What a trek in Europe costs, country by country
Swiss food is 56% above the EU average and Swiss meat is double Italy's. Here is what that does to a walking budget, and the three choices that move it more than the country does.
The single biggest thing that decides what a trek in Europe costs is not how you travel. It is which countries you walk through. The country effect, in numbers. Eurostat publishes a price level index for food where the EU average is 100. On the 2025 figures: Switzerland 155.9. Austria 109.5. France 106.8. Italy 101.1. Slovenia sits near the EU average. Meat is where it really separates: Switzerland 219 against Italy 104, France 128 and Austria 119. If you are shopping the way a walker shops — sausage, cheese, tinned fish — Switzerland is not slightly dearer, it is about double. That matched what I felt on the ground before I ever saw the numbers. My first supermarket in Switzerland came to around ₪200 for a few snacks and something for breakfast. In France or Italy the same shop would have been about ₪100. What I actually spent. ₪24,239 over 69 days, which is around ₪350 a day, and that figure carries things a shorter trip would not: flights, a fine, and about ₪1,055 of eSIM data because I was uploading video the whole way. Counted the way most people count — transport, food and lodging together — it came to about 600 euros per ten days. I have seen people do the same route for ₪15,000 and less. The difference is experience: knowing what to buy, where, and how much you actually need. A daily budget by country, for planning. These are the figures the trekking guides converge on, before flights: Switzerland — CHF 35–45 a day if you are largely self-sufficient, far more if you eat in huts. France, Italy, Austria — €25–35 a day on the same basis. The French Alps, staying in accommodation — €50–80 a day. Tour du Mont Blanc, which crosses France, Italy and Switzerland — €70–110 a day all in. The spread between "self-sufficient" and "staying in huts" is most of the range. It is not the country doing that, it is the choice. A night indoors, by country. Half board in a mountain hut, 2026: Switzerland, SAC huts — CHF 60–90, up to 20% off for club members. Austria — €40–80. Italy, the Dolomites — €50–90 for a dorm bed with half board. Slovenia — €30–45 for the bed without membership, roughly half with a PZS card. Slovenia is the cheapest country on this route to sleep in by a clear margin, and Switzerland the dearest. The three things that actually move the number. Eating in huts versus cooking. This is the biggest lever by far. A hut lunch was costing me around 35 euros, because I eat a lot — a starter, a main, a dessert, and a coke, a beer and a coffee. Cooking the same day costs a fraction. I chose the hut most days and I do not regret it, but that was a choice, not a cost of the trip. An alpine club card. One card gets the member rate at the German, Austrian, Swiss, Italian, French and Spanish clubs' huts, and it is worth €10–18 a night. Membership is €65–80. If you are sleeping indoors at all, it pays for itself by about the third night — and it usually carries mountain rescue and repatriation cover. I did not have one. I should have. How many days you spend in Switzerland. Given the numbers above, this is a real planning decision. I walked through Switzerland trying to move fast for exactly this reason — the honest version of my thinking at the time was that if I kept eating there I would go broke. Where the money went on my trip. Food was ₪13,506, more than half the total and by far the largest line — and the one I would not cut. Replacing clothing was ₪3,624: socks that tore, underwear, a rain suit, a second pair of shoes. Lodging was only ₪2,276 across eleven nights indoors, because thirty-eight nights I slept out with a bag and a mat. Transport was ₪314 for the whole route. That last pair is worth sitting with. Sleeping outside is what made a 69-day trip affordable — but see the guide on where you are actually allowed to do that, because the answer is different in every country here and in three of them it turns on whether you have a tent. Sources, and how current this is. The price level indices are Eurostat's comparative price levels for food and non-alcoholic beverages, 2025 reference year, published June 2026. Hut prices are from the Swiss Alpine Club and Switzerland Tourism, the Alpine Association of Slovenia, and published Dolomites rifugio rates. The daily budget ranges are what the trekking guides converge on for 2026. My own figures are from 2025. Checked September 2026. Prices move, and every hut sets its own. Use the ranges to budget and check the specific hut, shop or ticket before you count on a number.