The Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) is one of the most famous hikes in Europe. Famous for being the same route as the incredible UTMB, it is completed by many hiker lovers and trail runners. It spans a total of 170km in the alps with over 10 000m of elevation gain, making the total climb more than the height of Mount Everest. The Tour du Mont Blanc goes through three different countries: France, Italy and Switzerland. I completed the entirety of the TMB back in July 2024, and it was honestly one of the best and most physically challenging experiences that I have ever done.
The preparations leading up to the days of the TMB can be a bit overwhelming, from booking the refuges and making sure there are enough availabilities for the exact days that you are there to figuring out the best backpack to bring with the things to pack. Although it can be a bit stressful, I’m here to help you out to make the preparation part a bit more peaceful!
In this blog, I will review the refuges that we stayed in during our Tour du Mont Blanc. In our itinerary, we have a mix of refuges booked on the TMB website, refuges that we found ourselves on the Internet, and accommodations that are in towns accessible by bus from the TMB hiking trail. The reason for this variety of accommodations is because we booked late (in February for August), so we had to compromise for certain refuges that were sold out.
Table of Contents
- General Information About Booking Refuges
- Our Refuges Map
- Day 1 – Refuge du Fioux
- Day 2 – Gite le Pontet
- Day 3 – Bourg-Saint-Maurice
- Day 4 – Rifugio Elisabetta, Italy
- Day 5 – Rifugio Giorgio Bertone, Italy
- Day 6 – Rifugio Elena, Italy
- Day 7 – Refuge Maya-Joie, Switzerland
- Day 8 – Relais d’Arpette, Switzerland
- Day 9 – Hôtel du Col de la Forclaz, Switzerland
- Day 10 – Gîte Le Moulin, France
General Information About Booking Refuges
One of the most complicated parts of preparing for TMB in my opinion was figuring out the lodging situation if you would like to do a self guided tour. If you would like to stay at refuges along the TMB route, you will need to book in advance. This preparation part does not apply for those who want to camp because for that option, you do not need to book in advance. In addition, it does not apply for those going with a guided tour because they will book your accommodations for you.
The best website that I found for booking accommodations on the TMB trail is this one. It has an extended list of MOST of the refuges on the TMB trail, and you can directly book all of your refuges on this website. What’s nice about the website is that they have an Interactive Map of their refuges and when you select a refuge, they tell you the approximate time it takes to make it to the next refuge.
I emphasized on MOST because although the website has most of the refuges of TMB, there are also a good amount of well reputed refuges that are not advertised on their website such as Rifugio Elisabetta, Rifugio Bonatti and Rifugio Elena for example. These refuges could be important to keep in your options because many of the refuges around these are sold out especially if you book a bit later. If there are no refuges available on the Tour du Mont Blanc website, don’t get discouraged because you might find some availabilities in other refuges that are not advertised on their website.
Our Refuges Map
Day 1 – Refuge du Fioux, France
- Cost: 55 €
- Our room: 4 beds dormitory
- Breakfast: Bread, jam, biscuits, coffee or tea
- Dinner: Chicken, green peas, rice. One of the best meals I had on the TMB.
- Showers: 4 minute included shower with token. Not many showers, but we weren’t a lot in the refuge so never had to wait. Shower was clean.
- On the TMB website: Yes
- Charging plugs: in the rooms
- Would I stay again: Yes
- Rating: 8/10
- Other comments: Something else I loved was that outside every room, there were clothing racks right on the balcony which was helpful for drying your clothes and a lot more accessible than other places.
Day 2 – Gite le Pontet
- Cost: 63.20 €
- Our room: private room. It was a wooden cabin that was separated into 4 private rooms.
- Breakfast: self serve of eggs, cereal, bread, jam, cold cuts, coffee.
- Dinner: cantaloup, ham, chicken, rice, chocolate mousse.
- Showers: UNLIMITED. in our room <3333
- On the TMB website: Yes
- Charging plugs: in the rooms
- Would I stay again: Yes
- Rating: 8/10
- Other comments: We originally booked a room of 3 so we technically paid for 3 people, but after checking in and telling them we were only 2, they actually reimbursed us the 3rd person which was really nice of them. We booked the room of 3 originally because it was the only option there since we booked pretty last minute.
Day 3 – Bourg-Saint-Maurice, France
After Gite le Pontet, we would have stayed at les Chapieux, which is the town on the TMB. In les Chapieux, there are two refuges: Auberge-Refuge de la Nova and les Chambres du Soleil. However, we booked this trip a bit late, and those refuges were full at the time of our booking (February). Therefore, we decided to book an Airbnb in a town nearby called Bourg-Saint-Maurice.
To get from les Chapieux to Bourg-Saint-Maurice, we took a bus. To book the bus tickets, you can just buy them in person when you arrive to les Chapieux.
Day 4 – Rifugio Elisabetta, Italy
- Cost: 77 €
- Our room: 6 bed dormitory. But since they overbooked us, we were in a “7 bed dormitory,” and the 7th person (my partner) slept on a mattress on the floor…
- Breakfast: bread, jam, biscuits
- Dinner: risotto, porc, rice, cooked vegetables, chocolate mousse
- Showers: 4 minute included token. Only 2 showers that I could use in the whole refuge, and the refuge was very busy in terms of amount of people it hosted. Had to wait 30 minutes to take a shower. The shower was also very dirty.
- On the TMB website: No
- Charging plugs: only in the common area
- Would I stay again: No
- Rating: 3/10
- Other comments: The whole place just didn’t feel super clean. In the women’s bathroom, the showers were not working, and only 1 one the toilets were usable. Their food was very mid.
Day 5 – Rifugio Giorgio Bertone, Italy
- Cost: 80 €
- Our room: private room bunk bed
- Breakfast: bread, jam, biscuits, coffee
- Dinner: pasta, beef stew, mixed cooked vegetables
- Showers: 4 minute included with token. Showers were clean.
- On the TMB website: Yes
- Charging plugs: in the rooms
- Would I stay again: No
- Rating: 1/10
- Other comments: Honestly thought they were a pretty decent place until we discovered later that there were bed bugs in our private room. We met other hikers after our stay here, and they told us about how they had bed bug bites from here. After comparing our itineraries, we also realized that we stayed here on the same day they were here, so it confirmed that this is where they were from.
Day 6 – Rifugio Elena, Italy
- Cost: 60 €
- Our room: 12 beds dormitory. Although we were a lot of people, the room was really big so we all had enough space and privacy. Each set of bunk bed also had a little closet area where you can put your clothes and personal belongings.
- Breakfast: bread, coffee, cold cuts, cheese, eggs
- Dinner: pasta, rice, pork, vegetables, pie
- Showers: unlimited. Showers are okay. I didn’t like the fact that there were no hangers in the showers. There were none inside or outside, so we had to put our clothes on top of the door, which was easy to get wet.
- On the TMB website: No
- Charging plugs: in the rooms
- Would I stay again: Yes
- Rating: 7/10
- Other comments: A crowded place, but there were enough amenities for everyone (lots of toilets, lots of showers, etc.)
Day 7 – Refuge Maya-Joie, Switzerland
- Cost: 68 CHF
- Our room: 14 beds dormitory. If it were full, you would feel like you don’t have that much personal space, but we ended up actually only being 5 people in the room.
- Breakfast: bread, cold cuts, cereal, yogurt, coffee
- Dinner: raclette (cheese) with potatoes and cold cuts. an extra 18 CHF that we didn’t expect (usually the dinners are included in the price)
- Showers: unlimited
- On the TMB website: Yes
- Charging plugs: in the rooms
- Would I stay again: Yes
- Rating: 7/10
- Other comments: Overall a nice place. The place was big but there weren’t that many people there.
Day 8 – Relais d’Arpette, Switzerland
- Cost: 77.00 CHF
- Our room: 6 bed dormitory
- Breakfast: bread, jam, yogurt & its toppings (raisins, chocolate, granola, nuts)
- Dinner: self serve salad (corn, cucumber, lettuce…), vegan curry of beans and potatoes, rice, pear, apple
- Showers: unlimited, but their “warm shower” was cold for me
- On the TMB website: Yes
- Charging plugs: in the rooms
- Would I stay again: Yes
- Rating: 7/10
- Other comments: The showers weren’t in the same building as our dorm which was a bit inconvenient, but not a big deal.
Day 9 – Hôtel du Col de la Forclaz, Switzerland
- Cost: 75 CHF
- Our room: 12 bed dormitory. not lots of personal space but we were only 5 people in the room.
- Breakfast: eggs, bread, jam, coffee, juice
- Dinner: soup, chicken, rice, strawberry ice cream,
- Showers: UNLIMITED! and the showers were SO clean
- On the TMB website: Yes
- Charging plugs: in the rooms
- Would I stay again: Yes
- Rating: 9/10
- Other comments: One of my favourite places to stay at. The place was very clean and the food was really good.
Day 10 – Gîte Le Moulin, France
- Cost: 48,20 €
- Our room: 6 bed dormitory. Material of the blanket was a bit strange (felt like paper)
- Breakfast: croissant, cereal, bread, jam, coffee, juice
- Dinner: potatoes, cheese, ham, green vegetables
- Showers: unlimited
- On the TMB website: Yes
- Charging plugs: in the rooms
- Would I stay again: No
- Rating: 6/10
- Other comments: Compared to the other refuges that were right on the TMB trail, Gîte le Moulin was actually a 15 minute walk away from the official TMB trail, which is strange because it is on the Tour du Mont Blanc website.
Jessie Across the World 