Hotel High Plains

Hotel High Plains is the pub and hotel at Dinner Plain, the alpine village on the Great Alpine Road between Mount Hotham and Omeo. Dinner Plain is unusual: an entire village of cypress-wood lodges built for snow season that runs as a proper alpine community year round, and High Plains is its social centre, with wood fired pizza, a wedding reception trade in the warmer months and QR code ordering at the tables. Rooms and lodge-style accommodation put guests in the middle of the village, and the balcony on a clear summer evening is the place to be.

Dogs at the hotel

Per listings on BringFido and Hotels.com, pets stay free, dogs of any size are allowed with no additional fee and cats are also welcome. There is a real contradiction worth knowing before you book: verified guest feedback reports that pets are not actually allowed in the hotel rooms, and alpine accommodation roundups list the hotel among local lodges without dog friendly indoor stays. What guests do confirm is a warm welcome outdoors, with staff happy to see dogs around the pub areas for lunch, drinks or apres-ski.

Because these details come from aggregator listings and guest reports rather than the hotel's own written policy, treat them as reported practice and call the hotel directly before booking, particularly about which rooms take pets and any rules during the busy snow season. One local rule that does have official weight: Dinner Plain village rules require dogs on leash in public areas at all times, and the village has no fenced off leash park, so this is an on-lead village rather than an off lead playground.

While you're out there

In summer the high plains walking country opens up, with tracks off the Great Alpine Road and the Mount Hotham summit trails nearby, all on lead for the dog. In winter the village turns to snow play and cross country skiing.

Watch the boundary lines: the village-managed shared tracks allow dogs, but the Alpine National Park next door does not, and the difference is an invisible line with real fines behind it. In snow season, regulars carry waste bags and pack them out, since buried deposits resurface on the ski tracks at thaw.

The nearest published walks on this site sit in the valleys below the ranges, such as the Porepunkah Riverside Park walk near Bright, and the Beechworth House or Beechworth Holiday Park are pet friendly valley alternatives if the mountain booking falls through. More alpine and north east options are listed under dog friendly stays in Victoria.