I recently completed my first ever hiking challenge – the Tour du Mont Blanc in a long weekend. I booked the trip through Much Better Adventures, which specialises in creating short adventures over a weekend, so you don’t have to use up all of your annual leave.
This trip is a short version of the official Tour du Mont Blanc route at just four days, but it gives you a taste of the entire trail.
I thought I’d put together this post to help anyone thinking about doing a group hiking trip to let you know what to expect from a walking holiday in the Alps.
Much Better Adventures
I couldn’t recommend Much Better Adventures enough for a Tour du Mont Blanc hike. There is so much information on the website which persuaded me to book the trip and then there was plenty of communication before meeting on the first day.
I travelled with one of my besties, but I would have felt very comfortable travelling alone, as everything was so easy. Most of our group had travelled solo.
In fact, only three other people had come together, out of about 14.
They stored our luggage during the walk and returned it to us afterwards. I wasn’t sure how the logistics of this would work, but Much Better Adventures just took our suitcases when we got to Chamonix, and then they were there at the end when we got back.
Everything during the walk was really well organised and went super smoothly. I would definitely book with Much Better Adventures again, and I can recommend them if you’re thinking of doing your own walking trip.
The group
One of my favourite things about the Tour du Mont Blanc trip was the people. We got a really friendly bunch of similar ages, career stages, and interests, which meant we had plenty to talk about.
From the minute we met at the airport, we all got along so well, and they really helped to pick me up during my down moments.
Our guide, Grant, was also really great. It was more like he was just one of the group than the guide.
He answered our millions of questions, led us around the route, and even kept us safe in a hail storm!
The walk: Tour du Mont Blanc itinerary
Ok, so let’s get into it – the walk.
Day 1 of the Tour du Mont Blanc
Day 1 started when we met the rest of the group at Geneva Airport and then we were picked up by our guide. We drove to Chamonix where we left our luggage and then continued across the border into Italy.
The first day route was a 7km hike from our starting point in Italy, Courmayeur, to our place to stay that night, Rifugio Walter Bonatti.
We had to walk 590m into the Val Ferret.
I was feeling pretty confident before the walk. I hadn’t done proper training, but I am out walking in the Peaks all the time so I thought I would be fine.
However, walking in the alps with a 35l backpack is a whole different ball game!
I found it quite tricky and struggled to get my breath on the ascent straight away. This worried me a little – if I was finding it that hard on the first day, how would I be able to do the walk?
However, the walk on this day was short, and we were soon at the mountain refuge where we stayed that night.
There we were rewarded with beautiful views and some much-needed drinks. Someone in the group had brought a Monopoly card game, so we tried to get our heads around this.
Before long, we were exhausted, and we all headed to bed for an early night, ready for the day ahead.
Day 2 of the Tour du Mont Blanc
Day two of the Tour du Mont Blanc trail was the longest day, distance-wise. It was a 20km hike up to Grand Col Ferret, 2,526m above sea level, before descending into La Fouly village. Again, it was a challenging ascent, and the group ended up splitting up a bit.
Some of the people in our group were super fit. They didn’t even seem to break a sweat when I was huffing and puffing.
At the top of the mountain, we crossed the border into Switzerland. As we got to the top, the weather had worsened, and we were soon in the cloud, and it began to rain.
On the other side of the mountain, there was snow!
Just after the summit, there was a steep bit of snow, which was tricky to get down. I decided to slide down on my bum, but in hindsight, this was a mistake!
My shorts got wet, and I think my bag did too, as everything in it was wet when I got to the refuge that night.
We had to wait a bit here for the last people in our group, so we layered up and ate our lunches. We all started getting a bit cold as we weren’t moving, and it was raining, but we were soon on our way.
The weather started to clear as we got further down, and we all perked up. Before too long, we arrived in La Fouly, where there was just time for a celebratory drink before the minibus picked us up and took us to the refuge in Champex-Lac.
Day 3 of the Tour du Mont Blanc
Day three was my most challenging day hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc. It was a 17km hike over the Bovine trail to Trient.
All my clothes had gotten wet the day before, and the drying room at the refuge was cold, which meant that they hadn’t dried. My clothes weren’t too bad, but my socks were wet, which meant that my boots rubbed my feet most of the way.
The weather was beautiful on day three, and we got fantastic views of the Alps. We had lunch with a spectacular view, and the group’s spirits were high, so I felt great up until this point.
On our way back, our guide said we had about 5km left to walk, and honestly, this was the longest 5km of my life.
Every step felt like agony as my feet were rubbing all over – every single toe had a blister on it! We eventually got to a stop for ice cream, and I just had a bit of a breakdown and started crying.
Luckily my bestie was there to buoy me up, and I soon pulled myself together to get to the next overnight stay.
I soon perked up when we got there as the refuge had a fantastic bar with prosecco! Although I did have to limit myself, I couldn’t imagine doing this walk with a hangover!
Day 4 of the Tour du Mont Blanc
All of a sudden, it was the last day of the walk. My legs were like lead when I woke up in the morning, but once I got going, I felt good (much better than day 3!).
Day four was an ascent up Col de Balme, 2,190m above sea level, a traverse to Aiguilette Possettes, and then a descent to Tré-le-Champ before getting the bus back to Chamonix.
I was a little slower walking on the ascent, but I was enjoying myself and not finding it too difficult. There were some great views again on day four, and many of the paths were like woodland paths.
We got to the summit and crossed the border between Switzerland and France. As we began our descent, we started to see a storm across the valley.
We saw lightning strikes and heard thunder. Then we saw the storm heading towards us, and the next minute we were in it.
I’ve never experienced anything like it before. It went really dark, and I kept thinking, “don’t lose everyone”.
In the next minute, hail started coming down, and it was so painful where it was hitting us. Some of the group compared it to being shot by a BB gun. We were all left with little bruises afterwards.
We were all quite scared and huddled together like penguins until Grant told us there was shelter just 10 minutes away. We all walked fast to the shelter and were soaking wet when we arrived.
Here we took off our wet layers and ate our lunches.
I was so cold here as I felt like I was wet all over. My boots were soaking wet.
It felt like I had buckets on my feet when I was walking. We stayed here until the weather cleared up, and it was time to get going again.
We were close to the finishing point of the walk by this point, so the last bit didn’t feel too difficult. We arrived at Tré-le-Champ and headed to the bus stop to wait for the bus.
We were feeling great by this time – we’d just completed the Tour du Mont Blanc walk! However, that was relatively short-lived!
Before too long, we realised that there wasn’t a lot of traffic passing us and that the bus was late. A friendly local headed over and let us know that a tree had been brought down in the road by the storm.
The road was blocked, so the bus wouldn’t be coming.
We then had to walk an extra 5km to where the tree was so we could get picked up. At this point, the morale in the group really started to fade, but before too long, we had been picked up (by Grant’s partner!) and taken back to Chamonix.
Unfortunately, most of the group had to head back to the airport by this time, so we didn’t get chance to have a celebratory drink.
We headed to the Heliopic Hotel & Spa, ready to relax for the evening – we did it!
Where you stay on a group trip
The Tour du Mont Blanc accommodation is in mountain refuges along the way. Refuges are similar to youth hostels.
The facilities vary, but you’ll usually have a bar and a drying room for your boots and clothes. You share a room with other people, and these are often large dorm rooms – the one we stayed in on the first night slept everyone on the trip and then some others!
The bathrooms are usually shared, and the showers aren’t always the best, but they’re always welcome after your day of walking. Some showers take tokens for the hot water, so you have to be quick!
There are often limited places to charge your phone or other devices, so I’d recommend ensuring your phone is fully charged before you set off and take a power bank with you. The plug sockets in Switzerland sometimes don’t fit the European travel adapters, so make sure you pack a universal travel adaptor or one specifically for Switzerland.
They’re great places to enjoy a post-walk drink and for the group to chill out together before bedtime. You’ll need to bring a sleeping bag liner for some of these as they don’t always change the bed sheets between groups.
You may also want to pack earplugs as you may be in with some snorers.
If you’re doing a self-guided Tour du Mont Blanc, you can book your refuges on the official website.
The food
One of the things I enjoyed most about the trip was the food. Breakfasts in the refuges included cereals, granola, greek yogurt, fruit compote, cheeses, hams, and bread.
They gave us packed lunches in the morning, with a large sandwich or baguette with delicious fillings like ham and cheese.
The packed lunches also included plenty of snacks to keep you going during the hike. You must keep eating during the day to give your body the energy it needs to tackle those hills.
Snacks included trail mix, fruit, and chocolate bars. We also packed a couple of our own snacks before the trip, but because they provided so much food, we didn’t need them.
In the evenings, meals were comforting and carb-heavy – very much needed for energy for the following day. The starter is often soup or salad, and for main courses, there were things like chicken and polenta, pasta and bolognese, and sausages and rice.
As for drinks, most of the refuges serve just wine or beer. However, some of the ones we stayed in had prosecco and even some basic cocktails like Kir Royales.
What to take with you
One of the hardest things about the walk was carrying my 35l backpack. I’m not used to carrying such a considerable weight!
With that in mind, try to pack as light as possible. We were throwing things out of our backpacks in our hotel room the night before to get the weight down!
For me, make-up was 100% out – I just brought along a moisturiser with an SPF (which I used as suncream too) and a hair brush plus some dry shampoo – definitely not bringing shampoo and conditioner! If you’re travelling with a friend, you can split the things you need between you so that you end up carrying less.
I also brought minimal clothing – a couple of pairs of walking socks, shorts, trousers from ACAI Outdoorwear, and a down jacket, plus some comfy clothes to relax in at night time and some PJs. I also brought sliders to wear in the refuge in the evening – I couldn’t wait to take off my boots!
Of course, waterproof walking boots are a must. Be sure that you’ve done some test runs in your boots before you set off to wear them in.
I wore my Regatta walking boots but I think they’ve seen better days now as they didn’t stay dry during the torrential downpours we experienced.
Sweat wicking t-shirts were also a must. These helped to keep the weight down as you can re-wear them a couple of times.
Tog24 kindly sent me some of these along with a fleece and waterproof jacket which I loved. They helped to keep me warm and dry.
Other things that I was pleased I had brought with me were Ibuprofen and plasters. One of my arms was hurting after the first day, but a couple of tablets soon relieved the pain.
I felt amazing once I’d finished the Tour du Mont Blanc and I can’t wait for my next hiking challenge!
