The Dobbiaco to Lienz Cycle Path: 49 km Downhill All the Way, and How to Get Back

The real numbers of the route

From Dobbiaco to Lienz it's 49 kilometres. If you start from San Candido station, the most popular starting point because you can get there by train, it comes down to 44.

The descent is 500 metres from San Candido, which sits at 1,175 metres, to Lienz, at 673; from Dobbiaco it's a little more. There isn't a climb worth the name on the whole route, which is why this cycle path works even with children or for people who never ride.

The stated riding time is two to three hours, which becomes four or five if you stop to eat and take photos, and you will. The surface suits any kind of bike, and the route runs almost entirely away from the road.

• From Dobbiaco: 49 km
• From San Candido: 44 km
• Descent: 500 metres from San Candido, a little more from Dobbiaco, all downhill
• Time: 2 to 3 hours of actual riding
• Surface suitable for any bike, mostly away from cars

Getting back: the train with the bike carriage

This is what decides whether the day works. You come back from Lienz by train, and not just any train that tolerates bikes: on the line between Lienz and San Candido there's a train with a dedicated carriage, laid on precisely for people who have just ridden down.

You buy tickets for the return directly at Lienz station, so there's nothing to arrange before you set off. The train doesn't only stop at Lienz and Dobbiaco: you can also board at Sillian, Tassenbach, Abfaltersbach, Mittewald and Thal, which means you can cut the route short if you get tired or the weather turns.

Few bike trips give you that kind of freedom: you can decide halfway to call it a day, and you won't be left stranded.

Your ID: it looks like a detail, and it isn't

Halfway along you cross the border between Italy and Austria, between Prato alla Drava and Sillian. There are no checks, and the crossing is so low-key you barely notice it.

Bring an identity document anyway: you're in another country, you're taking an Austrian train, and if anything goes wrong you'll need it. It's the kind of thing nobody mentions and that ruins the day for anyone who forgets.

The same goes for health cover: the European Health Insurance Card, or the UK GHIC, is valid in Austria, and on a bike a fall that needs patching up is always possible.

When to go, and what's different from the rest of the Dolomites

The cycle path can be ridden from late spring to autumn. In high summer it's busy in the middle of the day, but it's a different kind of crowding from the passes: here the path is wide, people spread out over fifty kilometres and don't all converge on one car park.

It's the exact opposite of the problem we measured at Passo Sella, where the car park usually fills between 9 and 11 am: there the pressure concentrates on one spot and a couple of hours, here it spreads across a whole valley.

September is probably the best month: clear air, fewer people, and the colours starting to turn along the river. The return train still runs then.

Where we got these figures

The distances, the descent and the riding time come from two travel portals covering Val Pusteria and Alta Pusteria, the pages listed as sources at the top. How the train with the bike carriage works, and where it stops along the way, comes from the same sources.

We checked on 7 August 2026 and check again every season, because timetables and services change. If you find something different on the ground, write to us: we'll correct it and update the date.

One clarification, because the figure often gets muddled: the 105 kilometres you sometimes read about aren't this route, they're the whole Val Pusteria cycle path from Rio di Pusteria to Lienz. From Dobbiaco down, it's 49.