Before you go up.
The kinds of refuge in Greece, how to book a bed and what to bring. The basics, for the first time and every time.
The kinds
A warden is there in season. Book by phone; many serve meals.
Small and unlocked. No warden, no booking, for when you need them.
Locked. Collect the key from the club before you set off.
Out of use. Don’t plan to sleep there.
Book a bed
At staffed refuges call before you set off, especially at weekends and in August. Say how many you are and whether you want dinner.
If your plans change, let them know. Your bed might save someone else.
What to bring
- A sheet or sleeping bag. Blankets are often shared.
- Cash. Cards don’t work everywhere.
- A torch, slippers, a power bank. Power is scarce or absent.
- Water, if the refuge has none to drink.
Inside the refuge
- Whatever you carry up, you carry down. Rubbish too.
- In emergency shelters, leave firewood and the place as you found it.
- Quiet after ten. Others rise early for the summit.
- The winter room stays open for anyone who needs it.
Weather and safety
Check the forecast for the mountain, not the town. Tell someone your route. In an emergency, call 112. Find your refuge in the catalogue.
Where the data comes from
The core list comes from the mountaineering clubs. Positions come from OpenStreetMap and operators from the Anevenontas index. The map terrain is Copernicus DEM.
Where we don’t know something, we say so. 103 of 163 have an exact position today; the rest sit at the centre of their mountain, with a hollow marker. Names in English are transliterated from Greek; some details stay in Greek as published.
The drawings
Every refuge has a drawing. Those with a photo were drawn from it. The rest are generated from their data: beds set the size, altitude the snow and the firs.
Correct something
If you run a refuge or visited recently and something is wrong, write to yannisdoes.dev. Or support me.