Hi Jeff

If you've researched the Carrel route you may have come across the Rifugio L'Orionde (Duca Degli Abruzzi) - it's at the head of the valley, on the trail above Cervinia en route to the Carrel Hut (5-8 hr away). It has been closed for refurbishment for years but it should be open this year, though maybe not till late July. Ask the Hotel Maquignaz http://www.puntamaquignaz.com in Cervinia - they own it. It will presumably be a Rifugio again, meaning that it has a resident guardian, and offers dormitory accommodation, cooked food and maybe self-catering. Its BB price used to be comparable with two-star accommodation in Cervinia, I think.

Notice that the Carrel Hut is a Capanna not a Rifugio - because it doesn't have a resident guardian (though it's often called Rifugio on maps etc). Carrel has cooking facilities, fuel, light and blankets for 40 or more people. You have to melt snow for water, and in a hot dry summer there may not be any to hand - ask at the Guides office in Cervinia.

The Rifugio L'Orionde is the obvious base for climbers, provided that the distance from Cervinia (2-3 hr walk) doesn't matter. People often camp here, and some do the summit and back from here in a day, missing out the Carrel Hut overnight. That is a very long day - 24 hours of ascent and descent according to the notional timings.

You can't drive to L'Orionde (though an Italian with a 4x4 would say, "Just try and stop me"), but the Hotel Maquignaz used to organise a daily Land Rover service to the Rifugio in the season - the cost was highish, depending how much you like or dislike trudging up Alpine valleys.

There are many hotels of various classes in Cervinia - see http://www.cervinia.it for a list of most of them with addresses and tariffs. Cervinia lives for skiing so the summer tourist trade is important but insufficient - the place is half-empty even in the best summers. August is peak season so if you're a party of several sharing rooms in July you might get a deal.

As you know, a hotel's grade determines its price by tourist regulation, and I've never detected any flexibility about price in the hotels that I've stayed in there. If you contact hotels in advance (phone/fax/email), therefore, and can't get a deal you might think it worthwhile to just turn up in the evening, when they know they're not going to get any more guests, and haggle.

I have stayed many times in Hotel Meuble Meynet (**) and like it a lot. They are very pleasant people - Mother (speaks Italian and French) and son (excellent English-speaker), I believe. The hotel is excellent value and placed on via JA Carrel in the heart of the village, next to the church, the shops (supermarket open till 1930), the bus terminus and the Guides office (ask for advice and see the weather forecast). Last year I believe I paid 36 Euro per person per night for bed and breakfast. They have an internet terminal for guests, I think. There is also an internet bar, the Yeti, just along via Carrel.

I stayed once in Hotel Joli (**), round the corner, which was less family-oriented, might be used more by younger people, probably have some English-speaking staff, same good value at the same price as Meynet.

There is a Hotel or Albergho Leonardo Carrel - the whole valley is owned and run by the Carrels, the Bichs and the Maquignazs - which is supposedly one-star, so should be cheaper, but I haven't been there and I can't find much information. Google it.

If you're travelling by car you can easily stay anywhere in the region - I stayed once in the excellent Hotel Mille Fiori (**) in Valtournenche, the next major village 15mins down the valley from Cervinia and I think it was cheaper than Meynet. Valtournenche (the name of both the commune that includes the whole valley and the village roughly in the middle of the valley) is officially, I think, a lesser resort than Cervinia because it is on the bottom of the ski-system and has only one lift - so I imagine that its hotels' official prices are lower. More scope for summer bargaining...

Below Valtournenche is the hamlet of Maen, home of Camping Glair. A new hotel was being built there last year on the site, I think, of a very spooky one-or-zero-star, that I never got round to trying. I doubt that the new is less than two-star though. There's a nice bar in Maen opposite Centrale, the hydroelectric station, and I think that they have a few rooms. I can't remember their name but you could ask tourist info - it's the only bar on the main road in Maen.

There are hotels all along the road from Chatillon up to Cervinia, most of them mainly empty in July, I imagine. I have seen a few notices on the road offering "Rooms/Zimmer/Camere" but have never enquired. If you see them and distance doesn't matter they might be the cheapest alternative - BB accommodation, probably unregulated, probably open to a deal.

At the bottom of the valley is the twinned township, Chatillon-St.Vincent. I stayed in the Bar Hotel Dufour in the centre of Chatillon a few years ago - it was 18 Eu without breakfast when Meynet was 32 Eu BB, I think. That saves a few Eu per head if the distance from Cervinia (1hr on the bus, 30-40mins by car) isn't important. Chatillon is the railhead - it's on the Autostrada and is a town in its own right, not solely dependent on tourists, so it has fewer hotels.

I think that'll do for the moment - Come back with any other queries. I'm going to put this post up on my website http://www.exnetsystems.co.uk where you will find other info, maps etc.

Finally, every time I go there I need a week to acclimatise - I always try to go straight up to Carrel and/or straight up the Breithorn in the first few days, and I always fail miserably. Many other people have no trouble at all - eg, my Romanian partner who says, "Easy! Smoke more up to Carrel, drink more up to Tyndall, pray on Jordan Ladder. Screw Breithorn, Spit on Castor-Pollux." It seems to work for him.

Best of luck, Jeff - Sign the log at Capanna Carrel, write a Trip Report here, and have a good one.