Booking reality

With very few beds and no seat on the big CAI or hotel portals, this fills fast whenever Alta Via 1 traffic peaks in July–August; email or WhatsApp well ahead for those dates. Outside peak weeks it is far more forgiving than its busier neighbour. Open roughly June to October, in step with the rest of the Sennes plateau huts.

Getting there

The direct path across the plateau from Rifugio Sennes takes about 30–45 minutes, an easy detour for anyone walking the Alta Via 1 stage through the Fanes-Sennes-Braies park. Rifugio Fodara Vedla is roughly 1.5 h further across the same pastures, which makes a loop of the plateau’s three huts a realistic half-day even without a full pack.

Good to know

• Croda del Becco, with its view down onto Lago di Braies, is a popular half-day objective from the Sennes plateau huts.
• There is no online booking widget: contact the hosts directly and expect a personal reply rather than an automated confirmation.
• Staying here instead of the busier Rifugio Sennes next door trades a little convenience for a quieter evening on the same pastures.