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I have some questions 🙋The classic circuit of the Mont Blanc massif through Italy, Switzerland and France — eight days of guided walking carrying nothing but a light daypack, a full rest day in Chamonix with the Aiguille du Midi cable car included, and every night in a hand-picked spa hotel: 4-star addresses throughout, with a single characterful 3-star along the way, and an evening in the Roman baths of Martigny after the hardest day on the trail. Every transfer, packed lunch and dinner is taken care of, from the welcome pizza on your first night to the farewell dinner in a Michelin Guide-selected restaurant in the heart of Courmayeur. Led throughout by IFMGA Mountain Guides and International Mountain Leaders. Starting and finishing in Courmayeur.
Our 2026 departures are sold out — bookings for 2027 are now open.
We run small-group departures of our Tour du Mont Blanc Deluxe between mid June and mid September, each beginning on a Monday: you arrive in Courmayeur with our included Geneva transfer, meet your guide and gather for the welcome pizza, and take your first steps on the trail on Tuesday morning. Places are limited and the classic summer dates fill early.
Guests who confirm their place during our early bird window — by 30 September 2026 — receive a €200 discount off the standard price. Reserve your spot with a deposit today to lock in the early bird rate.
The Tour du Mont Blanc is the most famous long-distance trek in the Alps: roughly 170 kilometres circling the entire Mont Blanc massif through three countries — Italy, Switzerland and France — with around 10,000 metres of cumulative ascent and descent. Over eight days of walking you cross high mountain passes, follow airy balcony trails directly opposite the Grandes Jorasses and the great glaciers of Mont Blanc, and arrive in a different alpine village almost every evening. Few journeys anywhere offer this combination of scale, variety and history — and none circles a more magnificent mountain.
The Tour du Mont Blanc Deluxe is built around a simple conviction: the walking should be everything, and everything else should be handled. The trail is exactly as demanding as it has always been — that is the point, and the privilege. What changes is everything around it. You carry only a light daypack; your main luggage travels ahead by road each morning and is waiting at reception when you arrive.
Every dinner, every packed lunch, every transfer — from the moment we collect you at Geneva airport to the moment we return you — has been arranged before you take your first step. Where the classic route follows the valley floor, a comfortable transfer carries you to the next highlight instead, so that every hour you spend on the trail is an hour worth walking. And at the journey's heart sits a full rest day in Chamonix, crowned by the Aiguille du Midi — included in your trip. Your only task is to walk through some of the finest mountain scenery on earth.
And at the end of each day, you arrive somewhere worth arriving. No dormitories, no queues for the shower: every night of the trek is spent in a hand-picked 4-star hotel with genuine alpine character (a single charming 3-star excepted) — double or twin rooms, private bathrooms, and, at every single hotel, a spa or wellness area to draw the day's kilometres out of your legs.
Two evenings deserve special mention. In Verbier, one of the most celebrated resorts in the Alps, your first Swiss night is spent on the sunny balcony above the Val de Bagnes. And the centrepiece comes after the biggest walking day of the trek — instead of overnighting in a mountain village, a private transfer carries you down to Martigny, Roman Octodurus two thousand years ago, where your final Swiss evening is spent drifting through the warm pools and steam of the town's Roman baths before dinner and a deep valley sleep.
Recovery, done as the Romans did it. After eight hours on the trail, the difference this makes to how you sleep, recover and feel the next morning is not a detail — it is the reason our guests finish the circuit strong, and the reason this version of the TMB carries the name Deluxe.
We run our Tour du Mont Blanc anticlockwise, starting and finishing in Courmayeur, on the sunny Italian side of the massif. There is a good reason for this. Most groups set off from Chamonix at the weekend, so by arriving in Courmayeur on a Monday and taking your first steps on Tuesday, you slip neatly between the two big weekend waves and walk noticeably quieter trails — while still following the classic, best-waymarked direction with the most rewarding views ahead of you rather than behind.
Your group is led by an IFMGA Mountain Guide or a qualified International Mountain Leader — a professional who lives and works in these valleys, knows every variant, shortcut and weather window, and chooses the best line each morning for the group and the conditions. When clouds sit on one pass, your guide knows which balcony trail will be clear. When an afternoon storm is forecast, the day starts earlier and the pace is managed accordingly. This is the difference between following a route and being guided around a mountain.
From the moment you land, the trip is taken care of. Transfers from Geneva airport to Courmayeur and back are included, along with every night of accommodation, every breakfast, a freshly prepared packed lunch for each trekking day, and every dinner — from your first evening to your last.
Each day on the TMB ends with a real sense of arrival, and we mark the two evenings that matter most. On your first night in Courmayeur, the group gathers for a welcome pizza — the proper Italian start to a journey that begins on Italian soil. Ten days later, after closing the loop around the roof of the Alps, the celebration rises to the occasion: a farewell dinner beneath the brick vaults of one of Courmayeur's oldest restaurants, a Michelin Guide-selected address in the historic heart of the village — a long table, refined Valdostan cooking, an excellent cellar, and the shared satisfaction of the Tour du Mont Blanc complete.
Between those two evenings, dinners are taken in the hotels and villages along the way — mountain cooking that changes character as you cross borders, from polenta and fontina in the Aosta valleys to rösti in Switzerland and Savoyard classics in France. Eating your way around Mont Blanc is, quite honestly, part of the route.
The hotels are chosen with the same care as the trail itself. Each one is a characterful property with a warm welcome — and every single one has a spa or wellness area to ease tired legs.
Your bag is at reception when you walk in. A hot shower, a real bed and an unhurried dinner every single night: this is how a demanding trek stays enjoyable from your first day on the trail to your last.
We have been guiding around the Mont Blanc massif for over 20 years. Our guides don't visit these valleys in summer — they live in them. That local depth shapes every decision on this program, from the direction we walk to the hotels we book.
Comfort that serves the trekking. The TMB is a genuinely demanding trek, with sustained climbs and long descents day after day. Recovery is what makes it sustainable — which is why this program builds it in: a quiet room, a private bathroom, a proper dinner, your own luggage waiting at reception, and a full rest day in Chamonix at the heart of the journey. You start each morning restored rather than merely rested. We designed this program hotel-to-hotel because it is the version of the TMB that lets you enjoy all of it.
One price, no surprises. Airport transfers from Geneva, every meal from the welcome pizza to the farewell dinner at a Michelin Guide-selected restaurant, packed lunches on the trail, luggage transfers, the Aiguille du Midi on the Chamonix rest day, an evening at the Roman baths in Martigny, and professional guiding throughout. All included. You book once, and then your only job is to walk.
Local guiding, real decisions. Weather around Mont Blanc changes fast, and the TMB is full of variants. A guide who knows the massif intimately turns those variants into opportunities — a clearer col, a quieter balcony, a better lunch spot — rather than problems. This is what you cannot get from a guidebook or a GPX track.
The quieter circuit. Monday arrivals in Courmayeur, anticlockwise. A small scheduling decision with a large effect: you share the trail with fewer groups, arrive at passes when they are calm, and experience the mountain rather than the queue.
The UTMB competition. Every year, at the end of August, the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc — the most famous trail race in the world — brings some ten thousand runners, and many times that number of supporters, onto the very trails of the TMB. It is a magnificent spectacle, but not the week for a peaceful trek: paths become race courses, villages become finish lines, and hotels along the route fill a year in advance. We deliberately schedule no departures that would put you on the trail during UTMB week, so your circuit unfolds at the mountain's own rhythm — not the race's.
The circuit ends in Courmayeur — and Courmayeur is a very good place to linger. If you'd like to extend your stay and treat yourself to one last alpine experience, two ideas come warmly recommended by our guides.
A recovery day at QC Termemontebianco. A few minutes from Courmayeur, in Pré-Saint-Didier, the QC Terme thermal spa is one of the finest in the Alps: outdoor thermal pools facing the Mont Blanc massif, saunas, steam rooms and relaxation spaces built around waters that have been used for recovery since the 1800s. After a week and a half in the mountains, an afternoon drifting between warm pools with the mountain you just circled filling the horizon is, in our experience, the perfect final chapter.
Skyway Monte Bianco. Alternatively — or additionally — ride one of the most spectacular cable cars in the world from Courmayeur to Punta Helbronner at 3,466 m, in rotating panoramic cabins that lift you from the valley floor into the glacier world in minutes. From the top terrace you stand among the granite spires and séracs of the massif you have just walked around, with Mont Blanc close enough to read the texture of its ice. It is a remarkable way to see your entire route from above, and a fitting farewell to the mountain.
Both are easy to arrange independently, and we're happy to advise on timings, an extra hotel night in Courmayeur, or a later transfer if you decide to stay on.
Your Tour du Mont Blanc begins the easy way: we collect you. A shared group transfer departs Geneva airport at 15:00 and is included in the price of the trip — a scenic two-hour drive through the Mont Blanc tunnel that delivers you directly from the arrivals hall to the Italian side of the massif. If your flight schedule doesn't fit the 15:00 departure, we can arrange a private transfer at any time of day for an additional cost — just let us know when you book.
Courmayeur is the perfect place to start. An elegant alpine town at 1,224 m with a car-free centre of cobbled lanes, mountain outfitters and cafés, it sits directly beneath the south side of Mont Blanc — and from the moment you step out of the vehicle, the scale of the mountain you're about to walk around is unmistakable.
And your first arrival sets the tone for the whole trip. Home in Courmayeur is a beautiful 4-star hotel with its own spa, steps from the historic centre — and with the afternoon free before the briefing, there's no better introduction to the Deluxe way of doing the TMB than an hour in the wellness area: pool, sauna and steam beneath the mountain you'll spend the coming week circling. Travel done, boots still in the bag, and already recovering from a journey you haven't started — this is the standard every evening of the trek will keep.
At 6 pm, the early-evening meeting with your guide. This is a relaxed but thorough briefing: introductions around the group, an overview of the days ahead, a look at the route and the rhythm of the trek, and a check that everyone's daypack and gear are in order. Your guide will explain how the luggage transfers work, what each morning looks like, and answer any questions about the days to come.
Then, the proper Italian start to the journey: the group heads out together for the welcome pizza — wood-fired, unhurried, and accompanied by the first of many good conversations. By the time you walk back to the hotel through the quiet evening streets, with the summits above town catching the last light, the trek has already begun in spirit. Tomorrow, it begins on foot.
Shared transfer from Geneva at 15:00 (included) | Private transfer available on request (extra cost) | Night in Courmayeur (4-star hotel with spa) | Meals: welcome pizza dinner
The Tour du Mont Blanc does not ease you in gently — it opens with one of its finest days, and we've placed it first deliberately.
From the hotel, we climb out of Courmayeur on a well-graded trail that switchbacks up through cool larch and pine forest, the town shrinking below with every turn. It's a sustained ascent — around an hour and a half of steady effort — and it ends at Rifugio Bertone (1,989 m), perched on a grassy shoulder high above the valley. This is the moment the trek reveals itself: as you round the final bend to the hut, the entire chain of the Mont Blanc massif appears across the Val Ferret, close enough to feel almost within reach.
What follows is, for many walkers, the most beautiful stretch of the entire circuit. The balcony trail runs north-east along the flank of the Mont de la Saxe at around 2,000 m, contouring through alpine meadows thick with wildflowers in early summer, with almost no climbing and nothing to do but walk and look. And there is a great deal to look at: directly opposite, the vast north walls of the Grandes Jorasses rise nearly two and a half vertical kilometres from the valley floor, flanked by the slender granite tooth of the Dent du Géant and glacier after glacier spilling from the high massif. Few trails anywhere in the Alps hold a view like this for so long.
By early afternoon we reach Rifugio Bonatti (2,025 m), named after the great alpinist Walter Bonatti, who considered this side of Mont Blanc the most beautiful in the range — from the hut's terrace, you'll understand why. It's the natural place for a long pause: an espresso or a slice of homemade cake, boots off, the Jorasses filling the horizon.
From Bonatti, a pleasant descent through pastures and scattered larches brings us down to the floor of the Val Ferret at Arnouva, where our private transfer is waiting. Twenty minutes later you're back at your 4-star hotel in Courmayeur for a second night — and this is where the Deluxe formula shows its worth after a first real day on the trail: straight from the trail to the spa, pool and sauna working on the day's 1,100 metres of climbing, then a hot shower, a relaxed dinner, and no need to repack. Your first mountain day, closed the way every one on this trek will be.
Ascent: +1,100 m | Descent: −700 m | Distance: approx. 17 km | Walking time: approx. 6 hours | Night in Courmayeur (4-star hotel with spa) | Meals: breakfast, packed lunch, dinner
Today the tour crosses its first international border — on foot, over a 2,500-metre pass, which is the only proper way to do it.
After breakfast, the short transfer runs us back up the Val Ferret to Arnouva, exactly where we left the trail yesterday, and the day's work begins immediately: the long climb to the Grand Col Ferret (2,537 m), the highest point of the tour so far. On paper it looks like a serious undertaking — some 900 metres of ascent — but the gradient is remarkably kind. The trail rises in broad, unhurried curves through open alpine terrain, and the rhythm settles quickly. Of all the major passes on the Tour du Mont Blanc, this is the one that lets you climb high while feeling like you're simply out for a magnificent walk.
And the views reward every metre. As we gain height, the head of the Italian Val Ferret unfolds behind us, dominated by the elegant pyramid of Mont Dolent — the peak where Italy, Switzerland and France meet at a single summit point. The glaciers of Pré de Bar hang beneath it, and the great wall of the massif we walked below yesterday stretches away to the south-west, now seen end to end.
The col itself is a genuine threshold. In a few steps you cross the watershed, Italy falls away behind you, and Switzerland opens ahead — and the landscape seems to know it. The Swiss Val Ferret is a different world: softer and greener, all rolling pasture and larch, with dark timber chalets scattered down the valley like something from a picture book. It's one of the most satisfying transitions of the entire circuit, and it happens in the space of a single pass.
The descent is long but gentle, dropping first to the alpage of La Peule, where cattle graze the high meadows through the summer and the sound of their bells follows you down the valley — the unofficial soundtrack of the Valais. From there the trail eases down through pastures and forest to La Fouly (1,600 m), a small, quiet village sitting beneath the glaciated wall of the Tour Noir — and the end of today's walking.
But your first Swiss evening deserves more than a quiet village, and we've arranged exactly that. Our private transfer is waiting in La Fouly to carry us down the valley and up the other side to Verbier — one of the most celebrated mountain resorts in the Alps, perched on its sunny balcony high above the Val de Bagnes, with the Grand Combin and the peaks of the Valais filling the view. Tonight's home is a beautiful 4-star hotel with its own spa, and the evening writes itself: pool, sauna and steam easing the border crossing out of your legs, then a first Swiss dinner that marks the change of country — this is rösti territory now, and Verbier does it with considerable style. Welcome to Switzerland, done the Deluxe way.
Ascent: +900 m | Descent: −1,000 m | Distance: approx. 15 km | Walking time: approx. 6 hours | Private transfer La Fouly–Verbier included | Night in Verbier (4-star hotel with spa) | Meals: breakfast, packed lunch, dinner
After breakfast in Verbier — and a last look at the Grand Combin from the terrace — our private transfer carries us across the Val de Bagnes to Champex-Lac (1,466 m), the small, elegant resort curled around its still alpine lake. This is where today's walking begins, and it begins with a decision.
This is a day of choices — and the guide makes the call in the morning, based on the group and the conditions. It's exactly the kind of decision that having a professional who knows this massif intimately is for.
The high option: Fenêtre d'Arpette (2,665 m). If the weather is settled and the group is moving well, we take the wildest crossing of the entire Tour du Mont Blanc — and its highest point. From Champex, the trail climbs the length of the Val d'Arpette, a beautiful, increasingly rugged valley that narrows to a final steep pull through boulder fields to the notch of the Fenêtre. The pass is a true mountain doorway, barely wider than the trail itself — and what waits on the other side stops every walker mid-stride: the Trient Glacier pouring down the far wall of the valley, its crevasses and séracs in full view as you descend directly opposite it for the better part of two hours. It's a demanding day of real alpine character, and one of the most memorable on the whole circuit.
The classic option: Bovine and the Col de la Forclaz. If conditions favour a gentler stage, we follow the traditional route across the alpage of Bovine — a beautiful high traverse through forest and open pasture, where cattle graze the slopes in summer and the view suddenly opens over the entire Rhône Valley, two thousand metres below, with its patchwork of vineyards and orchards stretching toward the distant Bernese Alps. The trail then eases over the Col de la Forclaz and down toward Trient.
Both routes converge on the quiet village of Trient, instantly recognisable by its little pink church against the dark forested hillside — the classic end point of this stage, and where we return tomorrow morning to continue the circuit.
But tonight, we've built something better into the itinerary. Rather than staying in tiny Trient, a private transfer whisks us down to Martigny, the historic town at the elbow of the Rhône Valley, for the most distinctive night of the trek: a 4-star hotel with its own Roman baths. Martigny was the Roman city of Octodurus two thousand years ago — its amphitheatre still stands at the edge of town — and tonight you recover the way the Romans did: drifting between warm pools, steam and cool plunges, letting the day's 1,400 metres dissolve. It's a deliberate piece of design. This is one of the biggest days of the tour, and an evening in the baths followed by an excellent dinner and a deep valley sleep resets the body completely for the French half of the journey.
Fenêtre d'Arpette option: Ascent +1,400 m | Descent −1,400 m | Walking time approx. 7 hours Bovine option: Ascent +800 m | Descent −1,000 m | Walking time approx. 5.5 hours Morning transfer Verbier–Champex and evening transfer Trient–Martigny included | Night in Martigny (4-star hotel with Roman baths) | Meals: breakfast, packed lunch, dinner
After breakfast in Martigny our private transfer carries us back up to Trient, dropping us at the little pink church exactly where we left the trail yesterday. Not a metre of the circuit is skipped; the comfort of the valley night costs nothing in walking terms.
The day's climb begins straight away, rising steadily out of the Trient valley through forest and old alpages toward the frontier ridge. This is a historic crossing — smugglers, shepherds and travellers have moved between Switzerland and France over the Col de Balme for centuries — and the trail has the settled, well-worn feel of a route that has always been walked.
Then comes one of the defining moments of the entire Tour du Mont Blanc. As you make the final steps to the Col de Balme (2,191 m), the border stone underfoot, the whole Chamonix valley suddenly unrolls ahead of you — and there, filling the head of it, is Mont Blanc itself, back in full view for the first time in days. The great white dome, the Aiguille Verte, the sharp granite of the Chardonnet and the Aiguilles de Chamonix: the entire massif lined up along the horizon like a curtain rising. Walkers tend to go quiet at this col. It's that kind of view, and it deserves a long pause — the packed lunch rarely has a better setting than this.
The descent into France is a pleasure: down across the open slopes above Le Tour, the highest village in the Chamonix valley, then along gentle balcony paths and through forest past Montroc. The glaciers grow steadily closer as you lose height, until the trail delivers you into Argentière (1,252 m) — a village with genuine mountain soul. Long a favourite base for alpinists and skiers, it sits directly beneath the tumbling icefall of the Argentière Glacier, and its old centre of stone-and-timber houses, climbing shops and unpretentious cafés still feels like a mountaineering village first and a resort second.
Tonight we sleep in Argentière — our first French evening of the tour, with the cuisine to match. And the day has one more reward in it: the hotel's sauna and steam room, the perfect place to let the border crossing dissolve before dinner. A Swiss col in your legs, French cooking on the table, and warm cedar in between — Day 5 earns its keep right to the end.
Ascent: +900 m | Descent: −1,000 m | Distance: approx. 15 km | Walking time: approx. 6 hours | Morning transfer Martigny–Trient included | Night in Argentière (3–4 star hotel) | Meals: breakfast, packed lunch, dinner
Ask walkers at the end of the tour to name their favourite day, and this is the one that comes up most often. Today we cross to the sunny side of the valley and walk the famous balcony of the Aiguilles Rouges — a full day face to face with the entire Mont Blanc massif.
From Argentière, the trail climbs steadily into the Aiguilles Rouges nature reserve, a protected wilderness of red-tinged granite, dwarf pine and small tarns that occupies the whole northern wall of the Chamonix valley. The reserve exists for good reason: this is some of the richest wildlife habitat in the French Alps, and encounters are part of the day. Ibex are frequently seen posing on the rocks with complete indifference to their audience, chamois move across the slopes above, and the whistle of marmots follows you along the trail all morning.
But it's the view that defines this stage. The balcony path — the Grand Balcon Sud — runs at around 2,000 metres directly opposite the massif, and for hour after hour the greatest mountain wall in western Europe scrolls past across the valley: the Argentière Glacier, the fierce north face of the Aiguille Verte and the Drus, the Mer de Glace curving down between the Aiguilles, and finally the summit dome of Mont Blanc itself presiding over everything. There is nowhere better to understand the sheer scale of what you've been walking around all week — the massif seen not in glimpses, but as a single, continuous panorama. The pace today is deliberately unhurried; this is a day for long photo stops and an even longer lunch on a warm slab of granite with the best view in the Alps.
In the afternoon we reach La Flégère, where we board the cable car for the descent to the valley floor — a knee-sparing choice we make deliberately, trading a steep, unremarkable forest descent for extra time on the balcony above and a relaxed arrival in town. Minutes later you step out in Chamonix, the world capital of mountaineering: a lively, storied town of alpine heritage and café terraces, where the statue of Balmat points de Saussure toward the summit of Mont Blanc and every street corner has a view of the Aiguilles.
And in Chamonix, the evening rises to meet the day. Tonight's home is a superb 4-star hotel with its own spa, right in the heart of town — and after the finest walking day of the tour, its wellness area is exactly where you want to be: pool, sauna and steam drawing the balcony's kilometres out of your legs while the Aiguilles turn gold in the evening light outside. Then out into the liveliest town on the circuit, where the café terraces fill, the mountaineering stories flow, and the week's efforts are properly toasted. The best day of the trek deserves the best evening — we've made sure it gets one.
Ascent: +900 m | Descent: −1,000 m (cable car descent from La Flégère) | Walking time: approx. 6 hours | Night in Chamonix (4-star hotel with spa) | Meals: breakfast, packed lunch, dinner
Ascent: +900 m | Descent: −1,000 m (cable car descent from La Flégère) | Walking time: approx. 6 hours | Night in the Chamonix valley (3–4 star hotel) | Meals: breakfast, packed lunch, dinner
Five days of walking deserve a pause — and there is no better place on earth to take one than Chamonix. Today the boots stay by the door: no packed lunch to stow, no pass to cross, no luggage to send ahead. Just the world capital of mountaineering at your feet, and its greatest spectacle waiting above.
The centrepiece of the day — included in your trip — is the Aiguille du Midi: the legendary cable car that rises from the centre of town to 3,842 metres in two breathtaking stages, one of the highest lift-served viewpoints in the Alps. In twenty minutes you travel from café terraces to the world of glaciers and granite needles — and from the summit terraces, the view is simply without equal: Mont Blanc close enough to study its final snow slopes, the Vallée Blanche and its sea of ice below, the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa on the horizon, and — most satisfying of all — the balconies and passes of your own journey, traceable valley by valley. After six days of looking up at the massif, today you stand inside it. For the committed, the glass-floored Step into the Void adds a heartbeat or two; for everyone, the espresso at 3,842 m is one to remember.
The rest of the day belongs entirely to you, and Chamonix fills it effortlessly. Ride the rack railway to Montenvers and the Mer de Glace, France's largest glacier, with its ice grotto carved anew each year. Visit the Alpine Museum and the crystal gallery, browse the mountaineering shops that have outfitted expeditions for a century, or simply take a café terrace beneath the Aiguilles and watch the paragliders spiral down from Planpraz. The hotel spa is there for those whose idea of rest is more literal — pool, sauna and steam with no kilometres to justify them. Your guide will share recommendations at breakfast, and is on hand to help you plan.
There's design in this pause, as always. Tomorrow the trek resumes with the crossing toward Les Contamines, and the days that follow are the wildest of the tour — the Bonhomme passes, the remote Chapieux valley, the return to Italy over the Col de la Seigne. You'll walk into them rested, restored, and with the summit panorama of the Aiguille du Midi fresh in your mind — knowing exactly what mountain you're walking around.
Tonight we sleep at the same hotel in Chamonix — no repacking required, which is its own small luxury.
Rest day — no scheduled walking | Aiguille du Midi cable car included | Optional visits: Montenvers–Mer de Glace, Alpine Museum, hotel spa | Night in Chamonix (4-star hotel with spa, same as Day 6) | Meals: breakfast, dinner
Today the tour turns its back on the Chamonix valley and heads south into quieter country — by way of one of the most spectacular variants on the entire route.
A short morning transfer takes us from Chamonix to Les Houches, at the western end of the valley, where we ride the cable car up to Bellevue (1,800 m). This is another of those small, deliberate decisions that shape the whole day: the lift replaces a long, viewless climb through forest and puts us straight onto the high trail with fresh legs — legs we'll want later, because today's stage saves its interest for altitude.
From the col, the trail contours around the flank of the massif and the day's first great moment arrives: the Bionnassay Glacier, tumbling nearly three thousand metres from the shoulder of Mont Blanc in a chaos of ice, directly above the path. We cross the meltwater torrent at its snout on a suspension bridge slung across the gorge — a swaying, exhilarating passage with the glacier filling the view upstream, and one of the most photographed spots on the whole tour.
Then comes the climb to the Col de Tricot (2,120 m), a steady pull up open slopes with the ice of the Bionnassay for company most of the way. This is the wilder alternative to the standard valley route, and it feels it: fewer walkers, bigger views, and a genuine high-mountain atmosphere at the pass, with the Dômes de Miage rising ahead — the elegant snow ridge that will dominate the coming days.
The descent is a lovely change of register. The trail drops steeply at first, then eases into the pastoral bowl of the Chalets du Truc, a tiny alpine farm where cattle graze the meadows and the little dairy sells its own cheese — worth a pause, and your guide knows it. From there, a gentle descent through beautiful forest brings us down to Les Contamines-Montjoie (1,164 m), a genuine Savoyard village of old stone and timber, unhurried and largely untouched by big-resort development.
Tonight's home is a beautiful 4-star hotel in Les Contamines, and its spa is well timed: a heated pool, sauna and jacuzzi to prepare tired legs for what's ahead — because tomorrow brings the great two-pass crossing of the Bonhomme, the longest day of the tour.
Ascent: +850 m | Descent: −1,300 m | Distance: approx. 13–15 km | Walking time: approx. 6 hours | Morning transfer Chamonix–Les Houches and Bellevue cable car included | Night in Les Contamines (3–4 star hotel) | Meals: breakfast, packed lunch, dinner
This is one of the great classic stages of the Tour du Mont Blanc — two high passes in a single day, and the crossing that carries us out of the Mont Blanc valleys and into the wilder country of the south. By Day 8 you're at your strongest, and the itinerary is built to make sure of it.
The day begins gently, with an easy warm-up along the valley floor from Les Contamines to the baroque chapel of Notre-Dame-de-la-Gorge, its ornate façade glowing at the point where the tarmac ends and the mountains take over. Pilgrims have walked to this chapel for centuries, and travellers for far longer still: from here we join the famous old paved way — worn stone slabs, polished by two thousand years of feet and hooves, climbing steadily up through the gorge beside the thundering torrent. It's a proper, sustained ascent, but there's something about climbing on ancient stonework, through natural rock arches and past waterfalls, that shortens the effort. You are walking a trade route older than the borders it once connected.
Above the gorge the valley opens into the high bowl of La Balme, the gradient eases, and the terrain turns steadily more mineral — grass giving way to rock, streams braiding across the flats — until the final pull brings us to the Col du Bonhomme (2,329 m). But the day isn't done climbing: from the col, a superb high traverse continues along the ridge flank, wild and stony and often streaked with old snow, to the Col de la Croix du Bonhomme (2,479 m) — the second-highest point of our tour. Early in the season, patches of snow can linger on this section; your guide reads the terrain and always picks the safest line, which is precisely why these crossings feel like adventures rather than problems.
The picnic at the Croix is one of the best-earned of the trip, and the view repays the 1,300 metres beneath it: south toward the glaciated peaks of the Vanoise, back north to the Miage ridge, and ahead into a landscape that suddenly feels remote — no roads, no lifts, just high country in every direction.
The long descent drops us into the lonely hollow of Les Chapieux, a scatter of stone buildings in a valley famous for one thing above all: Beaufort, the "prince of Gruyères", made from the milk of the Tarine cows grazing all around you. If the little cooperative shop is open, your guide will not walk past it.
From Les Chapieux, a short transfer carries us over the spectacular Cormet de Roselend to Beaufort — home of the cheese you've been meeting all day — where a beautiful 4-star hotel in the heart of the village awaits: spa, hammam and sauna for the legs, and a dinner built around Beaufortain products to close the longest day of the tour in the manner it deserves.
Ascent: +1,330 m | Descent: −940 m | Distance: approx. 18 km | Walking time: approx. 7 hours | Transfer Les Chapieux–Beaufort included | Night in Beaufort (4 star hotel) | Meals: breakfast, packed lunch, dinner
Every great circuit deserves a great final stage, and the Tour du Mont Blanc saves one of its finest for last: a high frontier pass, a triumphant return to Italy, and a descent beneath the wildest faces of the massif — straight back to the town where it all began.
After breakfast, a morning transfer runs us from Bourg-Saint-Maurice back up to Les Chapieux, and the trail resumes exactly where we left it. The climb toward the Col de la Seigne (2,516 m) works its way up the long Vallée des Glaciers, past the old farm buildings of Les Mottets and into increasingly open, high terrain. It's a steady, honest ascent — and by Day 9 your legs treat 740 metres of climbing as routine, which is itself a quiet satisfaction. The tour has done its work on you.
Then comes the moment the whole day builds toward. You crest the broad saddle of the col, step across the border stone — France behind, Italy ahead — and the entire Italian side of the Mont Blanc massif explodes into view: the dark, monumental blade of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey, the fluted ridges and hanging glaciers of the Brenva face, ice pouring down toward the Val Veny from a skyline of granite. Nine days ago, at the Grand Col Ferret, you left Italy looking at this massif from the east. Now you re-enter it from the west, and the circle visibly closes in front of you. Guides who have crossed the Seigne hundreds of times still stop here.
The descent into the Val Veny is a fitting last act — a wild, glacier-carved valley where the trail runs beneath the great south faces of Mont Blanc, past the braided streams of Lac Combal and the moraines of the Miage Glacier, some of the most dramatic mountain architecture anywhere in the Alps. There's no better company for your final kilometres of the tour.
From La Visaille, a short bus ride brings us back into Courmayeur — and with that, the loop is closed: three countries, seven high passes, and 170 kilometres around the greatest massif in western Europe, all of it on foot.
Tonight, we mark it the way it deserves. Our farewell celebration dinner takes place at one of the oldest and most loved addresses in Courmayeur — a Michelin Guide-selected restaurant set beneath the brick vaults of a historic building in the old heart of the village, once a stables, later a carpenter's workshop, and today home to some of the finest cooking in the Aosta Valley. Family-run for generations of guests, it turns Valdostan tradition into something quietly refined — local ingredients, mountain flavours, and a wine cellar worth lingering over. A long table, a menu that tells you where you've been, and the particular warmth of a group of people who have just walked around Mont Blanc together. It began with a pizza; it ends beneath century-old vaults. One last night in our Courmayeur hotel, with nothing left to climb tomorrow.
Ascent: +740 m | Descent: −1,060 m | Distance: approx. 16 km | Walking time: approx. 6 hours | Morning transfer Bourg-Saint-Maurice–Les Chapieux and La Visaille–Courmayeur bus included | Night in Courmayeur (4 star hotel with spa) | Meals: breakfast, packed lunch, farewell celebration dinner
After nine days of passes, borders and balcony trails, the final morning of the tour is deliberately unhurried. A relaxed breakfast, no boots to lace, and time for a last coffee in the sunshine of Courmayeur's car-free centre — the same streets you walked through on your first evening, though they tend to look a little different once you've earned them the long way round.
For those heading home, the shared private transfer to Geneva airport departs at 9:30 and is included in the price of the trip. As on arrival, if your travel plans don't fit the group schedule, we can arrange a private transfer at any time for an additional cost — just let us know when you book.
But there's no rule that says the journey has to end at breakfast. Courmayeur is a wonderful place to linger, and if you'd like to extend your stay and treat yourself to one last alpine experience, two ideas come warmly recommended by our guides:
Skyway Monte Bianco. Ride one of the most spectacular cable cars in the world from Courmayeur to Punta Helbronner at 3,466 metres, in rotating panoramic cabins that lift you from the valley floor into the heart of the glacier world in minutes. From the summit terrace you stand among the granite spires, séracs and hanging ice of the massif you have just spent ten days circling — Mont Blanc close enough to read the texture of its snow, and your entire route traceable in the valleys below. There is no better way to see, in a single sweep, exactly what you've achieved.
The Pré-Saint-Didier thermal spa. A few minutes from Courmayeur, the QC Terme thermal baths are among the finest in the Alps: outdoor thermal pools facing the Mont Blanc massif, saunas, steam rooms and relaxation spaces built around waters used for recovery since the 1800s. After ten days and 10,000 metres of ascent and descent, an afternoon drifting between warm pools — with the mountain you just walked around filling the horizon — is, in our experience, the perfect final chapter.
Both are easy to arrange independently, and we're happy to advise on timings, an extra hotel night in Courmayeur, or a later transfer if you decide to stay on.
However you choose to end it, the achievement travels home with you: three countries, seven high passes, 170 kilometres, and the complete circuit of the greatest massif in western Europe — entirely on foot.
Shared transfer to Geneva airport at 9:30 (included) | Private transfer available on request | Meals: breakfast
The Tour du Mont Blanc is a trek, not a climb — there is no glacier travel, no technical terrain, and no need for mountaineering experience. But it would be a mistake to underestimate it. This is a sustained, multi-day mountain journey: nine consecutive days of walking, around 170 km in total, with roughly 10,000 metres of cumulative ascent and descent and several passes above 2,300 metres. The single most important ingredient for enjoying it is arriving fit.
Cardiovascular fitness and endurance. You should be comfortable walking 5–7 hours per day, on consecutive days, with daily elevation gains of 600–1,400 metres. The key word is consecutive: plenty of hikers can manage one big mountain day, but the TMB asks for nine in a row. Day 8, over the two Bonhomme passes, is the longest of the tour at around 7 hours and 1,330 metres of ascent — and it comes late in the week, when accumulated fatigue is part of the equation. Our itinerary is designed to manage this, with gentler stages, cable cars that remove dead climbing, and comfortable hotel nights that maximise recovery — but the underlying fitness has to be yours.
Mountain walking experience. You should have previous experience of full-day hikes in mountainous terrain and feel confident on steep, rocky and occasionally rough paths. The TMB is well-marked and well-trodden, but it includes sustained descents on uneven ground, sections of loose stone, and — early in the season — the possibility of old snow patches on the high passes, where your guide will choose the safest line.
Daypack only. Thanks to the daily luggage transfers, you carry only a light daypack of around 5kg: waterproofs, warm layer, packed lunch, water and personal items. This makes an enormous difference to how the days feel, and it's one of the reasons this hotel-to-hotel format suits strong hikers who want to enjoy the trek rather than endure it.
How to prepare. We recommend starting structured training 10–12 weeks before departure: regular hill walking with a daypack (ideally back-to-back days at weekends), plus two or three weekly sessions of sustained cardio — trail running, cycling, swimming or brisk uphill walking. Leg and core strength work pays off most on the long descents, which surprise more TMB walkers than the climbs do. If you can comfortably complete two consecutive days of 6-hour hikes with 1,000 m of ascent, you're ready.
If you're unsure whether your fitness or experience is sufficient, contact us before booking. We're happy to talk through your background honestly and help you decide — and, if needed, point you toward a sensible training plan.
It's an 11-day program (10 hotel nights, 8 walking days plus a full rest day in Chamonix, arrival and departure days) circling the entire Mont Blanc massif through Italy, Switzerland and France along the finest stages of the classic 170 km route — led throughout by an IFMGA Mountain Guide or qualified International Mountain Leader. You sleep in hand-picked 4-star spa hotels every night (with one characterful 3-star along the way), carry only a daypack, and everything from Geneva airport transfers to packed lunches, dinners, the Aiguille du Midi cable car and the Roman baths evening in Martigny is included.
It's a demanding but non-technical trek. Expect 5–7 hours of walking per day for nine consecutive days, with daily ascents of 600–1,400 metres on well-marked mountain trails. There's no glacier travel and no climbing, but good fitness and previous mountain hiking experience are essential. See the Requirements section above for full details and training advice.
We deliberately keep groups small - 10 guests per departure. Small groups move well on the trail, fit comfortably into the characterful hotels we use, and mean your guide genuinely knows every walker's pace and condition by the end of the first day.
You bring one main bag (soft duffel, max. 15 kg) which travels ahead by road every morning and is waiting at your next hotel's reception when you arrive. On the trail you carry only a light daypack with waterproofs, a warm layer, your packed lunch and water — around 5–7 kg.
Hand-picked 4-star properties with genuine alpine character — with a single charming 3-star along the way, in the mountaineering village of Argentière — and every one of them has a spa or wellness area to ease tired legs at the end of the day. Rooms are double or twin with private bathrooms; single rooms are available at an extra cost, subject to availability. Two nights deserve special mention: your first Swiss evening in Verbier, one of the most celebrated resorts in the Alps, and the night in Martigny at a 4-star hotel with its own Roman baths — a deliberate recovery point placed after the biggest walking day of the trek.
Everything is included: breakfast at the hotel, a freshly prepared packed lunch each trekking day, and dinner every evening — starting with the welcome pizza in Courmayeur and ending with the farewell celebration dinner after closing the loop. One of the quiet pleasures of the TMB is eating your way across three countries: polenta and fontina in the Aosta valleys, rösti in the Valais, Savoyard cooking in France. Please tell us about any dietary requirements or allergies when you book, and we'll arrange everything with the hotels in advance.
Yes. Quality trekking boots and poles can be rented from our partner shop in Courmayeur — reserve them when you book and they'll be ready for collection on Day 1, during the afternoon before the briefing. One honest piece of advice from our guides: if you rent boots, wear them around town on Day 1 and let your guide know on the easier early stages so any fit issues surface immediately. Better still, if you own well broken-in boots, bring them — ten days is a long time in unfamiliar footwear.
Mountain weather is part of the mountains, and this is where local guiding earns its keep. Your guide checks conditions every morning and adapts: choosing between route variants (such as the Fenêtre d'Arpette or Bovine on Day 4), adjusting start times ahead of afternoon storms, or using lower alternatives when a pass is unreasonable. The TMB is rich in options, and our guides know all of them. Full days lost to weather are rare; a well-managed change of plan is simply part of the craft.
Simply fly to Geneva. Our shared transfer departs Geneva airport at 15:00 on arrival day and brings you directly to Courmayeur (approx. 2 hours); the return transfer leaves Courmayeur at 9:30 on the final morning, in comfortable time for afternoon flights. Both are included. If your flight times don't fit the shared schedule, we can arrange a private transfer for an additional cost.
Yes, it's mandatory. You must have travel insurance covering mountain rescue, helicopter evacuation and repatriation for trekking at altitudes up to 2,700 metres, valid in Italy, Switzerland and France. We strongly recommend adding cancellation cover as well. We're happy to advise on suitable providers.
Absolutely, and many of our guests do. Solo travellers are paired in a twin room with another guest of the same sex, or you can book a single room at an extra cost, subject to availability. TMB groups have a way of becoming close over nine days of shared passes and long dinners — arriving alone rarely means finishing that way.
Our departures run from June to September, each starting on a Monday (Day 1). Late June and early July offer wildflowers at their peak and lingering snow patches on the high passes, which adds a touch of alpine character; July and August bring the most settled weather and the longest days; September offers quieter trails, crisp air and the first autumn colours.
Yes, we recommend it. With only twelve small-group departures in 2027 and hotels along the route booked many months ahead, the popular dates fill early — our 2026 season sold out entirely. A deposit secures your place and, during the early bird window, locks in the discounted rate.
We ask for a 30% deposit at the time of booking, which secures your place on your chosen departure. Each departure is confirmed once it reaches the minimum group size of 4 participants — at that point we'll contact you and the outstanding balance becomes due.
Once the balance is paid and the departure is confirmed, the booking becomes non-refundable. We work this way for a simple reason: a confirmed departure means every guest can book flights well in advance, when prices are at their best. For this reason we strongly advise taking out cancellation insurance at the time of booking.
In the rare case that a departure doesn't reach the minimum of 4 participants, we'll contact you well in advance and offer you the choice of:
