Hiking has exploded. More than 63 million Americans laced up boots in 2024, making it the country's most popular outdoor activity — and the big drawback of that boom is obvious. Escaping crowds is the whole point of walking in wild places, and popular trails are busier than ever. The fix? Go somewhere remote and pay for the privilege. A handful of high-end lodges now offer exactly that: private trail networks, expert guides, and in some cases a helicopter on standby to drop you onto terrain no one else can reach.
New Zealand's South Island remains a hiking mecca, with 11 well-marked multi-day Great Walks plus countless day trails. The standout base is Minaret Station, reachable only by helicopter and flanked by Mount Aspiring National Park and the country's fourth-largest lake. The lodge specialises in heli-hiking — flying guests towards Aoraki Mount Cook or landing on the Tasman Glacier to explore icefalls and blue caves with a guide.
In southern Colorado, Trinchera Reserve & Lodge bills itself as a 'high alpine safari'. Its 172,000 acres in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains make it one of the largest private conservation areas in the US, with trails to remote overnight huts and access to three of Colorado's famous 14,000-foot summits — without the queue at the top.
Utah's red-rock country needs little introduction, and Amangiri is its most design-forward address. The hotel sits on 900 private acres with 12 miles of on-site trails and only 34 suites, while acting as a gateway to Buckskin Gulch, Vermilion Cliffs, The Wave, Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon. Hiking programmes run from two-hour walks to full-day expeditions.
Chilean Patagonia is famed for its treks, which also makes it busy. Eleven Rio Palena Lodge, in a remote Andean valley in the north, has just seven rooms, trails leading straight from the door through old-growth forest, and its own helicopter for glaciers and wild rivers. Wood-fired hot tubs and a river-view sauna handle the recovery.
Finally, Italy's Dolomites combine UNESCO-listed peaks with 14 Michelin-starred restaurants, and village-to-village hiking through shifting food, traditions and dialects. Skip the rustic rifugios: operators like Dolomite Mountains can link top hotels such as Como Alpina Dolomites, on Europe's highest Alpine plateau, or Lefay Resort & Spa, which runs guided hikes through Val di Genova's waterfalls and glacial canyons — with the option of a bracing wild swim en route.
Who's this for? Travellers with a decent budget who want the solitude hiking promises but with proper beds and good food at the end of the day. If crowds on the Tour du Mont Blanc or the Inca Trail put you off, these five deliver the same epic scenery with far fewer people — sometimes none at all.