It costs €826 to plan your own 10-day hike of the Tour du Mont Blanc.
This amount comes from our new cost calculator for the Tour du Mont Blanc, which uses over 30 actual customer itineraries and 2023 costs from nearly 100 accommodation and service providers along the trail. Rather than overwhelm you with the details upfront, give it a try!
Tour du Mont Blanc Cost Calculator
Make sure to wait about 5 seconds after you click the button for the results to appear.
Learn more about the cost calculator
What is it for?
The calculator has been created for self-guided hikers to estimate how much it will cost them to organise their own hike of the Tour du Mont Blanc based on their preferences.
The costs produced by the calculator include accommodation, breakfast, lunch and dinner for all your days on the trail.
For the 10-day hike mentioned above that would cost you €826 to plan it yourself, the accommodation is shared rooms (dorms), dine at accommodation has been chosen for the dinner (which means delicious 3-course meals!), and lunch is a takeaway picnic provided by your accommodation each day.
Tour du Mont Blanc 10 Day Itinerary, as shown in our trip planning app
The calculator can be used as many times as you like to see how different preferences impact the cost. For example, those that prefer to stay in private rooms along the trail (rather than shared rooms), the cost isn’t much higher at €924 for 10 days, based on two people sharing a room, or, €1213 for a solo hiker (those pesky single occupancy room surcharges!). If you’re on a tighter budget or would prefer to camp along the trail, those with a preference for bivouacking (wild camping) can expect to spend 3 nights sleeping for free and then budget just €89 for the other nights in campgrounds/areas where wild camping is not allowed.
Hiking for longer or shorter than 10 days? Planning on picking up food from supermarkets rather than dining out? You can use our patent pending (joking!) Tour du Mont Blanc cost calculator to find out how much you will need to budget for the trail.
How the calculator works
1. Preferred accommodation
There are 4 main accommodation types on the Tour du Mont Blanc which you can select;
Bivouac (wild) camping: There are some dedicated bivouac areas along the trail that have a toilet and running water, as well as some other areas where it is permitted but no infrastructure/services are available.
Campgrounds: This includes typical campgrounds and camping areas offered by mountain huts along the way. Showers, toilets, water, electricity, kitchen, and food are available in these locations.
Shared room (dorms): These rooms are offered by most mountain huts, but you will even find them in some villages too. Occasionally there is a sink in the room, however, showers and toilets are outside in common areas. The room sizes vary from 4 to 20 beds - each property will disclose on their website or booking page what rooms are available for you to book.
Private room: Usually it includes a bathroom and shower, however, in areas of the trail where there are only mountain huts with private rooms and shared bathrooms, I’ve still classified them in this category.
Bivouac (wild) camping: Tent pitched next to Le Tour Glacier (alternate route)
Refuge la Flégére - only offers shared room (dorm) accommodation with bivouacking possible nearby too
125+ accommodation locations, including mountain huts, campgrounds, bivouac locations and hotels are displayed in our trip planning app.
You will notice that the term ‘preferred’ is used for the accommodation selection. This is because the calculator uses actual itineraries rather than simply assuming you can stay in your selected accommodation type every night, which in most cases is not possible. For example, private rooms in mountain huts aren't possible every night, and neither is a bivouac. Therefore most itineraries need to include a mix of different accommodation types. This is how itinerary building works in practice, so it’s the same approach I’ve taken with the cost calculation.
When the preferred accommodation type for any given night is not available, the next closest option has been selected. The next closest option for each accommodation type is;
No Bivouac (wild) camping > Campground selected
No Campground > Shared room (dorms) selected
No Shared room (dorms) > Private room (double) selected
No Private room > Shared room (dorms) selected
You’ll see in the results how many nights have been allocated with the preferred accommodation type vs the next closest option. The number of nights in your preferred accommodation type can usually be increased if you incorporate some public transport into your plan or change your hiking direction.
Use our trip planning app to easily add public transport (i.e gondola, bus, train) to skip ahead.
Once the calculator has found an itinerary with the number of hiking days you’ve selected that best matches your accommodation preference, it adds the actual 2023 costs together and shows the result the ‘accommodation cost’ line.
2. Lunch
The 3 options you can select are;
Make your own lunch: You’ll pass supermarkets and bakeries in the main villages along the trail
Make my own lunch: A generous 10 EUR estimated. Assumes you’ll be picking up a hearty selection of food from supermarkets/bakeries
Takeaway picnic from accommodation: 12 EUR calculated based on an average of over 30 providers along the trail. These packed lunches are all a bit different but usually contain a sandwich, fruit, cheese, and something sweet.
Dine at a cafe/restaurant along the trail: 20 EUR estimated based on choosing something warm (eg: omelet, hearty soup & bread) and a piece of fruit pie or drink.
Based on your selection, the cost mentioned above is multiplied by the number of days you’ll be on the trail and added to your ‘food cost’ line in the results.
3. Preferred Dinner
The 3 options you can select are;
Dine at local restaurants: Great to choose which local dishes you want to try (and get a fix of chippies :p)
Make my own dinner: 12 EUR estimated. Assumes you’ll be eating freeze-dried meals or picking up food for dinner at supermarkets to prepare.
Dine at accommodation: 20 EUR estimated. Most accommodation along the trail offer half board which includes a hearty 3-course dinner served family style, and a simple buffet breakfast. Where half board is available, the actual cost for the location in your itinerary has been used. Where your itinerary has a night at a location that does not offer half board, 20 EUR has been estimated based on a main meal al a carte choice (eg: tartiflette, rosti, pasta).
Dine at local restaurant: 40 EUR estimated based on choosing 2-3 courses al a carte at an average restaurant (by cost - not by rating!).
You will notice that the term ‘preferred’ is used again for the dinner selection due to the calculator using actual itineraries. Many of the mountain huts require you to select half board with your booking. Therefore, if you have chosen ‘make my own dinner’ or ‘dine at local restaurant’, but the itinerary that best matches your accommodation preferences includes nights at these mountain huts, you’ll be allocated their cost for dinner instead. You’ll see in the results how many nights a mandatory half-board has been included in your cost estimate rather than your preferred dinner choice.
Where you can end up with a small overstatement of dinner costs is when half board is not mandatory, you’ve chosen ‘dine at local restaurant’, but there are no other places to eat. In these situations, I’ve still allocated you the EUR40 cost but your actual cost will likely be a bit lower due to actually eating the half-board meal at the mountain hut.
The calculation for the dinner cost is based on the actual cost of the half-board dinners when ‘dine at accommodation’ is selected. When the other options are selected, the actual half-board dinner cost is used where it is mandatory, then the estimates provided above are multiplied by the remaining days on the trail.
4. Number of days to the trail
This is the number of hiking days. It is used with your preferred accommodation choice to identify the best itinerary for calculating your cost estimate.
For the most accurate result, I would suggest excluding rest days and any pre or post-hiking days in this number. If you want to include these in your estimate, multiply the average cost per day by the number of these days and add it to your total cost.
5. Currency
I’m pulling in live exchange rates from Google which are about 20min delayed. All the costs sit in my database in their actual currency (EUR/CHF) and then translated to the currency chosen.
Bonus breakfast cost
I didn’t create an input for breakfast but I have added a cost for it in the total food cost line. It is calculated based on the actual half board (breakfast) cost where it is mandatory or ‘dine at accommodation’ has been selected. For the number of days where half board is not mandatory, it is multiplied by a breakfast cost of EUR 8 for those preferring camping and EUR 13 for those preferring shared or private accommodation.
Other trip costs to consider
While the calculator will provide you with the main cost to hike the Tour du Mont Blanc, there are some others that you may need to factor into your plan.
Flights to Geneva/Europe
This depends on where you’re coming from and what class you fly so I’ve not included
Transfers to/from airport
Given there are numerous airports and start locations locations on the trail, I’ve not built this into the calculator. Here are some estimates you can use for these costs based on the most popular start locations;
Official start location: Les Houches, France
Les Houches, France: Accessible by minibus transfers (shared or private) and a very slow (multiple connection) train from Geneva Airport. It takes between 1-2 hours depending on your transport choice and costs from €30 per adult one-way.
Plan Praz (Chamonix), France: Accessible by minibus transfers (shared or private), budget bus companies (like Flix) and slow train from Geneva Airport. It takes between 1-2 hours depending on your transport choice and costs from €10 per adult one-way.
Courmayeur, Italy: From Geneva Airport, check out Ouibus and FlixBus, the low-cost European bus companies that have tickets starting from €10 per person, one-way. If you’re coming from a nearby Italian airport or city, check out Arriva which runs bus transfers to Courmayeur.
Champex Lac, Switzerland: Accessible by Switzerlands famous (but expensive) public transport system from Geneva airport (3h), Zurich (5h) and Basel (5h). See SBB.CH for schedules, prices and online ticket purchases. Pre-purchasing your ticket is not required. You can purchase at the train station upon arrival.
New hiking gear
No estimate provided as it depends on the situation of each hiker. I provide a gear list in the planning portal to help you do an inventory check.
Travel Insurance
No estimate is provided due to being based on location, age and coverage/excess preferences
Baggage transfer
For those that require baggage transfer services too, you can use the rates from Taxi Mont Blanc for your estimate. It may surprise you how affordable this service can be
Local cuisine: Raclette is a popular dish in the regions of Valais, Switzerland and Savoie, France. Melted cheese over potatoes, meat and gurkens. Yes please!
Snacks
Let’s be honest, you’re going to be burning a lot of calories and eating a lot of calories! As a minimum, I’d estimate EUR 10 per day on top of other food costs.
Beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic)
Hiking certainly makes you thirsty and sometimes at the end of a long day, you need something a little stronger than water. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are not included in the cost estimates but available for sale at all the mountain huts along the way. Expect to pay between EUR 4-7 for a glass of wine or bottle of beer from the region.
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