Clear green and blue water, stunning and unique mountain peaks in each direction and antique Italian row boats-what more could you want!? Lago Di Braies also know as Pragser Wildsee offers them all, and that’s the reason it’s one of the most photographed lakes in Europe. While spending a day here you’ll find many hiking trails, a place to catch lake trout and multiple viewpoints to enjoy while you relax in your hammock. I recommend putting Lago Di Braies on the top of your bucket list when visiting Northern Italy.

HOW TO GET TO LAGO DI BRAIES

From our apartment(read more about where to stay at the end of this post) it took us 45 minutes to get to to Lago Di Braies. We typed in Pragser Wildsee but either one will get you there using google maps. Google Maps will bring you straight to the parking lot and it’s 6 euros a day for parking. There’s no hike to this lake, you’ll walk about 5 minutes from the parking lot. If you’re looking to just spend a 1/2 day here, do the walk around the lake and give yourself 2-3 hours. The most common picture you will see of Lago di Braies is the one above. The old wooden building is a photographers dream, especially with the beautiful backdrop! The boats you see underneath can be rented for 25 euros an hour. Lago Di Braies gets very busy in the summer, the crowds starts around 10 AM. We were here in the early morning at the end of September so it wasn’t very busy.  If you want to eliminate those crowds entirely get here for sunrise.The wooden building might be photographed the most but during your walk around Lago di Braies you’ll stop to take a ton from many other viewpoints. This one was my personal favorite.The walk around the lake is easy so don’t worry about preparing for a strenuous hike. I wouldn’t call them beaches but there are some sandy areas you can get closer to the water!The many pines surrounding Lago Di Braies was one of my favorite things about this place.

ALWAYS GET HIGHER

The hike around Lago Di Braies is great but I always want to get a hike in when I can. We decided to do hike 58 because it was only 2.5 hours. Well. So we thought. Long story short it took us much longer, but who cares when it brought us to this view!
This hike provides many views of the surrounding mountain peaks and they are gorgeous!There is a lot of loose gravel here so I would recommend hiking boots for sure. So a big lesson we learned that day is to always find out if the hike times are listed as round-trip or to the viewpoint.🙈 Every National Park and/or country does it differently. We assumed this hiked was round-trip when really it was 2.5 hours to the viewpoint. Keep this in mind if you are on a tight schedule! At this viewpoint, there’s a cute little bench. It’s a great place to carve your name and enjoy a snack looking over Lago Di Braies.Once you make it back down to the lake (It took us almost 5 hours round-trip), put up your hammock between two beautiful pines and watch the sunset. This is one of my favorite hammock views to date.

WHERE TO STAY WHEN VISITING LAGO DI BRAIES

If you’re in this part of the world don’t think twice, just book a room at Gassler in Innichen. This is one of the most beautiful places I have ever stayed at and the cheapest for how wonderful it is. The best part? Walking out on our deck on a sunny day to see this! Unreal. 😍A family lives below and rents out the two upstairs apartments and this place, wowza. Not only are the views beautiful, the apartment is very clean and super cozy.The apartment sleeps four and has a great kitchen.Stock the fridge with cheap and delicious wine (1.5 litres for $5 USD) and use the stovetop to make some ravioli, tortellini, gnocchi or one of the many pastas Italy has to offer!  If you’d prefer to go out the apartment is close to a couple of restaurants. We tried Helmhotel and loved it! Their pizza and service was great, red and white checkered table clothes give it a real Italian feel. We met some locals and they said it’s definitely the place to be!

Have you been to Lago Di Braies? Did you hike or just walk around the lake? If so did you have better luck hiking Trail 58? Let me know and comment below!

Looking for more to do in Northern Italy? Check out my blog post about another great lake to hike to, Lago Di Sorapis!