A little local perspective
Worth knowing.
Worth going.
- Destination
- Chamonix and Mont Blanc, France
- The selection
- 8 hotels
- Your kind of trip
- mountains · skiing · hiking · couples
$$$ to $$$$ — roughly 300-1,200 euros a night, peaking in February and August
The Aiguille du Midi cable car climbs from 1,035 metres at Chamonix to 3,842 metres in about twenty minutes, in two stages, with the upper span rising more than 1,400 metres without a single pylon. It opened in 1955 and for years it held the record as the highest vertical ascent cable car in the world.
What it means in practice is that anyone who can stand in a queue can be on the shoulder of Mont Blanc before lunch. You step out of a lift at nearly four thousand metres onto a terrace with the Alps below you, in whatever you were wearing in the valley — which is the appeal and also the problem, since it is routinely twenty degrees colder up there and the altitude is real.
The valley decides everything
Chamonix is a glacial trench about twenty kilometres long, steep-sided and narrow, with Mont Blanc at 4,806 metres on one side and the Aiguilles Rouges on the other. There is very little flat ground, which is why the town is linear and why the hotel list is not enormous.
Chamonix town is the centre: the Aiguille du Midi station, the restaurants, the guides' office and the Montenvers railway.
Argentière, eight kilometres up-valley, sits below Les Grands Montets and is quieter, more serious about skiing and closer to the Swiss border.
Les Houches, at the lower end, is the family ski area with the gentlest terrain and the best value.
Saint-Gervais and Les Contamines, over the shoulder, are the quieter approach to the same massif.
One honest thing about the glacier
The Mer de Glace is France's largest glacier and the Montenvers rack railway has taken visitors to see it since 1908. It is also retreating and thinning quickly. The staircase from the station down to the ice has been extended repeatedly as the surface drops, and markers on the valley wall show where the ice stood in past decades.
It is still worth going. It is also a plainer piece of evidence than most people are expecting, and it is worth knowing that before you take children.
The eight below are grouped by village.
Chamonix town
At the base of the cable car.
Hameau Albert 1er occupies a family-run property in the centre with two restaurants, one holding a star for many years, a pool and a garden. It has been in the same family since 1903 and it is the best hotel in the valley.
Hôtel Mont-Blanc Chamonix sits on the main street in a building operating since 1849, with a spa, a pool and rooms facing the massif. It is the historic address in Chamonix.
Heliopic Hotel & Spa occupies a position directly beside the Aiguille du Midi base station, with a spa and the shortest possible walk to the cable car on a morning when the queue matters.
Grand Hôtel des Alpes sits in the centre with a spa, a pool and a quieter tone than its neighbours.
Le Refuge des Aiglons occupies a chalet-style building near the centre with a small room count, a garden and good value for the position.
Hôtel Le Morgane sits by the river with contemporary rooms, a bar and a livelier crowd.
Argentière
Eight kilometres up, below Les Grands Montets.
Les Grands Montets Hotel & Spa occupies a position at Argentière with a spa, a pool and the most serious ski terrain in the valley outside the door.
Saint-Gervais
Over the shoulder, quieter.
Armancette Hôtel, Chalets & Spa sits above Saint-Gervais in a chalet property with a spa, a pool and views across to Mont Blanc from the other side.
What we have left off
The catered chalets and apartment rentals across the valley are excluded, and in Chamonix they are a substantial share of the winter beds. They are houses rather than hotels.
What to do
Go up the Aiguille du Midi early, before the cloud builds, and book the slot online. Take a warm layer regardless of the valley temperature, spend the first ten minutes at the top moving slowly, and step into the glass box on the terrace if heights do not trouble you.
Take the Montenvers railway to the Mer de Glace, and read the year markers on the way down to the ice.
Walk the Grand Balcon Sud on the Aiguilles Rouges side in summer, which is the path with Mont Blanc in front of you the whole way, reached by the Flégère or Brévent lifts.
Ski the Vallée Blanche if you are competent and with a guide — a 20-kilometre glacier descent from the Aiguille du Midi that is not a piste and is not patrolled.
Cross to Courmayeur in Italy through the Mont Blanc tunnel for lunch, which takes about forty minutes.
Practical notes
Geneva is about an hour and fifteen minutes by road and transfers are frequent. The valley has a free bus and train service with a guest card.
The ski season runs December to April; the walking and climbing season runs late June to September. May and November are the quiet months when lifts close and many hotels shut.
Chamonix is a mountaineering town before it is a resort. The weather changes fast and the guides' office is the right first stop for anything above the lifts.
Every hotel bookable in Chamonix
Questions people actually ask
How high does the cable car go?
To 3,842 metres, from 1,035 in the valley, in about twenty minutes. Dress for it and move slowly at the top.
Chamonix or Argentière?
Chamonix for the cable car, the restaurants and the town. Argentière for the skiing and the quiet.
Is the Vallée Blanche for ordinary skiers?
No. It is a glacier, it is unpatrolled and crevassed, and it requires a guide.
How many nights?
Five in winter, four in summer.
