Tour du Mont Blanc

Route

All guests are met at Geneva Airport in no more than two transfer windows, then driven roughly ninety minutes to Chamonix in private vans with hold bags handled by the driver. The evening runs: room settling and spa, a short confidence-building briefing, poles fitted, boots inspected, welcome dinner.

Logistics

• Two private eight-seat vans Geneva → Chamonix, matched to arrival windows; a single sixteen-seat Sprinter is the one-vehicle alternative.
• The dedicated support driver's nine-day engagement begins today: airport meet and luggage protocol brief — one 33 lb / 15 kg duffel per guest.

Meals

• Welcome dinner at La Maison Carrier, the Hameau's Savoyard farmhouse table — celebratory but unfussy the night before boots go on.

Route

Down-valley to Les Houches, then the Bellevue cable car — the textbook Gritara lift, removing some 2,600 ft of road-adjacent climbing. From there the Col du Tricot variant: the Bionnassay suspension bridge beneath the glacier, the col itself, the descent to the Chalets de Miage, over Le Truc and into Les Contamines. Weather fallback is the valley-floor TMB.

Logistics

• The driver moves all luggage Chamonix → Les Contamines in the morning, then shuttles guests the short hop from trail to hotel at day's end — and returns them to the same point after breakfast.
• Bellevue tickets pre-purchased for eleven (ten guests plus guide).

Meals

• Lunch — the first prepared alpine picnic, at the Chalets de Miage in the amphitheatre below the col; refuge fallback in poor weather.
• Dinner at the hotel — LaTrabla at La Chemenaz, nightly from 19:00. Chef Kevin Lafond cooked in a two-star kitchen before taking this one, a quality signal far above the village's weight class. Half board is included in the room rate.

Route

Notre-Dame de la Gorge and the Roman road, past the Refuge de la Balme, then the double col — Col du Bonhomme and Col de la Croix du Bonhomme — before the descent to Les Chapieux. This is the highest weather discipline of the week: commit early and carry an explicit turnaround time. The Col des Fours variant is for a strong group in settled weather only.

Logistics

• The driver repositions luggage to the night's hotel and meets the group at Les Chapieux, the most reliable extraction point of the first half.
• Evening transfer Les Chapieux → Séez, about 45 minutes. The driver returns guests to the exact finish point on Day 3 morning; only the sleeping improves.

Meals

• Lunch — Refuge de la Balme, or a sheltered picnic on the climb, timed before the exposed upper cols.
• Dinner at the chalet — La Ferme d'Angèle's table d'hôtes, one long convivial Savoyard table: the authentic night, engineered.

Route

Up the Vallée des Glaciers to the Col de la Seigne — the border, and the psychological moment of the circuit — then the high balcony past Rifugio Elisabetta and the long Val Veny descent. The crossing is narrated; this is the day the expedition becomes real.

Logistics

• The driver crosses via the Mont Blanc tunnel with the luggage.
• Optional experiential transfer for the final road-adjacent kilometres into Courmayeur, so guests arrive for aperitivo rather than depleted, with pre-planned pickup points along Val Veny. If taken, Day 4 opens with a drive back to the exact pickup point; guests who prefer simply walk the short flat road section in.
• Evening: QC Terme Pré-Saint-Didier spa run, about ten minutes, with the Aperiterme buffet included.

Meals

• Lunch — the flagship prepared picnic in upper Val Veny with glaciers as the backdrop; Rifugio Elisabetta is the warm fallback.
• Dinner at the hotel — L'Aubergine at Auberge de La Maison, which serves nightly, so Monday is safe. The trip's culinary centrepiece, booked before departure.

Route

The unavoidable re-ascent to Rifugio Bertone, flagged honestly the night before, and then perhaps the greatest balcony trail in Europe past Rifugio Bonatti with the Grandes Jorasses across the valley the whole way. Over the Grand Col Ferret — the week's highest transition and the Swiss border — and down the Val Ferret to La Fouly. Protect time at Bonatti; don't rush the col.

Logistics

• Morning: guests ride the five to ten minutes from Entrèves back to the previous evening's finish point in Courmayeur before the Bertone climb, so the day starts exactly where yesterday's hiking ended.
• The driver exits Italy and repositions to La Fouly on the Swiss e-vignette.
• La Fouly is essentially on-route, with hotels minutes from the trail, so no shuttle is needed.

Meals

• Lunch — Rifugio Bonatti, one of the best-sited refuges on the circuit, or a balcony picnic opposite the Jorasses.
• Dinner at the hotel — the Edelweiss glacier-view dining room, refined Valais cooking and the best table in the village; seatings at 18:30 and 19:00, half board included.

Route

A gentle valley traverse through Praz de Fort and the hamlets to the lake. Resist adding distance — the short day is the design. Tonight's briefing makes the week's highest-judgement call on the forecast: the Fenêtre d'Arpette or the Bovine route for tomorrow, communicated as a positive choice either way.

Logistics

• The driver moves luggage La Fouly → Champex, about thirty minutes, and pre-confirms spa treatment bookings for arrival.
• Lowest-risk day of the week, with road access throughout.

Meals

• Lunch — unhurried, in Praz de Fort or lakeside on arrival.
• Dinner at the hotel — Au 1465, the house's one-Michelin-star restaurant (Gault&Millau 17/20, chef Mariano Buda). Groups of four or more take an identical menu. Wednesday is precisely when it reopens for the week; the date pattern exists partly for this table.

Route

Standard line: the Bovine route through pasture and forest with growing views back toward the massif, over the Col de la Forclaz and down to Trient — a genuinely fine trail and the default in any doubt.

Signature variant: the Fenêtre d'Arpette at 8,743 ft, the high wild notch above the Trient glacier — longer and more demanding at roughly 4,300 ft of climbing over seven to eight hours, taken only in excellent weather with a strong group. Both are official TMB lines, so either keeps the circuit unbroken, and early September holds the variant in play more reliably than late season.

The ten-day structure is what makes this choice possible again: with Col de Balme moved to its own half-day tomorrow, the Arpette no longer has to share a day with anything.

Logistics

• The driver repositions luggage Champex → Le Jeu de Paume during the hiking day.
• Hiking ends at Trient, where no luxury hotel exists, so the driver runs the twenty-minute transfer to Le Lavancher and returns guests to the same spot after breakfast. First of two nights at Le Jeu de Paume: unpack once.
• Bailouts: the Arpette has a clear decision point before the exposed upper section, and the Bovine line and Col de la Forclaz are road-accessible.

Meals

• Lunch — the Alpage de Bovine's classic farm table on the standard line, or a sheltered picnic below the notch on the Arpette.
• Dinner at the hotel — Le Rosebud at Le Jeu de Paume, on a half-board basis.

Route

A morning return to Trient, then the steady climb to Col de Balme on the France–Switzerland border — the single greatest reveal of the week, the entire massif suddenly filling the horizon with the finale's terrain laid out below. Descend over the Aiguillette des Posettes ridge, the scenic line, or take the direct bypass which saves roughly 450 ft and 45 minutes, finishing at Tré-le-Champ by early afternoon.

This is the stage every nine-day itinerary skips by vehicle. Here it is walked as a half-day with an afternoon off — the second engineered exhale of the arc, placed exactly before the finale. The afternoon is pool, spa and outdoor jacuzzi back at Le Jeu de Paume, laundry service, and an unhurried evening. Guests start the finale restored.

Logistics

• Transfer Tré-le-Champ → Le Jeu de Paume, eight minutes — the shortest diversion of the week, and the same trailhead again tomorrow.
• No luggage move today: the two-night stay means bags stay put.
• The driver's light day — refreshments staged at Col de Balme's refuge, then afternoon spa and errand support.

Meals

• Lunch — a picnic on the Posettes ridge, or a late arrival lunch at the hotel; the timing is the group's to choose.
• Dinner at the hotel — Le Rosebud, second night. The kitchen is briefed to vary the menu, and the Day 8 finale briefing happens over dessert.

Route

From Tré-le-Champ the trail climbs the Chéserys ladder sections — short, well protected, with a Col des Montets bypass for anyone who prefers solid ground — to Lac Blanc, the most photographed frame of the week. Then the Grand Balcon Sud past La Flégère and Planpraz to Le Brévent, directly opposite the massif, before the celebratory descent into Chamonix to close the loop exactly where it began. This day is choreography: protect the reveal at Lac Blanc, the arrival at Le Brévent, the champagne.

Logistics

• Morning return to Tré-le-Champ, eight minutes — guests step onto the trail exactly where they stepped off it last night.
• Champagne and flutes staged by the driver at Brévent; completion portraits before the descent.
• The Flégère and Brévent lifts are held as the weather- and fatigue-proof descent — philosophically acceptable downhill only, and disclosed to purists, since walking the final descent is what closes an unbroken on-foot circle in the streets of Chamonix. Lifts run to about mid-September; the date pattern protects this.
• Luggage returns to the Hameau, and departure transfer windows are confirmed tonight.

Meals

• Lunch — a long celebratory stop at Lac Blanc, refuge and lakeside.
• Dinner — the farewell table in Chamonix.

A final unhurried breakfast, with the coffee orders known without asking. A printed completion memento: the route walked, three countries, the cols named. Private vans to Geneva in two windows matched to flights and buffered for mountain-road traffic, and the guide's personal send-off to each guest.