Culinary Delight Extended Weekend Hiking Tour HHT2-3

Accommodation

Accommodation for the Culinary Delight Hut Hiking Tour is in traditional mountain huts, most of them run by local alpine clubs.

Every mountain hut and hotel is a little different, so you'll find a variety of room setups along a hut-to-hut tour. Shared dormitory-style rooms are common, and may include classic bunk beds (typically 4+ beds per room) or 'Matratzenlager' - large, shared sleeping platforms with individual mattresses. Some accommodations also offer private rooms. A private room for two can vary in design from place to place and may include bunk beds, two twin beds, a double bed constructed from two single mattresses with separate duvets, or a standard double bed. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to guarantee a specific room configuration.  

While there’s a lot of variation from hut to hut, you can read our Staying in Mountain Huts Webpage for information about the hut experience.

There are some huts that offer private rooms, which we will book when available for customers who book our Classic Package. However, not all huts have private rooms, which means it’s not possible to do the full tour in private rooms. Our Comfort Package is not available on this tour, due to the rustic nature of the huts that are located on the route.

Meals

Food is one of the great highlights on this route, and breakfast and dinner are included in our packages. Dinner is a multi-course set menu (usually with a vegetarian and non-vegetarian option) and breakfast is based around bread, often with various cheese and cold cuts. Drinks are not included (except for coffee at breakfast).

Read about dietary restrictions at the huts

For lunches, there are two options. We recommend planning a combination of these:

1. Huts offer sack lunches that you can bring with you on the trail. We find these to be overpriced and repetitive to breakfast, and this option generates a lot of trash. Some of the huts will provide a small sack for you at breakfast so that you can pack your lunch directly from the breakfast buffet at no additional cost. Please only do this when the hut approves it. The huts do not include sack lunches in their reservation process, which is why we are unable to book these in advance for you. Sack lunches should be requested immediately upon arrival at the hut for the next day. Huts are generally not very flexible in honoring dietary restrictions with their sack lunches.

2. The second option, and our favorite option, is to bring your own food. There are a couple of points where this route crosses the valley, and grocery stores can be accessed.

The Culinary Delight Hut Hiking Tour is likely to have the best conditions between mid-July and the end of the August. Huts are generally open from mid-June until mid-September. The culinary program that this route is based on does not begin until the second Saturday in July. This marks the opening of our season, which runs until the huts close in mid-September.

Here's what conditions to expect at different times of year:

July and August: Every four or five years, problematic snow remains on the route through the second week of July, so we recommend pushing the start date to mid-July or later. Summer settles in and days are usually mostly sunny, although it is wise to expect at least one rainy day during your hike. An afternoon thunderstorm is not uncommon. These thunderstorms rarely interfere with hiking itineraries and are not usually problematic. Of course, thunderstorm safety should be practiced. The wildflowers at the higher elevations should be all out by mid-July. Hiking conditions during this time are often favorable, and it’s a great time to be on the trail.

Early September: The first snow of the winter usually falls in the first week of September. The snow rarely sticks around for more than a day, but the visibility can be very low, making navigation problematic on this one day. Most days in early September are beautiful and perfect, and the thunderstorms are less, but there is a higher risk of snowstorms and conditions that may prevent you from completing your hike during this time. Many hikers have incredible weather in September, but some do not. It’s simply a matter of luck. The later you push into September, the higher the risk that unfavorable conditions (usually snow, but sometimes extremely cold temperatures) can interfere with your hiking itinerary. We notice that customers who are on the trail beyond September 15^th are much more likely to quit their hike early due to conditions. In early September, the wildflower season is mostly over, with the exception of brilliant bursts of fireweed that mark the end of summer.

In all months, it’s reasonable to expect 1 to 2 rainy days on the trail.

To research more detailed information about average temperatures, precipitation, etc., we recommend checking Meteoblue (go to “History & Climate” and then “Climate (modelled)”) for Rauher Kopf.

Read more about Understanding the hut-to-hut hiking season in the Alps.