Group trekking holidays with Alpine Exploratory

We get many group bookings every year from large and small groups. Often one or two group members find themselves in charge of the organisation, which can certainly feel like a great responsibility.

We absolutely understand what it's like to find yourself needing to coordinate a successful trip! The logistics can seem a little tricky at first, the members might be your close friends, or perhaps you're organising a trip for a club where some members are less well known. Everyone in the group has different needs. We will work with you to create a superb trip which we hope everyone will love!

Here are some questions we often receive from those organising a group trip.

Done! We'll get cracking with arranging your trip for you.

Do I have to collect payment from everyone in the group?

Thankfully not. Once we receive the booking forms, we will email each member of the group with the details they need to pay their deposit.

Ten weeks before the trip we will email everyone again with details of their balance payment.

Can you help with our Visa requirements?

We have had groups from countries including India, Saudi Arabia, Belarus and many more for whom Schengen and UK/Irish Visas can be a little trickier to acquire. We are very happy to help provide any supporting evidence you may require from us. We'll email or post anything you need, including the Alpine Exploratory company stamp if needed. We're used to providing everything from invoices to proof of bookings and persuasive letters to local consulates.

Booking from overseas - please see our page for more on Visa requirements

How big can our group be? Can you fit us all into the same accommodation?

We've organised trips for some very large groups. On hiking days, it's often more pleasant and more considerate to other walkers to split up into smaller sub-groups. We'll advise. On many days there are variants which can be taken depending on how keen members are for a challenge. Some might prefer to take the trickier route and some might prefer an easier day, so splitting up can work well.

For your accommodation we try our first choices, then if a particular night isn't possible for the size of group you will be, we try to balance keeping your group together with keeping to the nicest places. Some nights we might suggest splitting across different establishments - if so then we aim to keep you as close together as possible in the village.

For baggage transfer, there is no maximum number of bags we can transfer for you. Everyone can have a bag if they wish.

Can you arrange a guided trip?

Absolutely! Trek with Alpine Exploratory and plug yourself into our team including our excellent International Mountain Leaders who lead our groups. Normally our smaller groups are accompanied by one leader, while larger groups are guided by two or even three leaders. We put one leader with up to 8 hikers. We will agree this with you at the planning stage.

Can late bookers be added to our trip?

As you might imagine, it's best if everyone can book at once to give us the best chance of booking our favourite accommodation for you. We totally understand that life doesn't work that simply. There might be one or two friends who can't commit to the trip until later due to the uncertainties of work and life.

We will try our best to reserve the same accommodation for late bookers as for the rest of the group. In Summer the accommodation can fill up surprisingly fast so it might be necessary for later bookers to stay at a different hotel in the same village. We endeavour to keep a party together as best as possible. We use our knowledge of each village to balance closeness to the main group's hotel, with a great experience.

What if we want a shorter or longer trip?

Perhaps you would like more walking days, fewer walking days, more rest days, no rest days. Please ask us for options to adapt the trip to suit you. We can advise on distances, ascent/descent and terrain to make sure that the walking suits you.

What if a member of our group only has time to walk a portion of the trip?

That's no problem; we're very flexible and members can join or leave part-way. We can adjust everyone's trip accordingly. For example, one half of the Tour du Mont Blanc makes a notable trek in its own right.. either North or South. It can be hard to coordinate friends for more than one week in everyone's busy diaries, so we'll advise on treks to suit the time you have available.

We're taking long-haul flights; can you arrange an extra night or two before we start?

We get asked this quite a lot and of course it's no problem. It can be nice to enjoy a rest day or two in town to recover from jetlag, acclimatise and maybe do an easy day-walk to get warmed up after a long flight.

Our trek is part of a longer trip to Europe. Can you help?

We are delighted to advise on European travel either side of your trip. It's a common thing among our clients to hike a trail as part of other European experiences, especially for our trekkers from Australia and New Zealand. Please just ask us and we'll give you pointers based on our wide travels in Europe.

Around the Alpine region especially, we have made it our business to know the travel options and city possibilities:

City breaks after hiking in the Alps
City breaks after hiking in Scandinavia
City breaks after hiking in the UK and Ireland

If you're in charge of a trip for your walking club or group of friends, please Contact us and we'll get talking.

Thank you.