Visiting Chamonix Without the TMB
Travel Tips for Chamonix
Don’t trust the weather forecast. It lies.
Ask your hotel for a local transit pass as you arrive. It grants free access to all buses and trains in the area but doesn’t include cable cars.
There is a city night bus that can be scheduled by calling ahead and requesting a ride.
Buy a two day summer lift pass and ride cable cars as much as possible.
Hike to Parc de Merlet to find a hidden discount code on the trail by hiking. Taking a shuttle bus or car may be possible but is a much less scenic journey.
Our Travels In Chamonix
Our schedule for traveling Europe was dictated by hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) in Chamonix, France. This world class trail takes hikers on an 11 day loop through France, Italy, and Switzerland while circling western Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc. Planning months ahead of time is a must. Each trail day ends in a remote mountain hut, and those small huts fill fast. Booking hut reservations in January 2023 was barely early enough to reserve spots for September 2023. As we’d learn, this was also the worst possible time to reach the trailhead in Chamonix.
The plan was to bus through the Mont Blanc tunnel from Italy and start in Chamonix. Travelers arriving from Italy must use that tunnel to reach Chamonix. Otherwise it’s hours of detour around the mountains by car, or a full day by using three different country’s trains and bus. We’d leave our unnecessary gear at the hotel in Chamonix, hike 11 days, and return to the same hotel for our gear and relaxation time. Then they decided to close the tunnel for the first time in years starting a few days before we arrived!
We couldn’t reschedule to arrive early thanks to our plans in Italy. Obviously we couldn’t start later.
We couldn’t start the hike on the Italian side because we’d still need to return for our belongings, and I wasn’t about to hike 11 days with forty extra pounds! However, private bus company FlixBus assured us months ahead that they could take us under the mountain on schedule despite the planned closure. Hooray! Then, only a week before our arrival, FlixBus admitted they dun goofed because they couldn’t take us. Boooo! That forced us to cancel 7 of our hiking days and to lose a couple of hundred dollars in fees. We detoured to Switzerland instead and arrived in Chamonix a week later than expected.
We kept the remaining trail day reservations hoping to at least hike part of the TMB. Then came the forecasted thunderstorms all week as we arrived in Chamonix. The thought of daily hiking in rain towards a small hut with forty other wet backpackers was less than appealing. Especially when our Chamonix hotel had a thousand free arcade games, a proper shower, and a happy hour. At that point we made the tough call to cancel the hike entirely. While incredibly frustrating, it wasn’t all bad. We ended up exploring the town a lot more than we expected! Here’s what we did in Chamonix instead of the TMB, and why it’s still worth a summer visit even without hiking the Tour.
Taking a half day to visit Parc de Merlet was one of the best decisions we made in Chamonix. The park is a nature preserve almost 600 meters above the valley. There’s a bus to the park in summer but you can also drive yourself up. The most fun option is to hike up the mountain trails like we did! Not only do you get amazing valley views, you’ll also find a hidden password along the trail for discounted entry to the park. Once you’re inside, you’ll start searching for the marmot, ibex, and big horn hiding in the park. We were super lucky to find an ibex on his throne!
A multi day lift pass is incredibly valuable in Chamonix! You get free access to every cable car and lift in the Valley. A two days pass is about $100 and pays for itself in only a couple of uses if you visit Aiguille du Midi. We made sure to ride a cable car there first! Aiguille du Midi is the highest cable car in France and gives visitors a close encounter with Mont Blanc. The glass floor at the top was especially memorable because this blog’s co author is afraid of heights! On the other side of the valley, we rode up to Le Brevent twice for panoramic views of the Mont Blanc range and the Chamonix valley. Then came the free train to Mer de Glace. Beyond the glacier hikes the area offers, you can also enter an ice cave! Try the frigid 300 year old melting water while you’re in the cave. It’s Michelin star quality.
The food in Chamonix was also no slouch. We’ve now had food all across Europe but were just as impressed by Chamonix’s tastes as anywhere else! You could easily make a vacation just sampling restaurants while enjoying mountain views. Visiting on a budget? Try Cool Cats because they offer gourmet hotdogs inspired by many different cultures. Have a little more to spend? Go to the restaurant at RockyPop Hotel in neighboring Les Houches for an incredibly underrated menu of French Italian fusion and desert. Are you here to splurge? Bring a group for fondue at Chez Constant, but don’t order potatoes. You’ll be disappointed in yourself whether you finish them or not. If you’ve never had fondue, know that you need two people to order that dish, because not even Americans can finish an entire cauldron of melted cheese on their own.
Chandni and I agree that you probably don’t need to spend a week or more in Chamonix unless you’re hiking the Tour. Missing the TMB hit us with real disappointment but we had a wonderful time in Chamonix without the hike. Slow travel is so important to budgeting and managing fatigue so this was a welcomed siesta. The best part of visiting Chamonix wasn’t even a feature of the town. The best was getting to spend time with my old roommate, Feng - the dapper man featured in an image above! He was unexpectedly in town for a conference so we all managed to spend a few days together. Beautiful mountains and great food have nothing on quality time with old friends.
