Answers to the most common questions about booking a certified mountain guide: costs, IFMGA and IML certification, group sizes, cancellations, difficulty grades and gear.
How booking works on Made to Hike, from picking a date to what happens after you pay.
Pick a tour or a guide, choose an available date, enter the number of hikers and pay the deposit online. The guide is notified immediately and confirms the booking with you directly; you keep a written record of the route, meeting point and group size in your booking confirmation. Browse tours
Book two to three months ahead for summer hut-to-hut trips and popular alpine routes, and two to four weeks for single day hikes. Guides hold a limited number of dates per season, and hut beds in the Dolomites and the Alps are usually gone by early spring for July and August.
You get an instant confirmation with the guide's contact details, and the guide reaches out to agree the meeting point, timing and kit list. Any documents the guide needs from you (fitness, medical notes, emergency contact) are collected through your booking, not by email.
Cancellation terms are set by each guide and shown on the tour page before you pay. The guide handles refunds directly, so read their policy and the weather clause before confirming.
Yes. Many tours run with a minimum number of participants, shown on each date; if you book a date that has not reached its minimum you can still join and the guide will confirm once the group fills, or you can book a private departure at the private rate.
Group size is set per tour and listed on every listing, typically 4 to 8 hikers for trail-based days and smaller for technical terrain. On glacier and roped ground the guide-to-client ratio is fixed by the awarding body, so those tours run with fewer people.
The price always includes the guide's professional fee and their planning time. Huts, meals, lifts, permits, transfers and technical equipment vary by tour and are listed explicitly under "What's included" and "Not included" on every tour page.
Yes, gift cards can be bought for any amount and are redeemed against any tour at checkout. They do not expire within the statutory period and can be used across multiple bookings. Gift cards
Which qualification covers which terrain, and how Made to Hike verifies every guide before their profile goes live.
An IFMGA mountain guide is qualified for all mountain terrain, including glaciers, roped climbing, via ferrata and ski mountaineering. An IML (UIMLA international mountain leader) is qualified for non-glaciated, non-technical terrain: marked trails, hut-to-hut walking and off-trail hiking outside the snowline. Certifications explained
National awards are valid within their own scope and country. Examples on the platform include Spanish TD1 (waymarked paths) and TD2 Media Montaña (mid-mountain terrain), German and Austrian Bergführer (full alpine, IFMGA-equivalent) and the UK Mountain Training awards such as ML and MTA.
Every guide uploads their certificate and insurance, and we check the awarding body, the certificate number and the validity date before the profile is published. Profiles that pass carry a verified badge; a guide cannot mark themselves verified.
Not legally, but a qualified leader changes the risk profile on long days, in changeable weather and on unfamiliar ground. Guides also carry the local knowledge — hut bookings, water, snow conditions, escape routes — that turns a hard day into a safe one.
Yes, professional liability insurance is a condition of listing on Made to Hike and is checked during verification. Your own travel and mountain rescue insurance is separate and remains your responsibility.
Difficulty, fitness, weather and what you carry yourself.
Made to Hike uses four grades. Easy is well-marked trails with modest ascent; moderate is full days with sustained climbing; challenging adds exposure, scrambling or long days above 2,000 m; expert covers glaciated, roped or technical terrain requiring prior experience.
Every tour lists the daily distance, ascent and expected walking hours so you can judge honestly against your own days out. As a rule, if you can walk the listed ascent comfortably on consecutive days at home, you are ready.
The guide decides, and their decision on safety is final. Most guides offer an alternative route or a rescheduled date; whether a weather cancellation is refunded is set out in the guide's cancellation policy on the tour page.
You bring personal kit: boots, layers, waterproofs, pack, water and food unless stated otherwise. Technical equipment such as harness, helmet, crampons, ice axe and rope is usually supplied by the guide when the route requires it, and each tour page says which. Borrow or lend gear