Routeburn Track booking guide for 2026/27

Bookings for each Great Walks season open on a single morning in May, walk by walk. For 2026/27 the Routeburn opened at 9:30am NZST on 15 May 2026. DOC runs a waiting lobby on opening morning: everyone who logs in before 9:30 is given a random place in the queue, so turning up at 9:00 earns you nothing over 9:25, but anyone arriving after 9:30 goes to the back.

The 2027/28 season will open the same way, around the middle of May 2027, with exact dates announced on DOC's blog a few weeks ahead. The full list of release dates lives in our Great Walks booking dates guide.

Plenty of people plan the Routeburn alongside the Milford, which opened two days earlier. The pinch point is the huts: Routeburn Falls has 48 bunks and Lake Mackenzie 50, and the classic trip needs both on consecutive nights.

1. Make a DOC account first. Do it at bookings.doc.govt.nz before opening day and check you can log in. Bookings can't be moved to another account holder later.
2. Pick your direction. The Routeburn can be walked either way. From the Routeburn Shelter (the Glenorchy end) the order is Routeburn Flats, then Routeburn Falls, over Harris Saddle (1,255 m) to Lake Mackenzie, and out to The Divide on the Milford Road. From The Divide it simply reverses.
3. Choose your nights. Most walkers take three days and two nights, staying at Routeburn Falls and Lake Mackenzie. Routeburn Flats is 2.3 km below Falls and makes a fine first night if Falls is full, and DOC notes you can stretch the trip by staying at more huts. Lake Howden Hut no longer exists: it was destroyed by storm damage in February 2020.
4. Hut or tent. The campsites are Routeburn Flats (15 tent sites) and Lake Mackenzie (9 tent sites), each beside the hut of the same name. They have toilets, water and a cooking shelter, but campers can't use the hut facilities, so you carry a tent, mat and stove. A campsite night is often what's left on a date where the bunks are gone.
5. Add your whole party and pay. Every person needs their own place, infants included. Ages are infant (0 to 4), child or youth (5 to 17) and adult (18 and over), and anyone 14 or under has to walk with an adult. Keep the confirmation: a DOC ranger lives at each hut and checks bookings, and you need photo ID.

Then sort the transfer. This is the Routeburn's real logistics problem. The Routeburn Shelter is 25 km from Glenorchy on a partly unsealed road; The Divide Shelter is 85 km from Te Anau. By road, the two ends are 325 km apart, so you can't just walk back to your car. DOC says transport is needed at both ends and must be arranged before you start, and it warns against booking a pickup that would have you leaving the hut before it's light enough to walk safely. If you're driving, the Greenstone and Caples Tracks start and finish near the Routeburn Shelter and can turn the walk into a circuit.

All prices are in NZ dollars, per person, per night, for the 2026/27 Great Walks season (1 November to 30 April), as listed on DOC's Routeburn Track page.

The NZ rate is for New Zealand citizens and people ordinarily resident in New Zealand, and you need proof of eligibility. Book the NZ rate without it and you pay the difference plus a $50 per person administration fee. The classic two-night hut trip comes to $176 per adult on the NZ rate or $264 international; camping both nights is $56 or $84. Transport is extra.

Changing dates. You can move a booking to other dates in the same season, subject to availability, but you can't transfer it to someone else's account. Move the transfer at the same time, or you'll be standing at The Divide on the wrong day.

Cancelling. Cancel online. Great Walks cancellation fees are small well ahead of time and climb steeply in the last fortnight, reaching the full price on the day of arrival. Medical cancellations with a certificate are refunded. If DOC closes the track, you can ask for a refund of unused nights or a move to other dates. Weather that doesn't close the track doesn't earn a refund, and no-shows lose the lot.

That fee curve shapes when places come back. Anyone unsure has a strong reason to cancel before the last fortnight, and those bunks and tent sites land back in the system with no announcement.

DOC has no waitlist. When someone cancels, their places go straight back on sale to whoever happens to be looking at that moment. The Routeburn has more ways back in than most Great Walks: a freed bunk at Flats can stand in for Falls, a tent site can stand in for a bunk, and because the track goes both ways, a cancellation that doesn't fit one direction may fit the other.

That flexibility is also what makes it exhausting to watch by hand: four combinations of huts, two directions, and a calendar that changes without warning. Spotbagger does the watching. Set a watch on the Routeburn Track for your dates and party size, and we check the DOC booking system often and tell you the moment a complete two-night trip opens up, in either direction. You book it yourself on DOC's site, then sort the transfer.

If the Routeburn is full across your whole window, the same alerts work on every other Great Walk. Our guide to NZ Great Walks that have sold out covers how the cancellation market works across all of them. Outside the season the Routeburn doesn't operate as a Great Walk: DOC says it's for walkers with alpine skills, avalanche gear, ice axe and crampons, with greatly reduced facilities and some bridges removed.

Do you need to book the Routeburn Track?

Yes. In the Great Walks season (1 November 2026 to 30 April 2027) every hut and campsite night must be booked in advance. DOC says walkers without a valid booking may be charged a penalty or turned away if the hut or campsite is full.

How much does the Routeburn Track cost?

For 2026/27 the huts are $88 a night for NZ residents and $132 for international visitors, so the usual two-night trip is $176 or $264 per adult. Campsites are $28 or $42 a night. The transfer between the two ends is extra.

How does Routeburn hut booking work?

You book a hut or campsite for each night of your trip. The huts are Routeburn Flats, Routeburn Falls and Lake Mackenzie, and most walkers spend two nights, at Routeburn Falls and Lake Mackenzie. Every night has to be booked before you start, and a full trip needs each night to line up for your whole party.

Can you camp at Routeburn Flats?

Yes. Routeburn Flats Campsite has 15 tent sites next to Routeburn Flats Hut, and there's a second campsite with 9 sites at Lake Mackenzie. Both must be booked in the Great Walks season, and campers can't use the huts.

When do Routeburn Track bookings open?

The 2026/27 season opened at 9:30am NZST on 15 May 2026, and it's on sale now. Bookings for 2027/28 will open around the middle of May 2027, on a date DOC announces on its blog.

Is there a waitlist for the Routeburn Track?

No. DOC doesn't run waitlists. Cancelled places are released straight back onto the booking system, which is why a watch on your dates is the most reliable way to catch one.