Paneveggio Visitors Center

The centre is a museum first. Interactive displays cover the forest outside the windows, the animals of the park and the history of the valley, and they are pitched so children work through them as readily as adults. Then you step outside and the subject is standing in front of you: a trail leads through the spruce to the lake, easy going and manageable with small children. A tourist information office stands beside the entrance, which makes the building a sensible first stop before going deeper into the park.

• Toilets and water — restrooms are inside; there is no public toilet or drinking water point outside, so fill bottles before the walk to the lake.
• Cards work — credit and debit cards are accepted, so you do not need to bring cash.
• Two names — maps and local listings also carry it as Centro Visitatori "Terra Foresta", with a tourist information office next to it.
• Good with children — the museum is built around hands-on displays, and the walk to the lake is manageable with small children.

The centre stands directly on the SS50 at Paneveggio, so most people arrive by car: the nearest car park is about 130 m from the entrance, with a second parking area beside it. By bus, the Paneveggio stop is roughly 160 m away and Bivio Passo Valles about 375 m. Neither approach leaves more than a few hundred metres on foot, and the door opens straight off the roadside site rather than at the end of a path.

Better: the morning session, which leaves the afternoon for the forest trail to the lake.

Avoid: arriving in the middle of the day — the centre shuts for an hour over lunch and only reopens for the afternoon.

The visit is indoors from end to end, so this is the part of the park that still works when the weather closes in.