Rifugio SABA — Cà d'Arera

Only if you are a member or if the SABA allows it, since the club decides when to open: Prima Bergamo described it as a private building reserved for members, opened at the club's discretion, and CAI Bergamo, in the photos of paths 221 and 237, calls it «rifugio SABA-Cà d'Arera (privato)».

The only public contact is the mobile 348 8900297, which the Pro Loco gives under «Rifugio Saba» among the accommodation of the basin. For eating or sleeping in a hut open to the public, the reference in the area is the Capanna 2000, about 1.3 kilometres further up as the crow flies, to be checked in 2026-27 because of the renovation works.

The hut is on the south side of the Pizzo Arera, at the Alpe Arera: L'Eco di Bergamo's listing recalls that the area has been known for centuries for its calamine mines and great beech trees, with views of the Arera, the Grem and the Alben. On OpenStreetMap the building is marked as «Rifugio SABA Ca' Arera».

When the road from Plassa is open you can drive up to the car park at 1,600 metres, about 130 metres from the hut as the crow flies: it costs 4 euros a day, with the ticket bought in partner shops or at the Plassa parking meters before driving up. On foot from Plassa, in the Camping Arera area, you climb on path 221: Prima Bergamo saw the hut appear after about an hour's walk.

The Plassa-Arera 1600 road is open only in the summer season: in 2026 from 22 April, with a 30 km/h speed limit, a ban on vehicles over 3.5 tonnes and on those towing a trailer carrying other vehicles, and a ban on roadside parking outside the marked spaces. In winter it is closed to all vehicles, in 2025 from 18 November.

From 5 October to 18 December 2026, between 8 am and 5 pm, a municipal ordinance provides for temporary closures managed by flagmen for the installation of a cable crane and the felling of a stand of forest: in those weeks expect delays or set off on foot from Plassa.

CAI path 237 to the Cima di Grem starts from the hut: 5.6 kilometres, about 450 metres of ascent, 1 hour 50 minutes out and 1 hour 20 back, hiking grade. It leaves path 221 to the left, follows the dirt road up to a hairpin at 1,809 metres, traverses to the Baita Zuccone and the Baita Camplano, at 1,831 metres, and reaches the Bocchetta di Grem and the summit, at 2,049 metres.

Continuing on path 221 you climb to the Capanna 2000; near the hut, Prima Bergamo wrote, the first signposts already point to the Sentiero dei Fiori. The hut sometimes opens for public events: on Saturday 4 July 2026, at 5.30 pm, it hosted «Negli abissi dell'Arera», a talk by the Le Nottole caving group of Bergamo on thirty years of exploration beneath the Arera, part of the Pro Loco's summer programme.