How to book your Walker’s Haute Route accommodation like a pro
Walker’s Haute Route refuges provide more than just necessary accommodation, they give hikers a chance to experience the renowned alpine culture that brings together the European mountain sports and farming communities.
While many of the wonderful Walker’s Haute Route refuges will feature on your ideal self-guided hiking itinerary, what do you do if they have no availability when you go to book your own trip? Of course, you can change your dates or even defer your trip to the following year…but what if your dates are fixed, and you want to go this summer?
Over the last 5 years, I’ve been observing, advising, and booking accommodation on the Walker’s Haute Route. I’ve developed techniques for designing creative itineraries that are inspiring, achievable, and available to book, even weeks out from planned trip dates.
In this blog post, I share accommodation booking tips for the Walker’s Haute Route and my top 3 booking tricks for finding accommodation that will keep your trip alive. Here is a summary of what I’ll cover if you want to skip ahead.
Accommodation Booking Tips
The complete list of Walker’s Haute Route accommodation (not just the refuges)
Best time to start booking your accommodation for the Walker’s Haute Route
Accommodation Booking Tricks
Accommodation Booking Tips
Rather than give you the general advice to ‘book early’, I’m going to share some specific information about accommodation on the Walker’s Haute Route to help you prepare for making your own bookings.
The complete list of Walker's Haute Route accommodation
It’s essential to know all the accommodation options available along the trail in case your first choice is fully booked. I’ve put 120+ private room, shared room, and campground properties along the Walker’s Haute Route on the following list. The goal is for it to be the most complete, up-to-date list of Walker’s Haute Route accommodation which also includes the links and information on how to book each one.
How do you book Walker's Haute Route Accommodation?
The 120+ properties I monitor are situated in 54 locations along the Walker’s Haute Route trail. You can book all of them yourself. 70% of the locations have properties that can be booked online, the rest can be booked via email, phone, or by submitting a form on their website. Of those that can be booked online, there are 3 places you can make these bookings;
On the Tour du Mont Blanc Association website
The Walker’s Haute Route overlaps with the Tour du Mont Blanc between Chamonix and Champex Lac. The Tour du Mont Blanc, being the most popular multi-day hike in the Alps, has a well-organised association.
9% of the properties on the Walker’s Haute Route have their properties listed on the Tour du Mont Blanc association website, which has an online booking engine. This is the primary place to book these properties
Each property starts loading its availability onto this website from the beginning of October for the next hiking season. The last properties load their availability onto this website in December.
Direct on a property website
59% of the properties we monitor have an online booking engine on their website
Most of these properties are located in the big villages (Chamonix, Champex Lac, Verbier, Arolla, Zinal, Zermatt)
While some properties list their availability 12 months in advance, it isn’t until the end of the year that most properties have their next summer availability listed
On an accommodation aggregator website, like Booking.com
Just under 41% of the properties we monitor along the trail list rooms on aggregator websites like Booking.com
Most of these properties also have booking engines on their website (included in category 2 above). 8 properties only list their online availability on Booking.com - otherwise, you need to email or call them to book direct
Properties on Booking.com usually offer a generous free cancelation condition, which is a great way to ‘hold’ a booking while you check availability for all your other locations.
Listing on these aggregator websites usually increases as the hiking season nears with properties trying to sell surplus rooms they still have available.
Best time to start booking your accommodation for the Walker's? Haute Route
To have the pick of accommodation, you need to have your itinerary finalised by the end of September and be ready to pounce on your preferred refuges as they start listing their availability/responding to booking requests from the beginning of October.
While you should start booking in October, it is important to be patient. Between October and January, some of the refuges only respond to email booking requests every 2-4 weeks. Also, some properties (for example, Cabane de Moiry) only start accepting bookings from April for the summer so it may take you over 6 months to complete this process.
Accommodation Booking Tricks
Not everyone can be prepared to book their Walker’s Haute Route accommodation 9-12 months out. In fact, our research shows that only about 25% of hikers intending to do the trail in the following season are.
As the hiking season nears, it becomes more difficult to find properties with availability for a sequence of preferred dates. By January, it starts becoming harder to find beds at popular locations, especially if you want private rooms or are planning to stay at the busiest locations on weekends throughout July and August. That said, every year people are able to book weeks out and even during the start of the season with no issues - without visibility of online availability along the entire trail, you’ve just got to start to see.
Before you consider camping or deferring your trip to the following year, I recommend trying my 3 booking tricks to see if you can find enough availability to keep your dream of doing the Walker’s Haute Route next season alive!
Cabane de Louvie: This mountain hut is on the doorstep of the Grand Desert and the first to open along the trail each year.
1. Locations to book first
There are 3 locations along the Walker’s Haute Route that become the hardest to find availability as we approach the hiking season. Once you are happy with your itinerary, I recommend checking availability/booking these locations first. Other locations can still become fully booked, however, if you are able to secure bookings in these 3 areas, you’ve got a good chance of finding availability for the rest of your hike too.
1. Vallée du Trient, Switzerland
There is a hotel at Col de la Forclez, 2 in Trient, and a refuge in Le Peuty. Despite there being a lot of beds available, it is a necessary stop for the Tour du Mont Blanc and is popular with local hikers. The next accommodation is over 4 hours away (Champex d'en Haut) and therefore out of reach for most hikers.
If you can’t find accommodation availability in Vallee du Trient, the alternative locations to consider first are Refuge Col de Balme and the gite at Charamillon. This will shorten your first day of hiking but still make day 2 achievable, with the easiest route via Alp Bovine to Champex d'en Haut taking 6 or 7 hours respectively.
If you can’t find accommodation in this area, you can use public transport to reach Martigny for the night and return the following day. The details you need for the local bus are;
Operating: Every day of the year
First/last departure Trient: Between 6.45am / 6:45pm.
First/last departure Martigny: Between 6.00am / 6:00pm.
Frequency: ~Every 3 hours
Cost: CHF 10.40 per adult one way
Journey duration: 40 mins
Check the latest timetable: bus timetable
Click to see the available accommodation in Martigny (Bus drops off/picks at the station, so choose something near here).
Alternative options to staying in Vallée du Trient: Slide from our Walker’s Haute Route Planning Workshop
2. Turtmann Valley
The second location you should book first is the Turtmann Valley, which has the small summertime only village of Gruben. It has one hotel and a mountain hut at the top of the valley overlooking the Turtmann Glacier.
Nearly every Haute Route hiker needs to spend a night in this valley. To skip over it, you will need to be able to hike over 10 hours between Hotel Weisshorn and the Jungen cable car which can transport you to St Niklaus - these are the two closest locations with accommodation on either side of the Turtmann Valley.
If there is no availability at Hotel Schwarzhorn (in Gruben) or Turtmannhutte, your next best option is to catch a local bus to Oberems where you will find a hotel. The details you need for the local bus are;
Operating: Mid Jun / Mid Sep.
First/last departure Gruben: Between 8.35am / 5.20pm
First/last departure Oberems: Between 8.10am / 5.00pm
Frequency: 3 - 4 times a day
Cost: CHF 10 per adult one way
Journey duration: 20 mins
Check the latest timetable: bus timetable
Hotel Restaurant Emshorn is the best place to stay in Oberems.
Alternative options to staying in Turtmann Valley: Slide from our Walker’s Haute Route Planning Workshop
3. Mattertal Valley
Finding accommodation in the Mattertal Valley is the final area you should book first. The Walker’s Haute Route follows the Europaweg trail up the Mattertal valley to Zermatt, which is a popular standalone hike and also part of the Tour of Monte Rosa trail.
Nearly every Haute Route hiker needs to spend a night on the Europaweg trail. It takes over 11 hours to hike Herbriggen to Zermatt and over 14 hours if you want to go from the official start point of Grachen.
While Europahutte and Taschalp provide accommodation on the trail, Domhutte and Kinhutte are alternatives above the trail that add the least extra hiking to your plan. If all these locations are fully booked, descending into the valley to find accommodation at Randa or Tasch means adding to your plan an extra ~850m / 2,800ft elevation loss/gain on switchbacking trail, making it a tough end to your Haute Route hike.
A better transport alternative is to catch a local taxi from Taschalp (the only location on the Europaweg trail connected to a road) to Tasch for the night, returning the following day to continue onto Zermatt. The taxi details are;
Cost: ~ CHF 60 one way (up to 4 people)
Journey duration: 20 mins
Alternative option to staying on Europaweg: Slide from our Walker’s Haute Route Planning Workshop
2. Free cancellation while you wait
Booking up to 15 different properties in a sequence of dates can be an anxious process.
Finding some properties that have a free cancellation policy allows you to quickly put some on hold while you wait to hear back from others to whom you’ve sent reservation requests via email. If some of those properties you’ve emailed are fully booked, and you need to change your dates, you can easily secure new bookings for your free cancellation properties at no cost to you.
The other way free cancellation booking can help is when you’ve been waitlisted on properties at fully booked locations. Given most of the properties you need to be waitlisted for are in the 3 ‘book first’ locations I’ve highlighted above, I recommend you plan to use those strategies and in the meantime, book accommodation with a generous free cancellation policy while you see if you are offered a bed from the waitlist.
Gruben: Nearly everyone has to stay in this valley, so Hotel Schwarzhorn is one of the first places to book out. If you use my alternative accommodation suggestion of booking Hotel Restaurant Emshorn in Oberems they typically offer free cancelation up to one week before your stay which is gives you a chance to secure a room from the waitlist at Hotel Schwarzhorn.
If you secure the accommodation on the trail, you can cancel at no cost - if not, you’ve got an achievable way of overcoming a fully booked area of the trail.
41% of the properties we monitor list rooms on Booking.com, which typically encourages them to offer generous free cancellation terms. You can find these properties on our accommodation map at the beginning of this blog.
3. Combine days to change your subsequent dates
If you find an area of the trail with no accommodation available on the date you plan to stay there, but they do have availability the day before, you can consider using transport to skip a day earlier on the trail and bring all your subsequent booking dates forward.
The 4 places where it is usually possible for a hiker to skip a day are between;
Chamonix and Col de Balme: A bus, gondola, and chairlift will take you to Col de Balme, which puts Champex d'en Haut or Arpette within reach of most hikers
Champex Lac and Les Runiettes or Fionnay: Using a combination of a bus, train and either 2 gondolas (Les Ruinettes) or an additional bus (Fionnay), Cabane du Mont Fort and/or Cabane de Louvie will be within reach for most hikers
Arolla to Les Hauderes or La Sage: Catching bus(es) down Val d'Hérens will put Cabane de Moiry, Barrage de Moiry or Grimentz will be within reach for most hikers.
Cabane de Moiry to Zinal: Catching a bus from the car park below Cabane de Moiry to Zinal (during July and August only) will put Gruben within reach for most hikers.
Using transport between Cabane de Moiry and Zinal: Slide from our Walker’s Haute Route Planning Workshop
If skipping ahead on the Walker’s Haute Route leaves you with an extra hiking day in Zermatt, it’s highly recommended to do the day hike to Hornli Hut! It is the base camp of the Matterhorn and a fitting way to end your journey from Mont Blanc.
Hornli Hut: Can you see it perched on the ridgeline in the top left quadrant of the photo?
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Author: Brendan Jones, Founder, The Hiking Club
A pizza-making, craft beer-loving, peanut butter connoisseur that has been exploring the great outdoors since completing the Duke of Edinburgh Award in high school. I started The Hiking Club to democratise hiking and the benefits that come from spending time in nature.