While many of the wonderful Tour du Mont Blanc 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? In this blog post, I’m going to share accommodation booking tips and my top 4 booking tricks for finding accommodation that will keep your trip alive.
It costs 500 Swiss Francs to plan your own 6-day hike in Bernese Oberland, Switzerland.
This cost will vary depending on the number of days on the trail, and your accommodation, food, and transport preferences. So, how do you calculate how much it will cost for your trip? Here are a few sample itineraries using actual 2024 costs to help you out!
The Europaweg Trail between Grächen and Zermatt is one of the most famous two-day hikes in the Alps, as well as forming part of the Walker’s Haute Route and Tour of Monte Rosa. In the past few years, there has been some confusion about where exactly the Europaweg trail goes, due to the original route still appearing on some outdated maps, apps and guidebooks. In this updated post, I share details about the Europaweg trail, clarify where the route goes and share a brief history of trail changes in recent years.
It costs €826 to plan your own 10-day hike of the Tour du Mont Blanc. This amount comes from our new cost calculator for the Tour du Mont Blanc, which uses over 300 actual customer itineraries and 2023 costs from nearly 100 accommodation and service providers along the trail.
the calculator is for self-guided hikers to estimate how much it will cost them to organise their own hike of the Tour du Mont Blanc based on their preferences. Give it a try!
How much it costs to hike the Walker’s Haute Route is one of the most common questions I’m asked. Armed with my accounting background and mission to make every hikers self-guided dreams come true, I’ve dug deep into the numbers across all the different accommodation types, food and services available to provide firm guidance on what it costs to hike the Walker’s Haute Route.
I’m en route to the Alps and have revised my Break the Trail hiking plan. The 10 day journey through the Pennine Alps has been designed to spend time on the Tour du Mont Blanc, Walker’s Haute Route, Tour of Monte Rosa, and Tour des Combins.
My revised route still comes in at just over 270 km / 169 mi with an intimidating 19,900 m / 62,000 ft of elevation gain. In this blog, I will share details about the current conditions and my revised route.
As the days get longer and the weather starts to warm up in the Alps, I’m excited to share the draft plan I’ve come up with for my first adventure this hiking season. The 10 day journey through the Pennine Alps has been designed to spend time on the Tour du Mont Blanc, Walker’s Haute Route, Tour of Monte Rosa, Hidden Paradise Tour, and Tour des Combins.
My proposed route comes in at just over 270 km / 169 mi with an intimidating 20,400 m / 67,000 ft of elevation gain. In this blog, I will share details about my proposed route, preparation, and goal for the hike.
Are you thinking of hiking in the Alps with kids? Read Sara’s story of taking her son to the Alps to complete the Tour du Mont Blanc at the age of 8 and the Walker’s Haute Route at the age of 11. Was it easy going? Not all the time. But the encouragement from others on the trail kept him going, as well as their promise to take him to Disneyland Paris when he was finished. Yes, sometimes a bit of bribery is needed!
Graeme McIlveen, Fergus Ring and Frank Osborn from Australia hiked the Walker’s Haute Route in 2019 to build their fitness, multi-day hiking experience, and friendship.
Lifelong friends make great hiking comrades.
“As three friends from Australia, aged 72, 69 and 63, we got to know each others’ abilities, strengths and weaknesses while hiking the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail in Japan in 2017, and were keen to participate in another trek. All three of us have past experience of different cultures through our work and on our own individual treks, and liked the thought of getting fit for another challenge. We also wanted to remain as peripheral adventurers (and without stressing our spouses too much). The Walker’s Haute Route sounded like a good fit.
This trail was going to be the longest trek that any of us had undertaken. We planned for a 14-day journey, knowing that any disappointment or setback of the day could be compensated by a nice beer, followed by a wine and a Swiss dinner afterwards.
Enjoying a well deserved drink after a tough day on the trail.
We were committed to commencing our trek rather early in the season and unfortunately, we were exposed to late Spring snow causing considerable concern, as none of us had prior experience alpine trekking. However, we planned with optimism. We never view a trek as a failure if there is still culture, amazing vistas and good friendship to be included.
With the help of The Hiking Club, we could assess the next day’s section of trail and judge our capability to deal with the particular conditions of the pass we were to cross, or choose an alternative transport option and go by car, bus or train to the next valley. There were a couple of sections that really tested the height of our skill level, in particular, the deep snow and steep incline to Cabane de Mont Fort.
Col du Tsate, Walker’s Haute Route.
Battling the late spring snow over the high alpine passes on the Walker’s Haute Route.
At times like these, the three of us were able to discuss and compromise on our eagerness versus safety and always stayed together. One of us had the skill of timing and goal setting, another had excellent map reading skills, and another had the quality of patience and observing his surroundings for information that the other two were too busy to recognise. Together we made a great team. A trek with good friends allows for easy camaraderie, but also for times of self-reflection and peace with oneself.
At the end of the trek we felt a sense of achievement knowing that it was not easy, but a result of planning, training and making informed choices to achieve a safe outcome. To this day, we remain good friends and laugh about the funny events and silly occurrences that are always unexpected but fondly remembered.”
With a backdrop of the Grand Combin massif, Cabane de Louvie is a spectacular hut to stay in overnight.
Graeme, Fergus and Frank’s story features in our book, Modern Adventurers: hiking stories from the Alps. You can meet hikers around the world and hear their stories atThe Hiking Club community, join here!
The Pennine Alps are a towering mountain range marking the border between the canton of Valais in Switzerland and the Italian provinces of Piedmont and the Aosta Valley. They are located in the western part of the Alps, with the Mont Blanc massif flanking them to the West and Lepontine Alps to the East. With over thirty 4,000m / 13,000ft + peaks including the famous Matterhorn and Monte Rosa, a trail through the Pennine Alps features on the bucket list of most hikers.
Pennine Alps: Shaded in blue
The availability of mountain accommodation and transportation has created many incredible day and overnight hiking experiences in the Pennine Alps. The top 5 multi-day experiences in this area are:
Walker’s Haute Route (~ 213km / 132mi): along the North side
Alta Via 1 - Aosta Valley (~ 190km / 118mi) : along the South side
Tour of Monte Rosa (164km / 102mi): around the East end
Tour des Combins (100km / 62mi): around the West end
Tour of the Matterhorn (107km / 66mi): around the middle section
Experienced mountaineers also have the original ‘Haute Route’ which follows the Pennine Alps mountain chain, spending much of its time on glaciated terrain. This route was first forged by the English Alpine Club in the mid-19th century and has become a popular ski route in the Spring months too.
The rugged high mountain terrain of the Pennine Alps offers few opportunities for easy passage between Switzerland and Italy. For hikers, only four trails become snow-free in the summer and a further two remain glaciated year-round (but can be crossed with a guide). Col du Grand Saint Bernard on the West end and Simplon pass on the East offer the easiest places to cross the Pennine Alps and have been used by travelers as far back as the Bronze Age — about 800 B.C. Nowadays, roads have been built over these two passes and you’ll often hear the roar of sports cars enjoying the high mountain switchbacks.
Aside from the big mountain vistas, some of the unique highlights in the area include seeing the Valais Blackneck goat, the origin of raclette and fontina cheeses (which are a culinary highlight in their own right!); the tallest gravity dam in the world (Grande Dixence); the highest peak in Switzerland (Monte Rosa); and longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the alps (Charles Kuonen suspension bridge).
Col du Grand Saint Bernard holds particular historical significance as Napoleon crossed here with his army to surprise Austrian forces in Genoa. A famous painting (considered a propaganda masterpiece) was produced to mark the occasion and ultimate triumph of the campaign. In the painting, Napoleon is wearing a magnificent cloak on a rearing charger, when in actual fact, he crossed the pass riding a donkey, wearing a simple grey greatcoat. Hannibal is also etched into the foreground of the painting which aims to draw a comparison with other great generals and has fueled the debate as to whether Col du Grand Saint Bernard was where he crossed the Alps with his African war elephants to strike at Rome.
Napoleon crossing the Alps: Jacques-Louis David, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Pennine Alps is also home to The Great St Bernard Hospice was originally a monastic shelter founded in the Middle Ages, led by Augustinian monks. The hospitality of the monks is legendary and continues on as a hospice welcoming pilgrims and hikers, and a museum, today. Founded in 1049, the hospice became famous for its breeding and use of St Bernard dogs in rescue operations.
The Saint Bernard dog: Large size, and gentle temperament originally bred for rescue work by the hospice of the Great St Bernard Pass.
Hiking in this inspiring part of the world was where the idea for The Hiking Club was born and therefore thought there was no better location to kick off our ‘Trails of the world spotlight’. Many of you have experience hiking in the Pennine Alps so we’d invite you to share any highlights or interesting history from the area that you discovered.
Author: Brendan Jones, 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. He started The Hiking Club to democratise hiking and the benefits that come from spending time in nature. You can read more about Brendan and the team here.
The Hiking Club empowers anyone to walk the way they want in the wild with personalised self-guided hiking experiences that are easy to find, quick to plan and simple to navigate.
We believe hiking experiences have the power to transform lives. With a growing range of personalised hikes that take into account your preferences, fitness and interests, we give you everything you need to explore the legendary trails of the world!
For those who could reach the Alps, COVID-19 restrictions impacted the hiking season for a second year running. At the start of the season, there was much excitement and anticipation about a COVID-19 EU Travel Certificate finally allowing tourism to resume in Europe. The silver lining of a delayed reopening for international hikers was that the conditions were not favorable for early-season hiking. There were new accumulations of snow on the high mountain trails until about the 20th of May…
While going completely off the grid during the Walker’s Haute Route is appealing, it’s best to be making that choice by switching your mobile to flight mode rather than not having a way to find a signal at all. In this blog post, I’m going to share with you which mobile network has most verified coverage along the Walker’s Haute Route and how you can access it for your hike.
So you’re interested in hiking the Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt but want to camp, instead of staying huts, hotels or B&Bs each night? Great choice! Although the idea of spending each night under the stars is an idyllic option, you need to be aware of where you can actually camp along the Haute Route, as there are very strict rules put in place by the National Parks and local governments.
Over the past few years, we’ve gathered the latest information on where you can wild camp, campgrounds with facilities and mountain huts that allow you to camp nearby. About 20% of our customers use our platform to plan and navigate their camping adventure along the Haute Route. Read on to learn about the various camping options, the cost estimates for camping and other useful tips to help you prepare for camping the Walker’s Haute Route.
The standard Walker’s Haute Route trail is 213km / 132mi. But did you realise that there are lots of exciting alternate routes you can incorporate into your hike to make it even more epic? Or alternate routes that allow you to skip some of the more difficult and challenging sections. Take a read through our list of top alternate routes for the Walker’s Haute Route to make sure you are choosing the best routes to suit your ideal hike!
The “main” Walker’s Haute Route trail is 123 km / 132 mi and travels from Chamonix, France to Zermatt, Switzerland. The trail crosses 11 mountain passes with a total elevation gain of 14,000 m / 46,000 ft. Hikers will see alpine lakes, magnificent glaciers and desolate, rugged landscapes. The Walker’s Haute Route is one of the legendary multi-day hikes in the Alps. Read our detailed blog post which takes a “walk” through all the different sections of the main Walker’s Haute Route trail, including images, descriptions and trail stats.
