Huts & accommodation — Hiking
Where to sleep: mountain huts, refuges and trailhead lodging.
Find accommodationTypes of mountain accommodation
- Staffed hut: warden, meals, dormitories and mandatory booking in high season
- Unstaffed cabin / shelter: free, no services, leave it cleaner than you found it
- Emergency bivouac: only for unplanned nights, never part of the plan
- Hostels and mountain guesthouses in trailhead villages
- Authorised campsites (check local law and protected areas)
- Farm stays and local lodging for multi-day traverses
Booking and arriving
- Book weeks ahead for weekends and summer months
- Confirm whether dinner and breakfast are included or self-catering
- Ask about electricity, drinking water and emergency phone/radio
- Declare allergies and dietary needs when booking
- Always cancel if you drop out — it frees the bed and prevents needless searches
- Carry cash: many huts have no card machine or signal
What to bring for a hut night
- Sleeping bag liner (mandatory in most alpine huts)
- Indoor slippers or thick socks — boots stay in the boot room
- Headlamp for moving around at night without waking the dorm
- Earplugs and eye mask
- Power bank: sockets are rare and contested
- Small quick-dry towel and a minimal wash kit
Etiquette and house rules
- Quiet hours from 10 pm to 6 am; pack your bag the evening before early starts
- Boots, poles and crampons always stay at the entrance
- Keep to your assigned bunk space
- Save hot water and power — everything is carried up or generated on site
- Take your rubbish back down, including wrappers and food scraps
- Sign the hut book: it helps in a rescue
Articles on huts and accommodation
Staffed hut, free cabin or tent: how to chooseEach option changes your pack weight, cost and freedom of schedule.
A staffed hut is the lightest option: blankets and cooked meals mean no warm sleeping bag, stove or multi-day food. You pay more and follow the hut's meal and lights-out times.
An unstaffed cabin gives total freedom but demands autonomy: a bag rated for the altitude, stove, food and water (many springs dry out in summer). Never count on a guaranteed spot — carry a fallback.
A tent is the most flexible, but wild camping is banned or heavily restricted in many parks, often only allowed above a set altitude and between dusk and dawn.
Rule of thumb for traverses: book huts for the critical stages (high cols, long days) and use valley lodging on the easy ones.
How to book an alpine hutHalf board, deposits, cancellation and what to tell the warden.
Most Swiss, French and Italian huts open online booking in spring and fill within days for July and August weekends. Book as soon as you have dates.
Nearly all work on half board (dinner, bed, breakfast). Alpine club members (SAC, CAF, CAI, DAV) pay reduced rates — membership usually pays for itself in two nights.
Always confirm your expected arrival time. If you are more than an hour late, phone: the warden may raise a safety alert if you don't show up.
In bad weather the hut is your best source of trail information — ask the evening before about conditions on the next section.
Sleeping well in a dormitorySmall tricks that separate a good night from a wasted one.
If you can choose, take an end bunk away from the door and the toilets. Snoring and night traffic ruin more nights than cold does.
Earplugs and an eye mask weigh grams and buy hours of sleep. A silk liner is lighter and cooler than cotton.
Drink little after dinner and hydrate well through the afternoon to avoid night trips at altitude.
Get everything ready the night before: next day's clothes by your pillow, pack closed in the corridor, headlamp within reach. Nobody wants plastic bag noise at 5 am.
Lodging without huts: valleys, villages and transportNot every traverse needs a night at 2,500 m.
Many classic itineraries can be done from the valley using trains, cable cars and mountain buses. It is more comfortable and lets you walk with a light daypack.
Look for lodging next to train stations or mountain bus stops; in many alpine regions your stay includes a free local transport pass.
Always book the last night near your exit point: finishing a traverse at 7 pm with two hours of travel left is how good trips end badly.
In Portugal, shelters, hostels and rural guesthouses in villages like Manteigas, Gerês or Sistelo work well as a base for several days of trails.
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