Do You Need To Book GR20 Refuges?

Yes, you do. On the GR20, the long mountain route that runs 180 km north to south across Corsica in about 15 stages of 4 to 8.5 hours, every night in a PNRC refuge must be reserved in advance through the online booking platform, and the obligation covers bunks, bivouac pitches and rented tents alike. The Parc naturel régional de Corse, which manages the route and its refuges, runs reservations exclusively online with card payment, and the 2026 refuge season runs from 16 May to 4 October inclusive. This page on Corsica Travel Guide sets out what has to be booked, what it costs, when to reserve and what happens if plans change.

Yes, booking is mandatory for every GR20 refuge night in Corsica. The PNRC requires online reservation with card payment for all three options: a bunk in a refuge dormitory, a bivouac pitch for your own tent, or a rented tent placed on a designated pitch. There is no walk-up system, and quotas apply per refuge, so an unreserved arrival at a guarded refuge leaves you with no legal place to sleep, because wild camping is banned along the whole route.

The rule comes straight from the PNRC's own GR20 page for the 2026 season. Reservations are described as obligatory for every formula, whether you take a bunk, a bivouac pitch or a rented tent, and they are made exclusively through the secure online platform with payment by card. A confirmation email serves as your receipt, and the per-refuge quotas mean a stage can simply sell out.

The reason the system is strict is capacity. The GR20 has about 15 stages between Calenzana in the north and Conca in the south, each ending at a refuge or gîte with a fixed number of places. In high summer the demand for those places exceeds supply, and the online quota system is how the park distributes them. Guarding runs from 16 May to 4 October in 2026, and outside that window the refuges are not guarded at all, which changes the whole planning question. For the shape of the route itself, see How Long Does The GR20 Take?.

What Does A GR20 Refuge Night Cost In 2026?

The 2026 PNRC rates are EUR 20 per person for a bunk in a refuge dormitory, EUR 12 per person for a bivouac pitch with your own tent, EUR 27 for one person in a rented tent, and EUR 39 for two people in a rented tent, which covers two bivouac pitches plus the tent. Meals at the refuges are paid separately, in cash or by cheque, to the guardian on site. These figures come from the PNRC's current tariff page.

The rented-tent option deserves a line of explanation. Every PNRC rental tent sleeps two and comes with a 3 cm sleeping mat per person, but you bring your own sleeping bag. So the EUR 27 single price is one bivouac pitch plus the tent, and the EUR 39 double price is two pitches plus the same tent, a better per-person rate than two singles.

One detail in the tariffs is easy to miss: dogs are not allowed inside the refuges or in the rented tents. If you are hiking with a dog, the refuge network as booked product is effectively closed to you, and the wider question of planning around that is covered in Is It Safe To Hike The GR20 Alone?.

How Does The PNRC Booking System Work?

Reservations are made only online, through the PNRC's secure reservation platform, with card payment at the time of booking. A confirmation email acts as the receipt, and bookings can be changed up to 48 hours before the stage concerned, subject to availability, though the type of stay cannot be switched afterwards. A full refund is possible up to two months before the reservation.

The mechanics matter as much as the rule. Changes are accepted until two days before the stage, which means a weather window or a slow knee can be accommodated by shifting a night, but only into real availability, and only in the same formula: a bunk cannot be turned into a bivouac, or the reverse. The two-month refund window is generous by hiking standards, and it pairs with the FFRandonnée announcement that opened 2026 GR20 reservations for the season.

A practical consequence follows from the quota system. Because each refuge has a fixed number of bunks and pitches, and because summer demand runs high, booking early in the season's opening gives you the widest choice of stages and formulas. Booking late does not raise the price, since the PNRC tariffs are fixed, but it can narrow which nights remain, and a stage that has sold out cannot be entered by paying more at the door.

The booking question also sits inside a bigger planning frame. The GR20 is a hard route by any measure, and the decision about how many days to give it, which direction to walk and whether to sleep in bunks or tents is all upstream of the reservation screen. Those choices are worked through in Is The GR20 Hard?.

When Should You Book GR20 Refuges?

Book as early in the reservation season as your dates allow, and in any case well before the summer months of July and August, when the per-refuge quotas fill first. The refuges are guarded only from 16 May to 4 October inclusive in 2026, so nights outside that window are not bookable at all, and the planning question becomes a different one about season and conditions.

Timing splits into two decisions. The first is when to reserve, and the answer is early: the quotas are per refuge, the demand concentrates on the guarded summer season, and the change rules let you adjust up to 48 hours before a stage if plans move. The second is when to walk, which is a separate question with its own answer in What Is The Best Time To Do The GR20?.

The fire-risk rules bear on timing too. From 15 June to 30 September it is forbidden to light a fire or smoke in forests, maquis and massifs, and the daily fire-risk map for massif access is updated at 18:00 for the next day. In the highest-risk window, access to some massifs can be restricted outright. There is also a specific rule at the northern start: no GR20 departures from Calenzana after 11:00, under a municipal order tied to fire risk. Stage 1, Calenzana to Ortu di u Piobbu, is about 6 h 30 out, so an early start is not just advice, it is the condition of setting off at all.

Can You Camp Anywhere On The GR20 Instead?

No. Wild camping is banned across Corsica, including the whole GR20 and the Parc naturel régional de Corse, under municipal orders, and bivouac is tolerated only in the designated, marked areas beside the PNRC refuges, each of which must be reserved per person. Sleeping outside those areas is not a loophole around the booking system, it is a separate offence.

This closes the one route a walker might imagine around the mandatory booking: pitching on any flat spot and skipping the refuges. The legal bivouac areas exist only next to the refuges, they are part of the same quota and reservation system, and the ban is enforced. The park was created in 1972 and now covers 4,484 km2, and the rule applies throughout its territory, not only on the GR20 itself.

The route has changed in other ways over the years, too. The old Cirque de la Solitude section has been off the GR20 since a fatal rockfall in 2015, and an official variant now replaces it, so descriptions of the trail in older guides can mislead on both terrain and stage structure. A fuller route overview sits in the GR20 and hiking guide, and if a full traverse sounds like more than the trip allows, the island's other signed long trails, from the 84 km Mare a Mare Centre to the 73 km Mare a Mare Sud ending in Propriano, are covered in hiking in Corsica.

Not every Corsican mountain day needs a refuge booking, of course. Down in the valleys the same island offers guided adventures that run on ordinary day bookings, such as the Baracci canyon descents near Ajaccio, where Check availability is a single click rather than a season-long planning exercise.

Common Questions About Booking GR20 Refuges

Do You Need To Book GR20 Refuges?

Yes. The PNRC requires an online reservation for every GR20 refuge night in Corsica, covering bunks, bivouac pitches and rented tents, with card payment and a confirmation email as receipt.

How Much Is A GR20 Refuge Night?

The 2026 PNRC rates are EUR 20 per person for a bunk, EUR 12 for a bivouac pitch with your own tent, EUR 27 for one person in a rented tent and EUR 39 for two. Meals are paid on site in cash or by cheque.

Can You Cancel Or Change A GR20 Booking?

Yes. Changes are possible up to 48 hours before the stage, subject to availability and within the same formula, and a full refund is available up to two months before the reservation.

When Are The GR20 Refuges Guarded?

In 2026 the PNRC refuges are guarded from 16 May to 4 October inclusive. Outside that window there is no guarding and no bookable refuge service.

Can You Wild Camp On The GR20 Instead Of Booking?

No. Wild camping is banned across Corsica, including the GR20, and bivouac is allowed only in the designated areas beside PNRC refuges, which must be reserved per person.

Are Dogs Allowed In GR20 Refuges?

No. Dogs are not allowed inside the refuges or in the rented tents.