We hiked the Tour du Mont Blanc from Courmayeur, Italy through Switzerland and ending in Chamonix, France over the course of 8 days. We used a wonderful company called “Mont Blanc Treks” to help us organize the tour. They booked all of our accommodation, gave us our route for each day, and transported our luggage from place to place for us.
The Tour du Mont Blanc was one of my favorite experiences we’ve ever had and I thought it would be fun idea to do a rundown of the itinerary through photos and a brief “journal like” summary of the experience! I hope this blog post is fun and informative and gives you an idea of what the tour du mont blanc would look like day to day.
Starting Point: Courmayeur, Italy
I highly recommend spending a day in Courmayeur before you start the Tour du Mont Blanc. Logistically, you should do this so you are sure you are there and prepared to start on your first morning. Personally, I also believe you must do this because Courmayer has a LOT to offer to visitors. You could truly spend multiple days here. Even if you don’t want to hike the full Tour du Mont Blanc I recommend visiting Courmayeur.
I wrote a post about spending time in Courmayeur you can find it here —-> Charming Courmayeur, Italy
Hiking Day 1: Courmayeur to Lavachy (19 Kilometers)
Woke up feeling fresh and ready to go at Hotel Crampon! Today (the first day of the Tour du Mont Blanc) we’re hiking to Lavachy and it will be about 19 kilometers of hiking.
The hike starts with a climb up above Courmayeur. We started in puffer jackets and we were in tee shirts within about 15 minutes. This change in weather can happen often on the Tour Du Mont Blanc. We got amazing views looking back down over the town below. We passed a mountain hut where we could fill up on water if needed, visited some cows, and hiked through some stunning mountain landscapes with beautiful trees and wildflowers.
Breakfast and dinner are included in all of the bookings along this hike. For lunch you can opt to order a lunch from the place you’re staying each night, or you can pack your own. Because we were in Courmayeur last night, we were able to find things to pack our own lunch. We got meat, cheese, and veggies and had a lovely picnic on the trail.
Towards the end of our day we made a pit stop at “Rifugio Walter Bonatti” this is a popular rifugio (mountain hut) along the Tour du Mont Blanc with incredible views. There were tons of people already here hanging out, enjoying snacks and drinks, getting some sun, drying out their hiking clothes etc. The vibes at these places are always so high! It’s nice to lounge around with like minded people in the sunshine! We had a drink and then continued on to our final destination.
We arrived in Lavachy and squeezed in a little arms and abs workout before grabbing a drink in the sunshine with the other hikers! It was so lovely down in this valley. There were 2 places you could stay here, it also seemed like some people made a nice little day trip to hang out in this area.
We stayed in “Hotel Lavachy“. We stayed in a private room here, it had it’s own sink but we had a shared bathroom outside the room. The dinner here was one of our favorites of the entire Tour du Mont Blanc. It was so delicious and I will dream of the cheesy polenta! After dinner we wandered around a bit to enjoy the stunning scenery and headed to bed to get ready for day 2.
Hiking Day 2: Lavachy to La Fouly (20 Kilometers)
Today we walk to Switzerland! Today’s walk actually started briefly on the road and quickly veered into some stunning mountain landscapes! We hiked to “Rifugio Elena” and made a quick pit stop for a snack. Many people stop here for coffee, breakfast, or a little break as from here you essentially go straight up on switchbacks for a solid hour or so. This was one of the most straight up parts of the Tour du Mont Blanc.
Honestly we’re just kidding with those faces, we love hiking! But it was quite a climb to get to Switzerland! One of the most fun things about this hike is crossing borders on foot! It is really neat to see the markers when you switch countries!
And just like that, we’re officially in Switzerland. This was such a stunning area up on top of the mountains and after climbing up all that way, we were excited to be here.
We had a packed lunch that we ordered from our hotel the night before, but we stopped at a Rifugio to grab some drinks to go with it! This spot was so lovely, there were cows grazing everywhere, and we actually ended up sitting and chatting with someone who was from Philadelphia too! Hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc is such a communal experience, even if you hike on your own. All of the stops you make provide opportunities to be social if you want to!
The rest of the day hiking was much easier as we made our way to our accommodation in La Fouly. Here we stayed at Auberge Des Glaciers and we really enjoyed it.
We started hiking by about 8 am every day, so we generally arrived to our next spot around 3-4 pm. This gave us a good amount of time to lounge around, read a bit, have a drink, explore the area etc. It was nice to get to spend some casual time each day. We had a private room & bathroom here and it was very cozy. Dinner was excellent and we’d definitely recommend this spot for your night in La Fouly.
Hiking Day 3: La Fouly to Champex Lac (15 Kilometers)
This was definitely the easiest day of hiking on the Tour du Mont Blanc. We got up early because we wanted to get to the lake early and spend time hanging around. Our day had a foggy start, but it become more beautiful as we kept going.
One thing we found so amusing during the Tour du Mont Blanc is how often people stop for treats. We had not even been walking for more than an hour when we came upon this spot and so many people were already enjoying pies, ice cream, drinks etc. It is very popular on these treks to see people eating pies and ice creams at all hours of the day!
Today’s hiking also took us through some charming little Swiss villages, which was really neat. They were so small and lovely and many houses were so adorably decorated.
Today’s hike also took us through a little wooden sculpture trail. It was fun to spot the different animal displays and kind of felt like a little scavenger hunt keeping us entertained as we went along.
We were truly stunned when we arrived, as the lake was even more beautiful than we had imagined. We were also stunned (even though we should have known) by the difference in prices now that we were in Switzerland. Thankfully we were only on our own for lunch as dinner was included in our overnight cost of our hotel throughout the Tour du Mont Blanc.
Thankfully there was a small market in town so we grabbed some snacks and drinks and had lunch with the ducks! We visited Switzerland before and knew about the costs, but honestly, we kind of forgot.
If you’re looking for some ideas on how to travel cheaper when you’re in Switzerland, I wrote a post about it you can find here —-> 10 Ways to Travel CheapER in Switzerland
Here we stayed at Hotel Du Glacier it was a lovely stay and one of the best dinners of our trip. It appears they’ve also upgraded the hotel since we stayed there and added some wellness activities, which is very nice! We also had a balcony with a bit of a view of the lake which was really nice!
Hiking Day 4: Champex Lac to Trient (18 Kilometers)
Champex had a lovely bakery so we popped up there first thing in the morning to get things for todays lunch. Then we headed out to start our day, passing some beautiful horses along the way!
The start of today’s hike involved a lot of fog, and a number of water crossings. Luckily the water was pretty shallow and we didn’t have much trouble navigating.
We even made a few friends up in the clouds. It is a pretty wild experience when you can’t see anything and you hear the cowbells ringing through the fog. This guy just came walking right up to us and if I’m honest it freaked me out at first. But these cows are very used to people hiking through their territory.
The fog prevented us from seeing one of todays most epic viewpoints, so we figured it was finally time to indulge in the pie culture! It was absolutely delicious and we now understand why so many people stop for treats along the Tour du Mont Blanc.
Luckily, as we made our way closer to Trient the sun really broke through. I was so excited to see this beautiful pink church! It is one of the iconic images that you always see when preparing to do the Tour Du Mont Blanc and it was so beautiful in person! It was also really neat to be on this walkway up above the town before heading down to our spot.
This was the most quiet town that we stayed in along the tour du mont blanc and there wasn’t much to do here (not a bad thing). We grabbed a coffee and sat in the sunshine reading our books for a while. This spot was really communal, which was enjoyable. Many people hung out in the cute little bar before dinner. Dinner was served all at once at big long family style tables. It was nice to chat with other hikers about our adventures thus far.
Our spot here was called The Grande Ourse and here we had a private room with shared bathrooms. Don’t be put off by shared bathrooms, they were very nice and clean throughout the trip and people are so respectful. Remember most people doing the Tour Du Mont Blanc care about the place they stay just like you, so they are acting as such! It was so quiet and cozy here and we slept so well.
Hiking day 5: Trient to Argentiere (13 Kilometers)
Although this day may be one of the shorter ones distance wise, we found it to be a bit more challenging hiking wise. There was a lot of decent today, which can be a lot on the knees at times.
As usual though, it started with a lot of UP! It also started with incredible views of the Trient Glacier. It was almost impossible to not be constantly turning around to look back at it!
We got to see a marmot enjoying the sunshine on the mountain! We heard them a number of times throughout the Tour du Mont Blanc but only saw them once or twice. At this point we were getting really excited to cross over into France.
We made it to the cutest rifugio right on the border and we couldn’t resist having a quick drink before crossing info France!
It’s always fun to be able to stand in two countries at once!
The next few hours of hiking had such truly incredible views that we didn’t want to go down. We are usually not the type to linger on a hike but we couldn’t bring ourselves to keep going. We had to stop a number of times to just take in the beauty of this area.
We finally made our way down into Argentiere. We stayed at Hotel La Couronne and had the most amazing view of the glacier in the distance out our window. This area of France is known for having cheesy dishes and we had a wonderful pasta here that did NOT disappoint!
We were able to shop in the small town for things for our lunch for the next day, walk around and explore a little bit, and watch sunset over the glacier from our lovely room! This was such a beautiful day and we were so excited to get to Chamonix.
Hiking Day 6: Argentiere to Chamonix (14 kilometers)
Today had an absolutely epic start as we got to see some animals in the wild! These guys move quickly and don’t seem to want to hang around humans for long, so we were very lucky to get to see them! It was an excellent start to a truly beautiful day.
We got to climb some ladders today which was a fun adventure, and to see the stunning Lac Blanc. There is a rifugio here where you can stop for snacks and drinks. It seemed like a pretty popular day hike from Chamonix! So if the whole Tour du Mont Blanc doesn’t seem like it is for you, you have options to see some parts of it through day hiking!
It was pretty neat as we started to get views down over the town in the valley below and it seemed like the perfect place for lunch. We ordered a bag lunch from our hotel the night before and also some meat and cheese from a shop in town! It was a perfect combo!
There are so many cool things to do in mountains above Chamonix even if you’re not doing the Tour du Mont Blanc. We saw a ton of paragliders and it was beautiful to watch them fly. There are tons of day hikes that can be done up here. You can even just take the cable cars up to get incredible views and have a drink or snack at a hut.
We grabbed a celebratory drink for completing the Tour Du Mont Blanc before hopping on the cable car to head down into Chamonix! This was truly one of the best and most fun experiences of our lives! I could not recommend anything more!
Day in Chamonix
Chamonix is the most charming mountain town and we loved it SO much. I wish we’d been able to stay longer, but I know we’ll go back someday. If you’re doing the Tour du Mont Blanc in reverse of the way we did it you can also spend time here before you begin.
I wrote a whole blog post about spending time in Chamonix, you can find it here —-> A Perfect Summer Day in Chamonix
We also loved our hotel here, it was called Hotel Pointe Isabelle. It was located within walking distance of everything in town, was so nice and comfortable, and we had such a lovely little terrace.
Cost
It would be hard to sum up the entire cost of the Tour du Mont Blanc here because there are so many ways you can do this trek. It cost us about 2,000 USD per person for the entire trek. This INCLUDED breakfast, hotels, dinner, luggage transfer, and directions for hiking each day. This did NOT include lunch and any other extra food/drinks etc.
You could do this cheaper by booking your own trip without an agency, staying in dorm style rooms and carrying your own luggage.
You could also make it more expensive by joining a trek with a group and having a guide the whole way.
Final Notes on the Tour du Mont Blanc
There are probably 100 different ways that you could do the Tour Du Mont Blanc. This is the way we chose and we loved it. We enjoyed having our luggage transfers to make hiking more freeing and enjoyable. We enjoyed staying in private rooms in hotels and b&bs to be more comfortable. But you do not have to do it this way.
You can stay in dorms in mountain huts if you want to be more social or cut costs. You can carry your own bags the whole way. You can also make the hike shorter or longer depending on what you’re interested in, your fitness level etc.
Other Posts I’ve Written You May Find Helpful
10 Reasons to Hike the Tour du Mont Blanc
Staying in a Mountain Rifugio: Things You Need to Know
12 Ways to Prepare for a Hiking Adventure
Other Multi Day Hikes
After the Tour Du Mont Blanc we realized that we really love this type of travel. We have done a few other multi day hikes. I wrote blog posts about some of them which you can read here.
Everything You Need to Know to Hike the Alta Via 1 in the Dolomites
Hiking the W Trek in Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile
My posts will sometimes contain affiliate links. This means that if you click and book through my links I will earn a small commission at NO COST to you. This helps me to keep sharing out this awesome info entirely AD FREE! I also will FULLY recommend things that I acquire NO commission on and I just think are truly good recs. You will always get the truth from me here I would never recommend something I didn’t love and i LOVED the Tour du Mont Blanc.