Via Alpina on foot

The Drei Zinnen hut below the three peaks of the Tre Cime

Photo: Frisia Orientalis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Distance
2,000 km (1,240 miles)
Countries
Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, France, Monaco
Difficulty
Challenging
Type of trip
Hiking trail

The Via Alpina crosses the Alps from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean, through all eight Alpine countries. It starts at Muggia, on the coast next to Trieste in Italy, heads into Slovenia and finishes at the Place du Palais in Monaco, passing through Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and France on the way. It's more than 2,000 km in 116 stages. You can walk a section in a weekend or a week, and the whole thing takes a summer or more. Public and private bodies from the eight countries set it up in 2000, and CIPRA International runs it now. There used to be five routes, red, purple, yellow, green and blue. Since 2024 there has been one main route, which mostly follows the old Red Trail but takes the old Green Trail through much of Switzerland.

You sleep in mountain huts and village guesthouses. There's no booking system for the whole route. Huts like a call ahead, usually the evening before from the hut you're in, and some fill up at weekends and in high season. In Austrian and German Alpine Club huts a sleeping bag liner is compulsory, and members of clubs in the UIAA reciprocal scheme get big discounts in other clubs' huts. On average you pass a village with a bus every two to three days. Wild camping rules change from place to place, and it's banned or controlled in most national parks and in the Austrian states of Tyrol and Carinthia.

Highlights along the way

  1. The Karst and the Triglav Lakes: The first stages cross the Karst in Slovenia, past Predjama and Idrija, then climb into the Julian Alps. Stage 11 ends at the hut in the Triglav Lakes Valley, a stony hanging valley above the tree line. It's often called the Seven Lakes Valley, though there are ten.
  2. Tre Cime di Lavaredo: The route stops at the Drei Zinnen hut (Rifugio Locatelli), right under the three rock towers of the Tre Cime in the Sexten Dolomites, one of the best-known mountain groups in the Alps.
  3. Across Switzerland: From Liechtenstein the route follows the old Green Trail through Engelberg, Meiringen, Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Kandersteg and Adelboden to Lenk, then picks up the old Red Trail again.
  4. Great St Bernard Pass: After Trient and Champex the route climbs to the Great St Bernard Pass at 2,469 m, the crossing between Martigny and Aosta that lies between Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa, and drops into Italy.
  5. Mercantour to Monaco: Near the end the route leaves the old line at the Refuge de Nice for three stages of the Grande Traversée du Mercantour. The last two stages run from Sospel to Peillon and from Peillon down to Monaco.

Distance

More than 2,000 km (about 1,240 miles) in all, in 116 stages, from sea level to over 3,000 m. The old Red Trail from Trieste to Monaco was longer, with 161 stages. There's no current guidebook to the whole route. The stage descriptions are on the Via Alpina site and also on Outdooractive, Komoot and AllTrails.

Best time to go

The hiking season in the Alps usually runs from June to October. Above 2,000 m snowfields can last until early July, especially on north-facing slopes, and snow can settle again from the end of September, which makes crossings much harder. Expect anything from heat to snowstorms in midsummer, and thunderstorms in the late afternoon, when you should be off exposed ridges. The hut opening months in the stage descriptions are only a guide, so check with each hut, and ask locally if you're walking at the start or end of the season. Some sections are exposed and need a head for heights, but there are no glacier crossings, and without snow you don't need ropes, crampons or an ice axe.

More journeys in Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, France, Monaco

Flyby films from Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, France, Monaco

More routes like this

Hiking trails and treks

Hiking and cycling routes in Germany

Hiking and cycling routes in France

Hiking and cycling routes in Italy

Hiking and cycling routes in Austria