Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) was the first hike that we planned for our honeymoon, the other hike was the Camino de Santiago. The TMB is a 170km trail surrounding Mount Blanc mountain. It was originally created as a way for explorers to find the best route to summit the highest peak of mont blanc.
We decided to treat ourselves the first day of our 30 days of hiking around Europe, by booked a 5-star hotel in Chamonix (Our first 5-star hotel) along with a 2 star Michelin meal, this was our most expensive treat in our 30 days of hiking. The TMB does not start in Chamonix, it starts in the neighbouring town of Les Houches, which is only 5 minutes in a taxi. Chamonix is very popular for skiing, skydiving and all forms of adventure sports, this is why we chose to stay here the first night.
We flew into Geneva as it was the closest airport to Chamonix that flew from Dublin. Geneva borders France and is about an hours drive away from Chamonix. Typically we just
We had a few hours to kill, so we decided to go into the city to see some sights. We were slightly confused with the train network but we figured it out eventually, it costs €6 for a return train into the city center. It’s a fabulous city full of amazing architecture and great tourist attractions but we really only had a flying visit to experience it. The Shuttle bus took 1 hour to get from the airport to Chamonix but as it was a shared bus and our hotel was one of the last stops and it took us slightly longer to get to our stop but we did get a free tour of the town.
We stayed in Le Hameau Albert 1er, for one night, the hotel did not disappoint and was worth the additional expense. The hotel gave us a free bottle of champagne to celebrate our honeymoon and a selection of mini desserts, both lasted about 30 seconds (we needed to build our energy for the hike). We decided to take full advantage of the hotels swimming pool, rock climbing wall and all amenities, god only knows when we will see another swimming pool.
After our dinner, we walked around Chamonix which was buzzing and jam-packed around every corner. Fortunately for us, there was a music festival on while we were there and there were loads of local artists singing and playing music. We didn’t stay out at the festival too long as the following day we were walking our first day of Tour du Mont Blanc and we needed all our energy for the massive elevation gains ahead of us.
Chamonix provides accommodation for all different types of people, it is a tourist town after all. On day 9 of the TMB, we got a cable car back down from Plan Praz and booked our accommodation for €50 each in a coffee shop in Chamonix using their wifi. I’m sure if you book in advance you could get the accommodation in Chamonix much cheaper.
We started our Tour du Mont Blanc journey mid-June which would be regarded as early in the season to hike the trail. We chose this date as we wanted to finish the TMB and then walk the Camino de Santiago and into Pamplona during San Fermin (that’s another day’s story). We also chose to walk the TMB on this date as we were told it was before the peak season, so accommodation would not be a problem in the mountain huts. This was true, as we did not book any hostels in advance and we were never refused accommodation on any night. We did worry about accommodation on the TMB and we also met people that could not get accommodation on certain nights, our advice is to book some of the rural hostels in advance as you do not want to get stuck up the mountain without a bed for the night.
The Tour du Mont Blanc spans over 170 kilometers while crossing 3 different countries with over 10,000 meters of altitude difference. Even if the 170 km was on a flat plane, I expect many people would struggle to walk that distance without some sort of training. Most stages on the TMB there will be close to 1,000m elevation increase or decrease, this elevation increase is greater than most mountains in the UK and Ireland.
The simple answer is, YES the TMB is difficult but if you train for it properly you will be able to enjoy it much more. Our training for the TMB consisted of hiking every weekend for 3 months before our departure date for 5-6 hours with at least 500m elevation gains, this was then ramped up to twice a week 1 month before our departure. This not only increased our fitness but it also helped us fine-tuned our hiking gear.
The Tour du Mont Blanc costs vary every day and this is especially true when you walk from one country to another in one day. The best way to budget for the TMB cost for food and accommodation is to budget your holiday similar to a city vacation costs. To help budget the costs of the TMB I will detail our accommodation costs for each day below.
You can see from the above cost that Breakfast and dinner are generally covered in your accommodation cost so the only additional cost you need to factor in is lunch and snacks.
A Receipt for lunch at one stop on the Tour du Mont Blanc
I think you get the idea. We were told the mountain huts are more expensive for food as it has to be carried by a person or helicoptered in.
When we set out to do the tour du mont blanc our main objective was to complete the full TMB and also try and do it as quickly as we could while also enjoying it. We walked the Tour du Mont Blanc in 10 days and even got a train it into Paris on the 10th day. We followed Kev Reynolds “The Tour of Mont Blanc: Complete Two-Way Trekking Guide (Trekking Guides)” guidebook stages as much as we could but we deviated slightly in some stages. We have done a book review on the TMB guide book here.