Everything you need to know about mountain huts (rifugi) in the Italian Dolomites in 2025

Last Updated on 22 April 2025

More than 1,000 alpine mountain huts (rifugi, in Italian) comprise the incredible Dolomite hut system— and they are a huge part of what makes hiking and climbing in this region such a unique and accessible experience, providing basic but comfortable accommodation and amenities in staggeringly beautiful, remote locations.

I was initially disappointed to learn that wild camping isn’t permitted in this part of the Alps, but the luxury of hiking for an entire month with only a 30L daypack, ending each day with a delicious hot meal, and falling asleep on a comfortable bed eventually won me over. I’ve since done countless hut-to-hut trips in the Dolomites and James and I are even planning to get married at one this summer. This guide will cover everything you need to know about staying in a mountain hut in the Dolomites, including room options, meals, average cost, how to book, what to pack, and more from a self-proclaimed hut expert.

If you’re reading this post before setting out on an epic hut-to-hut hike in the Dolomites, check out my super-detailed guides on Alta Via 2 and Alta Via 4 or my post on the best via ferrata in the Dolomites!

Mountain hut accommodation

A definitive highlight of any hut-to-hut hike in the Dolomites is the cozy accommodation provided by remote mountain huts— here’s a look at the various room options and prices you can expect!

Bedding

Regardless of whether you’re sleeping in a dorm or a private room, all mountain huts provide bedding, including a mattress, thick blanket, and a pillow. If you’re a cold sleeper, great news: it’s almost always possible to ask hut staff for extra bedding (or even an extra pillow)!

The one thing you won’t find on your bed is sheets, and since dozens of people sleep in the same bed before any of the bedding is washed, you will be required to bring your own travel sheets (i.e. cotton sleep sack or sleeping bag liner) for use with the hut bedding. Although a select few huts do offer accommodation that includes bed linen, this is not standard and you’ll definitely pay a premium, so it’s best to travel with your own sleep sack— these pack down to the size and weight of an apple, you’ll hardly even notice it in your backpack!

Room types

Most huts offer a mix of dorm rooms, small shared rooms, and private rooms, with price varying slightly between each of these options (though it will often be availability that dictates which room you end up with).

• Dorm rooms (6-20 people): ~30€ *
• Small rooms (3-6 people, may or may not be private): ~35€ *
• Private rooms (1-4 people): ~45€ *

*average price before Alpine Club discount; be sure to check out my section on Alpine Club membership below for info about how you can save as much as 18€ per night on hut accommodation!

Dorm rooms

Communal dorm rooms are typically fitted with a long row of bunk beds and shared between as many as 24 people— some huts are small enough that dorm rooms are only 6 or 8 people (a bit more like the small rooms described below), while others have constructed three-tier bunk beds to squeeze the maximum number of hikers into a single room.

Bunks may separated by a bit of floor space, but other times, the bunk is effectively on long row of mattresses and you’ll only be separated from your nearest neighbour by a few feet of plywood. Unsurprisingly, this is the cheapest option in every hut— I’ve paid as little as 14€ for a rifugio dorm bed in the Dolomites (26€ without an Alpine Club membership) and no more than 42€, so it’s great value for solo hikers!

Small rooms

Many huts also offer small rooms with 2-6 beds (either with bunks or single beds) and these can function like a small dorm OR a private room depending on your party size and how busy the hut is. For example, hiking with my parents for a couple weeks, the 3 of us had small 4- or 6-person shared rooms entirely to ourselves on several occasions, without paying for a “private”. In my experience, hut staff make every effort to give your group private space and they won’t stick a rando into your room until there’s truly no where else for them to go.

When the hut is very busy or if you’re hiking alone, small rooms are more likely to function like a compact dorm room, with beds filled by random hikers— but for light sleepers, there’s still an advantage to sleeping in a room with only 6 people compared to 24! Expect to pay about 5-15€ more for a small communal room compared to a dorm.

Private rooms

Only a few huts offer true private rooms and you may pay a per-room price rather than a per-bed price (i.e. 160€ for a 4-bed room). In reality, you’re more likely to stay in a “small room” that ends up being private because your party fills it— for example, a 3-person group can request a 3- or 4-person small room and it will effectively be private!

If you and your hiking partner(s) are set on private accommodation, you need to email huts EARLY and know that some rifugi do not offer anything other than dorm accommodation (in these cases, the dorms tend to be small). See the section below on When to book mountain huts.

Room only vs half-board

Every hut in the Dolomites offers 2 different accommodation options and it’s important to understand what these mean:

• Room only, where you pay for a bed in the hut and nothing more: ~25-35€ *
  • sometimes there’s an option to order dinner a la carte (10-15€) and pay separately for breakfast (10-15€), see Mountain hut meals below
• Half-board, where you pay for a bed, plus dinner and brekky: ~50-75€ *

*average price before Alpine Club discount; be sure to check out my section on Alpine Club membership below for info about how you can save as much as 18€ per night on hut accommodation!

In almost every situation, you’ll be eating dinner in the rifugio, so when does it make sense to pay for your room only and NOT half-board?

*if the rifugio offers a la carte: some (but not all) huts allow you to order dinner off a menu instead of only offering the standard 3-course half-board meal. If you’re a light or very picky eater, this might be enticing, as you’ll have more control over what you eat and it can often be cheaper to order a single dish than the starter/main/dessert combo. More on that in the section Mountain hut meals below.
*if you don’t want brekky: in some huts, breakfast is an incredibly poor value and, with half-board, you’re effectively paying 15€ for breads, spreads, and hot water. In this instance, it may make sense to pay for your room and dinner separate (and pack your own breakfast bar).

>>> Keep in mind that half-board typically adds 30-40€ to your bill, so if you opt instead for a 15€ dinner and no brekky, you’re saving a fair bit of money!

Mountain hut meals

As mentioned above, mountain huts offer a range of food options, some of which are included with half-board and some of which are available a la carte off a menu. Here’s what you can expect of rifugio food in terms of quality, variety, and price:

Breakfast

Breakfast is usually self-served from about 7-9am, depending on the hut— this is included for those who’ve booked half-board, but if you’re paying for it on top of your room cost, expect about 12-15€.

The quality of breakfast varies widely between mountain huts, with the more remote location offering a bare bones experience that consists largely of bread, spread (jam, nutella), and hot tea or coffee. This is often supplemented with some cold meat and cheese slices, and in the best instance, you might even find yogurt, muesli, and fruit juice (if a hut has road access, it’s more likely to have good breakfast options!).

In many cases, breakfast is very poor value, so I’d recommend bringing bars/snacks and opting out of breakfast when given the choice. Many days on the trail, there’s also the possibility of stopping into a hut for lunch— if you can get a hot plate of pasta for the same price as cold bread, jam, and tea, the choice seems fairly obvious (but I also recognise that not everyone is willing to forgo breakfast as readily as I am).

Lunch

Lunch in the Dolomites may look very different depending on your itinerary and budget. Some huts offer hot lunch options for those passing through— for about 10-15€, you can enjoy a hot plate of cheese-covered gnocchi or grilled cheese and sausage or even an oven-fired pizza. Considering that this is equivalent in cost to most breakfasts served in the huts (and FAR superior in both quantity and quality), I’d often find myself skipping breakfast and instead paying for lunch if I knew I’d be passing a hut that afternoon. Most huts start serving around midday or a little earlier.

Another option is to purchase a packed lunch from your hut in the morning and carry it with you on the trail. Nearly every hut offers this option for about 15€ and the typical picnic includes a sandwich, apple or orange, granola bar, and chocolate. Again, I find this to be fairly poor value, so if you’re on a budget, carrying an assortment of your own snack bars, jerky, cheese, and candy is recommended (and considering the size of dinner, this was more than filling enough for me on most days).

Dinner

For those who’ve opted for half-board, dinner is served around 6.30pm in the communal dining room (sometimes with assigned seating, always with a set time) and it’s a social affair— one of the best parts of staying in the huts!

Dinner usually consists of 3 courses, typically with 1-2 selections per course (always including a vegetarian option, but not necessarily a vegan one). A standard dinner in the Dolomites might be soup and bread OR salad as a starter, hearty goulash OR grilled cheese with polenta as a main, and some sort of pastry as dessert.

Some huts also offer a menu of dinner options (a la carte), and in this instance, you’ll be able to choose from a list of regional dishes like schnitzel or spaghetti bolognaise for about 10-18€. Again, for those who are picky eaters or simply not that hungry, this can often be a better choice than half-board.

Drinks

Drinks are not included, but beer and wine is always available at varying prices— as little as 14€ for 1L and as much as 20€ for .5L of red wine; 2.5-5€ for Aperol Spritz; or 5-8€ for a pint of beer. Some huts also serve vin brûlée (hot, spiced wine) and this is my favourite post-hike treat at higher elevations when the evenings are chilly!

For information on water, see the section below.

Mountain hut facilities

Every rifugio in the Dolomites looks a little different, but here are some common facilities and amenities you can expect everywhere:

Boot room

The first area that you’ll enter within a rifugio is the boot room— exactly as the name would suggest, this is where you’ll need to leave your dirty hiking shoes and change into hut slippers before walking through the dining area or into the rooms. Some huts provide shoes for guests to use, but it’s good practice to bring your own in case; Tevas or slides are a great lightweight choice.

Dining room/common area

Every rifugio has a common dining room with tables and chairs, sometimes a fireplace, and occasionally a small mountain library. This is a great place to hang out before and after dinner to mingle with other hikers!

Bathrooms

Although some dorms and small rooms will have their own sink, full bathrooms are always down the hall, shared between everyone on the floor or within the hut. In all but the most remote rifugi (such as Campanna Piz Fassa), these are standard bathrooms with running water and flush toilets.

Showers

An increasing number of Dolomiti huts also offer shower facilities, typically charging around 3-5€ for as many minutes of hot water (cold water is usually free). Due to water shortages during the busy summers, however, many huts will shut off shower facilities, so it’s best to anticipate intermittent access rather than daily hot showers— in this instance, you can expect to see German women fully naked in the women’s washroom, attempting to bathe in the sink 🙂

Charging

Every rifugio I’ve stayed at in the Dolomites provides electricity for charging electronic devices— in more remote huts, there may be limited hours during which you can charge, but there’s always some power to go around and it’s always free to access. (PS. Italy uses the two-pin Type C European plug).

Typically, communal power points are available in the dining room/common area, behind the check-in desk, or even around the bathroom, and these are often in high demand. To avoid vying for the “best” charging spots or worrying about leaving your phone in the bathroom all night, I’d recommend bringing a powerbank— you can leave this unattended in any random area to charge and then use it to recharge all of your electronics in the comfort of your room.

Wifi/mobile service

Ah, the dreaded question of service. While I absolutely relish the opportunity to disconnect from the outside world while in the mountains, I also recognise that there are situations in which you may reasonably need to contact someone or make arrangements outside of the immediate rifugio.

Wifi and mobile service varies widely between huts, with about one-third of those I’ve stayed in along Alta Via 2 and Alta Via 4 offering wifi and about as many having passable mobile reception— in some locations, the signal is good enough to make a video call or download a book, in others you’ll wave your phone around outside for several minutes to send a text message, but the best answer is that you can expect intermittent connectivity while hiking through the Dolomites. I wouldn’t rely on it for work meetings, but if it’s a matter of checking in occasionally with family, you’ll be satisfied.

For mobile service in the Dolomites, I use Airalo, an amazing app that offers data eSIM packages for nearly every country in the world— you can activate the eSIM entirely from your phone, so you’ll have service as soon as you land in Italy without needing to track down a local mobile shop! Whether you’re a full-time traveller or casual explorer, this app is a game-changer.

Use code BROOKE2994 for $3 off your first eSIM with Airalo!

Water

Running water is available in all mountain huts, but there is ongoing debate as to whether the tap water is safe to drink from these rifugi. Out of an abundance of caution, some of the hut staff will advise against drinking water directly out of the sink, but given that much of the water is either rain-collected or glacier-fed, I personally filled up my water bottle in the bathroom of every hut I stayed in and had no issues.

For those unwilling to take the risk, bring a lightweight filter (which will also serve you well along the trail, filling up in occasional streams)— I implore you not to buy the plastic water bottles for sale in the huts, as it’s an incredible source of waste and altogether unnecessary with proper planning!

Booking mountain huts in the Dolomites

How to make a reservation

The process of booking a mountain huts is fairly simple once you decide where you want to stay— depending on the hut, you’ll either need to send an email request or fill out a contact form on their website with your dates, room selection, and party size. 

Some huts will require a deposit to secure your bed and my best advice is to use the app/website Wise for payment. I’ve been using this transfer service for over 10 years (since I first moved to Australia) to send money overseas; it’s fast, reliable, and WAY cheaper than traditional wire transfers!

When to book

Depending on the popularity of the mountain huts you’re hoping to stay in and the size of your hiking party, you may need to make reservations months in advance— with Alta Via 1, for example, the busiest high route cutting through the Dolomites, you may need to contact huts in November/December of the year BEFORE your trip.

For other Alta Vias, several months in advance is usually adequate, but again, it will depend on if you’re hoping to hike during the busiest months (mid-July through August), how many people in your group, and how flexible you can be on dates.

Delightfully, there are a few exceptions to this:

• solo hikers: if you’re hiking alone, even during the busy season, it is almost always possible to arrive without a reservation and find a bed. The risk isn’t zero, but you can aim to arrive early at popular huts for a better chance of snagging a cancellation; even then, the worst case is that you’ll probably have to sleep in the dining room.

• early season: if you’re hiking outside of peak season (late June to mid-July seems to be the quietest time), you’ll also have good luck finding space in most huts without a reservation. I absolutely wouldn’t risk this with a large party, but a group of 2-3 should fare reasonably well without advance bookings.

Alpine Club membership

The CAI (Club Alpino Italiano, or Italian Alpine Club) operates a staggering 433 mountain huts and 224 bivouacs throughout the Italian Alps, offering discounts to its members that range from approximately 10-18€ per night. My top hack for saving money on hut-to-hut hikes in the Dolomites is to join an Alpine Club— it doesn’t even need to be the Italian Alpine Club, as most European Clubs offer reciprocal discounts! 

The best reason to become an Alpine Club member, though, is for the emergency medical insurance, valid anywhere in the WORLD (yes, you read that right). In the case of the Austrian Alpine Club, this includes 25,000€ in emergency rescue costs, 10,000€ in medical coverage, and unlimited repatriation, among other benefits. 

I personally joined the Academic Section of the Austrian Alpine Club (Alpenverein Österreich, Akademische Sektion Innsbruck) because they were offering subsidised membership in 2022 for just 18€— annual dues have since increased to 69€ (+ add a partner for 53€), which is comparable to other clubs, but I find the Austrian website particularly easy to use and you can sign up entirely online, no need to visit an office!

Along my recommended 13-day Alta Via 2 itinerary, you can save more than 80€ on accommodation with Alpine Club membership, and on my 6-day Alta Via 4 itinerary, you can save more than 60€! Considering that the hut savings will PAY for an entire year of club membership and therefore a year of worldwide mountain insurance, there is absolutely no reason not to join. These discounts and benefits extend all over the Alps— I recently used my membership for massive discounts in Slovenia’s Julian Alps, though thankfully haven’t had to access any emergency insurance yet. I’d highly, highly recommend this before any embarking on any adventures in the Dolomites and beyond.

What to pack for staying a mountain hut

In addition to the essentials you carry with you on any hike, there are a few specific items you’ll need to pack for staying in a rifugio in the Dolomites. For a more complete packing list, check out this post: Complete Alta Via packing list: what to pack for hut-to-hut hikes in the Dolomites

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Read more about the Dolomites

Alta Via 2: complete hiking + via ferrata route guide

navigate confidently on & off the trail ->AV2 adventure route GPS map!

Alta Via 4: complete hiking + via ferrata route guide

navigate confidently on & off the trail ->AV4 adventure route GPS map!

Complete Alta Via packing list: what to pack for hut-to-hut hikes in the Dolomites

Via ferrata in the Italian Dolomites: the ultimate beginner’s guide

10 best via ferrata routes in the Italian Dolomites