Alps Hike Featuring a Walk with St. Bernard Pups Takes Top Honors in Outside Magazine’s Best Family Trips

Berkeley, CA – Great hiking combined with cute puppies stole the show for Outside Magazine in its 2014 Travel Awards for Best Family Trip. In its April 2014 issue, the popular magazine selected Wilderness Travel’s new Across the Grand St. Bernard Pass hiking adventure through the Alps as its Best Family Trip for 2014.

The annual awards, chosen by the magazine’s global network of correspondents, celebrates the top destinations, companies, products and travel providers around the world that inspire people to participate in an active lifestyle. Outside noted the scenery, the food, the ease of getting around, and of course, the puppies, as reasons the trip was selected. Because the hikes are short (no more than five hours per day, unless guests choose to take more difficult routes) and there is a shuttle option available, as well, it’s flexible for families.

The new 10-day trip, offered in July and August 2014, takes travelers from Switzerland to Italy over the famed St. Bernard Pass, home of the well-known mountain dogs, and along the way traipses through mountain villages, hosts overnights in historic chalets and features some of the region’s best foods and wine.

Highlights of the trip include a walk with the St. Bernard puppies; panoramic vistas; tastings with local cheese and prosciutto producers; chairlift, gondola and cable car rides with magnificent alpine views; visits to several Roman ruins, and a stop at Gran Paradiso National Park with its wide-sweeping landscape of peaks, alpine lakes and valleys.

St. Bernard Pass is the oldest and most famous of the great alpine crossings, with armies as far back as the Celts and Romans, and later Napoleon, fighting for control. The St. Bernard dogs were originally trained to rescue stranded travelers along the pass at an 11^th century hospice, which still raises and houses the pups today.

Prices for the trip start at $5895.