A real mountain town under the biggest peak in the Alps.
Chamonix is a proper town rather than a purpose built resort, and it lives and breathes mountains all year round. The skiing is spread across separate areas linked by bus, and it leans towards confident and expert skiers, with the legendary Vallée Blanche as the headline.
Know the mountain before you go.
The skiing
The Grands Montets and the Aiguille du Midi serve up steep, serious terrain, while the gentler Brévent and Les Houches areas look after families and improvers. A guide is well worth it here to open up the off piste safely.
The village and the evenings
The town itself is full of life, with bars, restaurants and gear shops that stay busy long after the lifts close. You get a genuine sense of place that few ski resorts can match.
Beyond the skiing.
Free, and worth knowing
Twenty marked snowshoe routes. The best documented walking in any resort we have looked at. Twenty routes, and unlike most French resorts they publish the distance, the time, the ascent and the grade for each one. Les Tines is 2.9 km in an hour and ten with a hundred and fifty metres of climb. The Glacier des Bossons is 5.1 km in an hour and forty five. The Sentier des Cerfs above Les Houches is 3.4 km in an hour and ten.
The Mont Blanc Express, free with the guest card. The single best tip for a non skier in Chamonix. The guest card your accommodation gives you on arrival covers the whole SNCF line between Servoz and Vallorcine, which is every village in the valley. Take the train up to Argentiere or Vallorcine, walk, and take it back. It costs nothing and it runs all winter.
The free carpet at Le Savoy. A beginner area in the middle of Chamonix with a free rolling carpet on it. The two drag lifts beside it are paid, but the carpet itself costs nothing, and it is the only confirmed free lift in the valley.
Five free sledging areas. Tourchet and Prarion above Les Houches, Bois du Bouchet in Chamonix itself, plus areas at Vallorcine and Servoz. Bois du Bouchet is the one to point people at, because it is a flat walk from the middle of town.
The Christmas and winter programme. The tourist office runs a large free programme across all five villages through the season: street shows, Christmas concerts, storytelling for children, a torchlight walk and a market of wooden chalets, with separate events at Les Houches, Servoz, Argentiere and Vallorcine.
A few of the rest
The Aiguille du Midi. Three thousand eight hundred and forty two metres, in two cable car stages from the middle of Chamonix, and it is the reason a lot of people come here without any intention of skiing. At the top there is a glass box you step into with a thousand metres of nothing underneath, and it is included in the site access rather than sold separately. Over 50 euros.
Montenvers and the Mer de Glace. A rack railway out of Chamonix up to 1,913 m above the glacier, and the round trip ticket covers the train, the gondola down to the ice, the ice cave carved into the glacier and the Glaciorium exhibition. All of it is one ticket rather than four. There are also two kilometres of marked snowshoe loops at the top. Over 50 euros.
Le Brevent and La Flegere. The two balcony viewpoints on the sunny side of the valley, both taking pedestrians all winter, and both looking straight across at Mont Blanc. Brevent goes up from the middle of Chamonix in two stages, Flegere from Les Praz. Both are included in the pedestrian package and in the main ski passes. 20 to 50 euros.
All 19 picks for Chamonix, dining included, live in the Ski Snug app.
These are our own picks, not paid placements. Prices and opening times change, so it is always worth checking before you set off.
Getting there
Geneva airport is barely over an hour away, which makes Chamonix one of the easiest transfers in the Alps, and the train also runs right into town.
Chamonix guides
Not sure where to stay in Chamonix?
Our Chamonix team will match you to the right chalet, apartment or hotel. One team, one price, zero faff.