hoyas1

My wife and I are seniors researching the 12-14 day hike around Mt Blanc next summer. We would like to stay in a hotel or any lodging with a private room at the end of each day. Having a little difficulty planning an itinerary that covers specific lodging options. And frankly an itinerary that takes advantage of cable cars or periodic buses (making it easier). Research indicates you have to book lodging well in advance, true? Any help with the itinerary will be much appreciated.

Michael

Is this what you intend to do? https://www.thenaturaladventure.com/...IaAkAZEALw_wcB

or when you say "around Mt. Blanc" you mean in the area of?

mbrevitas

I was about to say that this is not possible, that the Tour du Mont Blanc is a hut-to-hut itinerary, meaning staying in dorms, and that detouring to reach fancier accommodation would make the itinerary longer and unfeasible. However, clicking through on the different itineraries on the website Michael linked, it seems they offer one variant in which you stay in a private room every day except one. Go figure.

They helpfully provide the starting and end point of each day, and even the name of the accommodation they would try booking, so, if you don’t need luggage transfer and can just use a backpack, you can really plan the same itinerary independently by putting each place on your favourite tour planning tool and booking accommodation yourself. They include a private transfer on day 3, but it looks like you could easily walk the whole way, either by just walking along the road for a bit, or detouring over the trails to the east (also an option on the previous day, if you want to get to the middle part of Les Contamimes without walking along the road).

If you want to avoid even the one stay in a hut on day 4, it should be possible to skip it, hiking from Ville des Glaciers (reachable by local shuttle bus from Les Chapieux) to Plan Chécrouit (where you can get the cable car to Courmayeur). It’s a quite long day, mind you, and I’m not sure whether the shuttle and cable car times work out.

Note that this website has the itinerary starting in Les Houches for some reason, but you can begin in any other place where a stage ends, like Chamonix, or Courmayeur if you’re coming from Italy.

I will say that the fame of the Tour du Mont Blanc is largely due to the fame of Mont Blanc itself being the highest mountain in the Alps and all of Europe (the Caucasus is traditionally not considered part of Europe in large swathes of continental Europe), not so much to the hiking itself. Avoiding staying in mountain huts, which are maybe the most defining feature of hiking in the Alps, further diminishes the appeal of the hike, in my eyes. If you want to hike in beautiful alpine scenery and staying in a nice hotel every day, there might be better options, like doing a bunch of day hikes from hotels in the Dolomites or Berner Oberland or other places, with arguably better scenery/hiking and no need to carry all your belongings every day or organise luggage transfers. But if you’re set on circling the Mont Blanc massif while staying in hotels, it should be doable and still quite enjoyable.

hoyas1

Thank you looks like a good plan

hoyas1

Dear mbrevitas,
Thank you for your kind and detailed response to my husbands inquiry. Your suggestions are wise and encouraging. We are in our mid 70's and are concerned we are feeling a bit insecure about the trek. We have day-hiked in the Dolomites and other regions but never using Refuges. We will continue to research this trek more thoroughly and come up with a "favorite tour planning tool." That's brilliant! So thank you again for your input, much appreciated. Gratefully, hoyas

neckervd

Last departue from Dolonne/Checrouit: 17.20
Allternative: Go from Col des Chavannes down to La Thuile and sleep there in a hotel.

BTW: You would find much more comfortable hotels and running cableways along the walkers haute route from Verbier to Zermatt or Saas Fee.

Finsteraarhorn

Hello Hoyas,
As you are "in your mid 70's and feeling a bit insecure about the trek", I want to underline the mbrevitas comment about the "better option" to stay in one hotel and doing day hikes from there. A multi day hike, as fascinating as it is, implies: a) a more difficult organization, with a different accomodation every day, b) to carry all your luggage in the backpack every single step, c) no flexibility about the route: if it rains one day, if you are tired, if you wish to climb a summit, if you want to shorten the hike or to stay 3h around a lake, you can't change the program (or is difficult / complicated).

Hence I suggest multiday hikes only to experienced hikers. At least, begin with 3-4 day hikes, where you can at least have more or less reliable weather forecasts for the whole hike when you start. And keep your backpack as light as possible, but don't spare on water.

If you never did a hike of 12-14 days, I fully agree on the suggestion to choose an hotel suiting your wishes in a beautibul location to explore by day-hikes the area. Maybe start there with a two days hike by good weather, where to experience for one night a mountain hut and excercise to pack as well for the night (bedlinen, toothbrush, soap and towel, one more change). If successful, try a 2-nights hike and see how to keep light your backpack (no more changes, wash quick your underwear at night) and keep it rolling.

In Switzerland, beside Bernese Oberland, there are dozens of fantastic hiking destinations: from Arosa to Zermatt (just for the joke "A to Z", but consider as well wonderful upper Engadine, the valley around St. Moritz and the rest of the Alps mountain range).

Nelson

Don't know if something like this interests you but I did a 70th birthday trip with this outfit:
https://www.alpenwild.com/trip/tour-...ary/#-Overview

Having spent many a night sleeping in freezing wet tents over the years I decided it was time for the deluxe treatment. Each night was spent in a charming little hotel, the bags were transferred each day, and the best restaurants selected for dinner, the guides packed fabulous lunches for on the trail unless we ate in a hut.

Really enjoyable trip and well worth the $$$, though I see it's gone up in the 5 years since. I returned and did a walkers Haute Route with them.

Note that it is not the 100% complete circuit if that matters to you. Some sections are vehicle transfer. Still it was roughly 70 miles and 25,000' elevation climbed in the 8 days. Arguably you miss the camaraderie of meeting people in the huts but you have that with your group.

Anyway, FYI.

Finsteraarhorn

The tours proposed by the website linked by Michael (hut-to-hut, comfort, etc.) looks good with the luxury of the luggage transportation! The one mentioned by Nelson looks the high end of the organized tours: very far in luxury (and budget) from my self-made hut-to-hut trekkings. I think the meaning of the trekking and the wallet play individually a major role in choosing the trekking style, from the accomodation (tent, hut, hotel), to the meals (self-made, standard, gourmet), to the luggage transportation (yes or no), to the guide (self, remote, in the group). No right or wrong, just the according way to the trekking style of everyone.

OlavE

I haven't actually done the TdMB myself, but I have researched it quite thoroughly, so I could say something about the route.

But first, as Finsteraarhorn points out, centre based hiking would be more flexible and could a good option for you. I'm in my 30s and I do centre based hiking most of the time. Both Chamonix and Courmayeur are good options for that.

A secondary alternative could be a organized trip, like the one linked to above. Although this would of course be very expensive.

Presumed you start in Les Houches, which is a normal starting point for TdMB. I've linked to a map below to make it easy to follow.

From Les Houches, take a cable car to Bellevue, walk to Les Contamines where you spend the night.
On day 2 walk from Les Contamines to Les Chapieux, where it seems that there is a small guesthouse.
On day 3 walk from Les Chapieux towards Couermayeur. Here you could take the bus from La Visalle in Val Veny and down to Courmayeur to spend the night.
From Courmayuer, take a bus up Val Ferret to Arnuova. Walk over to Switzerland and La Fouly.
From La Fouly you could actually skip a whole stage by taking a couple of buses to reach Champex. Or you could walk the route (about 15 km)
From Champex you continue to Trient.
From Trient over the border and back to France, where you could use a gondola back down to Le Tour, or walk down to Le Tour or Argentiere.
From Argentiere walk to Flegere and the La Brevent. Take the cable car from Brevent and back down to Chamonix.

This means 8 stages, and staying in Les Contamines, Les Chapieux, Courmayeur, La Fouly, Champex, Trient and Argentiere/Le Tour.

To shorten the trip you could as mentioned use gondola from Les Houches to Bellevue, bus to Courmayeur, bus from Courmayeur, gondola from Brevent to Chamonix (and perhaps bus on part or the whole route from La Fouly to Champex).

https://tmbtent.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Tour-du-Mont-Blanc-Map.jpg

martharap

My kids used a company called Alpine Exploratory to plan their self-guided trek. They chose the type of accommodation they wanted and the company made the reservations. I’m fairly certain there were hotel options, with luggage transfer. They were given maps and daily itinerary and were very happy with them.

neckervd

For me, the easiest way to do the whole thing would be:
1. Go by train and bus from GVA to Ferret (Switzerland) and sleep there.
2. Ferret - Gd Col Ferret - Lavachey. Bus to Courmayeur
3. First gondola to Lake Checrouit/Maison Viellle. Hike to Mt. Fortin - Cal de Chavannes - Col de la Seigne - Ville des Glaciers - Les Chapieux
3. Les Chapieux - Col de la Croix du Bonhomme - Col du Bonhomme - Les Contamines.
4. Bus to St-Gervais, train to Praz de Chamonix, cableway to Flegere - L'Index. Hike to Lac Blanc - Col des Montets - Montroc. Bus to Le Tour
5. First gondola to Col de Balme. Hike to Ville des Glaciers - Fenêtre d'Arpette - Champex. Sleep at Col de la Forclaz if the hike is too long.
6. Gondola to La Breya. hike to Orny Hut - Prayon (Val Ferret). Bus and train to GVA
BTW: I walked along all these trails