Guides

# Trip-planning guides

Practical, specific guides to planning hut-to-hut treks - not generic trail write-ups, but the booking and chain-planning detail that actually trips people up.

- [Start here](#start)
- [Planning a route](#plan)
- [Rules and access](#rules)
- [Data and analysis](#data)

## Start here

New to hut-to-hutting. What a hut night is actually like, and how booking works.

- [How to use HutScanner - a video walkthrough](/guides/how-to-use-hutscanner-video-walkthrough/)
- [Your first night in an alpine hut - what to expect](/guides/alpine-hut-etiquette-first-night/)
- [Alpine hut glossary - the words on the booking form](/guides/alpine-hut-glossary/)
- [Dormitory or private room - what you are actually booking](/guides/dormitory-or-private-room-alpine-huts/)
- [Half board in alpine huts, explained](/guides/half-board-in-alpine-huts/)
- [How alpine hut booking actually works](/guides/how-alpine-hut-booking-works/)
- [Planning your first hut-to-hut trek in the Alps](/guides/planning-your-first-hut-to-hut-trek/)
- [What to pack for a hut-to-hut trek](/guides/what-to-pack-hut-to-hut-trek/)

## Planning a route

Picking a route, finding beds on consecutive nights, and getting there.

- [Using HutScanner with ChatGPT, Claude and other AI assistants](/guides/ai-assistants-and-hutscanner/)
- [Driving to the Alps for a hut-to-hut trek](/guides/driving-to-the-alps-hut-to-hut/)
- [Get an email when a full alpine hut has space again](/guides/alpine-hut-availability-alerts/)
- [Ways to plan a hut-to-hut trek, and what each one is good at](/guides/how-hut-to-hut-planning-tools-compare/)
- [Using GPX files for a hut-to-hut route](/guides/gpx-files-for-hut-to-hut-routes/)
- [Planning the Walker's Haute Route, Chamonix to Zermatt](/guides/walkers-haute-route-hut-to-hut/)
- [When do alpine huts actually fill up](/guides/when-do-alpine-huts-fill-up/)
- [The hut you wanted is full - what to do next](/guides/your-hut-is-full-what-to-do/)
- [How to plan a hut-to-hut Tour du Mont Blanc trek](/guides/tour-du-mont-blanc-hut-to-hut/)

## Rules and access

What is permitted where: bivouac law, grading scales, and the rules that change by season.

- [Tour du Mont Blanc 2027 rules: what is proposed, what is law](/guides/tour-du-mont-blanc-2027-rules/)
- [Wild camping and bivouac on the Tour du Mont Blanc](/guides/wild-camping-bivouac-tour-du-mont-blanc/)
- [Wild camping and bivouac in the Vanoise](/guides/wild-camping-bivouac-vanoise/)
- [The SAC hiking scale T1 to T6, explained](/guides/sac-hiking-scale-explained/)
- [Via ferrata grades explained](/guides/via-ferrata-grades-explained/)

## Data and analysis

What our availability record shows about where there is space, and what a trip really costs.

- [The Alps are not full, they are concentrated](/guides/the-alps-are-not-full/)
- [Bivouac or huts in the Vanoise: what the trip really costs](/guides/bivouac-vs-huts-vanoise-cost/)
- [Where alpine huts still have space in high summer](/guides/where-alpine-huts-still-have-space/)