Booking from overseas with Alpine Exploratory

We are based in Edinburgh in the UK and our outlook is thoroughly international. Over three quarters of our clients live outside the UK. Please don't hesitate to contact us.

Visiting Edinburgh?
Let us give you a cup of tea... and a free Alpine Exploratory mug! We have enjoyed meeting trekkers from around the world who are passing through Edinburgh. Please consider Edinburgh as a stop-over on your way to the Alps, Scandinavia and of course the UK and Irish trails.

Here follows our guidance for joining us from the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. These are our rough suggestions and we recommend making your own checks regarding visa requirements.

USA

What time to call?
Edinburgh is 5 hours ahead of New York and 8 hours ahead of LA. Look out for differences in daylight savings switchover dates in March and October, when the time difference is only 4 hours between New York and Edinburgh. Still, for our East Coast clients at least, this difference is never too great and you'll have plenty of time to catch us before we leave around 5pm.

Flying to the Alps
Many larger US cities have direct flights to London Heathrow, to connect to Alpine cities. (These US departures include JFK, Newark, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Dallas Fort Worth, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.) Or instead of Heathrow, try flying to Geneva, Zurich or Munich near the Alps. For our UK hikes, the direct United Airlines flights to Manchester and Edinburgh give easier transfers by rail to the start of the trails, for example the Lake District Tour and the West Highland Way respectively. For Scandinavia you can fly direct to Oslo or Stockholm.

Visas
US passport holders do not currently (2026 season) need a visa to enter Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Slovenia or Switzerland (Schengen countries, and your passport should have at least 6 months left on it) or the UK. To enter the UK, US passport holders will need to complete the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) scheme which is an online process that should be done in advance of travel.

Receiving your info pack
Posting to locations across the US takes from one to two weeks; any delays are likely to be due to customs rather than anything logistical.

Canada

What time to call?
Edinburgh is 8 hours ahead of Vancouver, year-round, but please note the brief intervals between the start of the UK's and Canada's respective summer times; then the difference will only be 7 hours. We are open til 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday.

Flying to the Alps
Air Canada flies direct from Toronto to Munich and Zurich in the Alps, or to London and Edinburgh in the UK. Vancouver also has direct flights. To Oslo or Stockholm you will probably need to change. Iceland (Reykjavic) can be a good place to change.

Visas
Canadian passport holders do not currently (2026 season) need a visa to enter Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Slovenia or Switzerland (Schengen countries, and your passport should have at least 3 months left on it) or the UK. To enter the UK, US passport holders will need to complete the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) scheme which is an online process that should be done in advance of travel.

Receiving your info pack
Typically our Canadian clients receive their info packs one week to 10 days after posting from the UK.

Australia

What time to call?
Edinburgh is either 9 or 11 hours behind Sydney; 9 in the Aussie Winter and 11 in the Aussie Summer, due to opposing Daylight Saving Time changes. Beware October when Australian DST in Spring starts a couple of weeks before British DST in Autumn ends... then it's 10 hours. The evening call is a good rule of thumb! We are in from 9am UK time, Monday to Friday.

Flying to the Alps
Western Europe's largest airports are London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam Schiphol. None of these are so handy for the Alps, all needing an onward flight or train. In the case of Paris and Frankfurt, this onward train is manageable, but still it is greatly preferable to end up at Geneva, Munich, Venice or Ljubljana airports depending on your trek.

Visas
Australian passport holders do not currently (2026 season) need a visa to enter Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Slovenia or Switzerland (Schengen countries, and your passport should have at least 3 months left on it) or the UK. To enter the UK, US passport holders will need to complete the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) scheme which is an online process that should be done in advance of travel.

Receiving your info pack
We find good postage times to Australia, reliably taking about one week using the Royal Mail's International Tracked service.

New Zealand

What time to call?
Edinburgh is 13 hours behind Auckland in the New Zealand Summer (NZDT) and 11 hours behind Auckland in the Winter, with a little gap at the switchover points. We are open from 9am UK time, Monday to Friday.

Flying to the Alps
One or two stops will be needed, of course. It might be preferable to reach London first; for our UK trips, take the decent trains to Northern England or Scotland, and for our Alpine trips take the Eurostar train or a quick flight (typically 1h 30m to 2 hours) to Geneva, Munich or Venice.

Visas
New Zealand passport holders do not currently (2026 season) need a visa to enter Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Slovenia or Switzerland (Schengen countries, and your passport should have at least 3 months left on it) or the UK. To enter the UK, US passport holders will need to complete the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) scheme which is an online process that should be done in advance of travel.

Receiving your info pack
We find postage times of one to two weeks to New Zealand.

General notes

Payments
We work in Pounds Sterling (GBP) and paying us is easy. In your notes we suggest cheaper online alternatives to bank transfers. Otherwise a bank transfer is possible and of course we take credit cards, without any fee, using our secure card webpage.

Time in the Alps
Because of exact co-ordination of the UK and European countries' daylight savings switchovers, time in the Alps (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland), and Sweden and Norway, is always exactly 1 hour ahead of the UK. The time is the same in Ireland as in the UK.

Letters in support of visas
We have been glad to supply letters confirming travel schedules for the purposes of visa applications, to clients whose embassies require them. Please ask us early in the booking process to avoid delay. Thank you.

A longer trip in Europe?
Many of our overseas clients are trekking as part of a longer trip in Europe. We regularly advise on train routes across Europe; an example is the train to Rome or Florence after the Alta Via 1 in the Italian Dolomites. We'll be glad to advise in general about any part of Europe that we know - please just ask us. For luggage, we'll advise about leaving bags during your trip.

More information?

Please email us at info@alpineexploratory.com to chat about a trip. We'll be glad to advise on travel, payment, and any other details. The notes above are just a starter - we might add more countries in due course. Thanks!

Guided and self-guided holidays - see them all