Walking holiday Alps:
Best of Tour du Mont Blanc [MC]

Best of Tour du Mont Blanc [TMB] gives you the chance to enjoy a fabulous week’s walking holiday in France’s most exceptional mountain range. Whether fulfilling a childhood dream or a cherished personal challenge, you walk approximately half of the mythical Tour du Mont Blanc [TMB].

A walking holiday in The Alps is Europe’s finest hiking without a doubt, and our ‘Best of TMB’ brings you the highlights in an unhurried format that will challenge but not exhaust. The 70-km / 48 mile section we have selected is widely regarded as the most picturesque. Moreover, we have staged the walking holiday over six days so the walking lengths are not too long, enabling you to go unhurried, and enjoy the fabulous trails and views along the way. Late afternoons can see some changeable weather in the Alps, so an early-ish start will see you either in or close to base in good time.

Best of Tour du Mont Blanc [TMB] affords easy access and departure options and sees you walking from your fine lakeside arrival point in Switzerland across the Franco-Swiss frontier and into France. You spend two nights in Helvetia and five in France. It is an inn-to-inn trek along the famous trail that enables you to return at anytime in the future and pick up from where you left off.

Your TMB accommodation en route is comfortable, convivial and welcoming, giving you plenty of opportunity to forge those bonds of camararderie that will be reinforced along the trail over the duration of your walking experience. You stay in private rooms in small, family-run hotels, auberges and chambre d’hotes, as well as arguably the quaintest little mountain refuge you’ll ever see located on the shores of a middle mountain lake. Trust us – it’s only for one night, there are hot showers available, a restaurant and the bunk beds are conveniently arranged in little alcoves of six to allow for greater privacy. There's no access by road, so you'll need to take your overnight essentials in your backpack just on this occasion. We can assure you the benefits are well worth it in order to savour the superb location at its best – late afternoon and early morning, when you are alone with a few other cautiously-adventurous travellers. It also means you don’t have to climb down from the finest part of the alpine circuit at the day’s end and walk up to it again the next morning.

This walking holiday in The Alps is designed to be authentic but minus the ‘slog factor,’ and you get to spend half a day in Chamonix, the birthplace of 'Alpinisme', mid-way through, just so you can say you’ve been there and bought an over-priced coffee. Furthermore, we do not consider cable-cars and chair-lifts as cheating - you will use one to shorten a hiking day (where the climb is off-piste or hors ‘TMB’), and a further occasion is optional (available June-Sept during daylight hours and not included in the tour fees).

Tour Summary

Day 1: Walk to Trient - approx. 6 hours
via the GR5 route.
10 miles-15 kms, with 750 m altitude gain and 925 m descent.
(Comfortable walker's inn or auberge, Switzerland.)

Day 2: Walk into France to Argentière - approx. 5 hours
via the Col de Balme.
9 miles -13 kms, with 1030 m altitude gain and 1080 m descent.
(Night in a comfortable 2-star hotel, France)

Day 3: Walk to Lac Blanc - approx. 3.5 hours
via the route that avoids the Aiguillette de Argentiere trail with the vertigo-inducing ladders.
6 miles-9 kms, with 1100 m altitude gain.
(Comfortable chalet-refuge on the banks of the Lake, France)

Day 4: Walk to Chamonix - approx. 3 hours
6.5 miles-10 kms, with 1300 m descent; or 3 miles-4.5 kms, with 470 m descent plus cable car. Afternoon in Chamonix (Comfortable 2-star hotel, France).

Day 5: Walk to Les Houches via Brevent peak - approx. 6.5 hours
10 miles-14.5 kms, with 650 m altitude gain & 1500 m descent.
(Comfortable 2-star hotel, France).

Day 6: Walk to Contamines - 5.5 to 7 hours according to chosen option.
Two options: 9.5 miles-14 kms, with 1000 m altitude gain & descent; or shave off 770 ms ascent [and 4 kms of steep trail] via the cable car - fee not included.
(Comfortable 1-star hotel or chambre d'hote, France).

Departure day. Breakfast & Bon Retour!

Tour Description

"Little Canada" and the Swiss Alps
You leave "Little Canada" and commence through meadows and along a glacial river. The rolling countryside of the Swiss mountains is one of our favourite sections of the course, and the trail to Bovine the perfect introduction to your personal challenge: huge granite blocks, bilberries, conifers, mountain ash, forest and more rocks. After crossing the ridge, the valley opens up with fine views of Martigny below.

Frontier bound
This stage starts with a steep walk to the Col de Balme, on the border with France. The views are incredible. Then you enjoy a gentle descent to L'Aiguillette de Posette, with its dashed rocky landscape, heather and bilberries. From there the descent becomes quite steep.

Going Lakeside
You bypass the metal ladders of the GR5 and take the 'Grand Balcon du Sud', arguably the finest stretch of trail in Europe. You lunch on the shores of Lake Cheserys before enjoying the fine views over the Mont Blanc Massif en route to your fabulous overnight location at Lac Blanc. You will delight in just being there.

Trail to Chamonix
You continue along the remarkable 'Grand Balcon du Sud,' across Le Massif des Aiguilles Rouges, and perhaps enjoy a drink or a light snack at La Flegere. From here, you can either opt for the cable car or take your time and enjoy the descent to Chamonix. The centrally-located Mineral Museum is well worth a visit.

Heavenly Brevent
Your last day’s hiking sees you avoiding the knee-crunching ascent back to La Flegere by taking the cable car. From there you continue your mini-trek along 'heaven's balcony' and through the 'Red Needles Natural Reserve,' where it would be unusual not to espy a family of marmottes at play or an Ibex armed with some impressively curved horns perched on an overhang.

After reaching the summit of Le Brevent (2525 m), the highest point of your mini-trek, you descend for a drink at La Refuge de Bel Lachat. Then you commence the final descent to Les Houches, tired but exhilarated and ready for that promised and well-deserved gourmet dinner.

The High Road
There are many great views of the valley if you choose to climb to Bellevue (approx. 1hr:45 mins). From there you finish the tour on a high by avoiding the crowds on the GR5/TMB below and following the more scenic variant closer to the Bionnassay glacier. You cross its eponymous rope-bridge, traverse the fine Tricot Pass and push onwards past the Miage and Truc huts before the final descent to Contamines. Sacré balade, Sacré tour!