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Just as the wording suggests, on a self-guided trip you will be given the tools needed to complete your trip on your own; without a guide.
We arrange and prepay all your accommodations, transfers, and most meals, and give you detailed trail notes, topographical maps, hotel reservations and supporting travel information.
That is entirely up to you! However, it generally includes all hotel accommodations, transportation to and from the trek, most meals, and of course incredible hiking!
The single supplement is an additional charge for someone that is staying by themselves in a single occupancy room. We always calculate our tour prices based on double occupancy rooms. This means that the price of the hotel room is then split between 2 people. However, if only 1 person is in that room, then we need to charge an extra fee to cover the price for the other half of the room. (Example: If a double room = $300 then it would be $150 per person for sharing. That same room would be $300 for the 1 guest, so we would need to charge an extra $150 as a single supplement to cover the price of the whole room).
We try to book double rooms for all our single guests where possible. But some hotels have a true single room and will only give those rooms to our single guest. If this happens, then the price for that single room is usually a little less than a double room. We’ve already factored this into the total price of the single supplement. A solo traveler many not always have the same size room as our guests sharing a room, but be assured that our solo guests are paying for what each hotel has provided for rooms.
Yes, luggage transfers are an extra cost that can be added to your proposal. The price of the luggage transfers are priced per route, not per person or per bag.This cost is then split between the number of people in your party, it becomes increasingly economical the more people you have join you. If you don’t need your luggage every night, we can even customize how often you get them. Many people enjoy luggage transfers every other day or every few days. We are able to deliver your luggage to all hotels, but we are NOT able to deliver luggage to the mountain huts.
Airfare, dinners in Chamonix, Verbier, and Zermatt (there are many options for meals in these towns), mountain trams, cableways, buses, and items of a personal nature such as laundry, telephone calls, room service and trip insurance.
The standard route that we offer is a 14-day itinerary, however this can be adapted to be less if you don’t have that much time to devote to hiking the Haute Route. Ten days is the minimum amount of days we recommend to complete the full Haute Route.
Yes, in fact many people like to adapt the Deluxe Haute Route guided itinerary for a self-guided itinerary. The Chamonix to Zermatt Haute Route itinerary is also great for doing the full route while cutting out some not-as-scenic days.
If you want to complete the full Haute Route then you do have to stay two consecutive nights in mountain huts. If you do not want to stay in mountain huts, this section of the trail can be avoided. The Deluxe Haute Route is an itinerary that skips over the mountain huts.
You will stay in carefully chosen inns, small 3- and 4-star hotels, and (when chosen) classic mountain cabanes (huts) that capture the authentic charm of the Alps. There is a one hotel night with shared bathrooms but private rooms.
No, the Haute Route has very set trails. Although most days vary between 8-10 miles, there are some that have less. There is no way to add on or take off mileage to a given day, the listed mileage and trail is generally the only trail.
No, there are a limited number of huts you can stay in along the route. We recommend only staying in about 2-3 of the huts along the route, with the rest of the accommodations being hotels.
While we try our best to accommodate your specific travel dates, it all depends on hotel availability. For this reason, we recommend purchasing your flights after you have paid a deposit so that we can make sure the hotels are confirmed for your self-guided trip.
Most hotels along the route have a laundry service that they offer for an extra charge. Another way that guests in the past have done laundry is to bring a small bag of detergent to clean clothes in the sinks of your hotel rooms.
We take bookings up to a year and a half in advance. Most people book between September and December for the following year. This ensures that you are able to get the dates that you want, or within a few days of the desired dates. Once we can no longer get people into our hotels then we close self-guided booking for the season, which is often in the early spring.
Yes, you can bring kids on the Haute Route. We recommend that the child be at least 8 years old. The Haute Route is an extremely strenuous trek, and they will need to complete the exact same trail as everyone else.
See our packing list on our website with a complete checklist of what you will need to take with you on the Haute Route.
We recommend flying into the Geneva airport, as it is about a 90-minute shuttle ride to Chamonix for the start of the trek. The shuttle we prov
ide will take you from the Geneva airport directly to your hotel in Chamonix. For the end of your tour you can fly out of Geneva or Zurich as both are about a 4-hour train ride from Zermatt.
While we cannot accept responsibility for weather, we will be happy to help reroute you.
First, you should contact us to come up with an itinerary and tour dates that you are happy with and then you can submit a booking through our website. We require a $500 per person deposit to guarantee your spot and then we will contact all accommodation providers to check availability for the dates you’ve chosen. If any hotel is fully booked, we’ll contact you to discuss alternatives. The final payment will be due 90 days prior to your tour start date.
You can refer to our terms and conditions which also includes our cancellation policy. Trip Insurance is available through a link on our website to protect against certain unforeseen circumstances that may cause you to have to cancel.
