There are probably about one million reasons to hike the Tour Du Mont Blanc. It is without a doubt one of the best things we’ve ever done in our lives. The pictures (while amazing) still don’t even do justice to the views you get to see on this trek. I made a list of the top 10 reasons to do this hike, because trust me, there are many more, and more logistical posts to come!
You get to hike and eat in Italy, France, and Switzerland!
It is really amazing to get to walk from one country to another! The views in all 3 countries are truly unique, and it feels a little bit like going back in time to be able to walk from one country to the next. Each country has its own style of food, and even though you are minutes away from a neighboring country, you get to enjoy the cuisine of the country you are actually in. The mountains of these countries also have their own styles of cooking, and it was an experience to try all of the different cuisines. We are adventurous eaters and love trying new things, so for us, it was exciting to not know what we’d have for dinner each night. We loved the food all along the way during the hike.
You don’t have to carry your bags
You CAN carry your own bags throughout the whole hike if you want to, but one of the most convenient things about this trek is that you can have your bags picked up each morning and delivered to your accommodation by the time you arrive in the evening. By doing so, you are able to travel light & free, only strapping on a small daypack for what you want to bring with you on that day, like water, food, camera, sunscreen, and other essentials. We booked our trek through Mont Blanc Treks and they provided this service.
You stay in a new place each night.
Each day you are hiking point-to-point. You never have to retrace any steps, or hike somewhere just to turn around and return to the same place. With every step you take on this trek you are literally seeing something new. There are different options for accommodation each night, so each night you are staying in a new place. It makes it a bit more adventurous to get chose your destination each day and see where you will be sleeping that evening.
You can end every day with a refreshment!
One of my favorite things about this hike was that when you arrived at your destination, you could relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery with a drink and a view! Most days, we had an aperol spritz, wine, or local beer. Some days we just sat and had a coffee or espresso and a snack. When you are on a backpacking or wilderness hike, you don’t always have the luxury of bringing some of those “nonessential” items with you, but on this hike, you’re able to have them each night because you don’t have to carry them with you! Hanging out in the lounge area also made for a nice social setting to chat with some like-minded hikers.
You need to be physically fit, but not incredibly so
I would say most people who can handle walking for long periods of time could do this trek. It is made easier by the fact that you don’t have to carry heavy bags and that you can sleep in a real bed each night. If you aren’t very physically fit, your days could end up being really long and you’d likely need to make a lot of stops, but there is nothing overly imposing about the journey. We are both very physically fit and workout every day, so for us the hike was not very physically challenging. But it is important to be aware of your fitness level and health limitations. If in doubt, speak with your tour company about any concerns. They will be very helpful with the planning and can alter your days to a degree to be shorter or longer on the trail.
Views, views, views
Undoubtably, we saw some of the best views of our lives during this hike. We were concerned before heading out that each day might feel the same and it would become repetitive, but by the time we were finished, we wished we had more days. Every day was truly special in its own way, and we went through countless types of trails with their own unique views. It definitely kept the hike very exciting and entertaining throughout.
You can be as social as you’d like!
There are so many options on this trail to be a social as you’d like to be. You can hike with a group, take a guided hike, or you could hike self-guided. At the accommodations, you can spend time socializing or you can keep to yourself. No matter what level of social interaction you want, you can find it on this trek. We hiked alone and self-guided, and it was nice that each night at our accommodation we could socialize with others from the trek if we wanted to. We were fully in control of the amount of social interaction we wanted to have, which is important to us.
Time in Nature
Everyone is different, but we both kept our phones off during the hike. We used wifi at the accommodations each night, but we didn’t spend any time on our phones at all during hiking. It was wonderful to spend full days outside, see the sights and animals, eat lunch outside, and just enjoy being where we were. Nature helps you to forget that the rest of the world exists sometimes, and that experience was so valuable to us.
You feel accomplished!
It was an amazing feeling to finish our final hike on the last day of the tour. Not only did we have an amazing time, but we really felt like we accomplished something! We had only been on one multi-day hike prior to this one, The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. That trek had been full-service and we’d been taken care of pretty well the whole way. This was our first self-guided trek, and we felt really proud crossing the finish line!
You can find a great tour company.
We booked this whole trek through the company “Mont Blanc Treks”. While I could have done a ton of research and planned all of the logistics myself, I am very glad that I did not and let the professionals handle it for us. Mont Blanc Treks were extremely organized and responsive, and provided us with absolutely wonderful information, great accommodation, and perfect plans for each day’s trek. We are actually going to use them again for an upcoming hike in the Dolomites this summer.
If you’re interested in the practical side of doing this hike check out the blog post I guest wrote for one of my favorite bloggers Travel Tom Tom : Everything You need to know before hiking the Tour Du Mont Blanc