Australian Hiker | 333-Tour du Mont Blanc

333-Tour du Mont Blanc

Show notes

Ask most hikers to name some European hiking trails and the 170km Tour Du Mont Blanc hiking trail will often crop up. This trail includes sections through France, Italy and Switzerland, and circumnavigates western Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc. For most hikers this trail, which starts and finishes in the Chamonix Valley, is undertaken in around 11 days but it can be done in a quicker, or slower fashion depending on the experience you are after.In this podcast episode we talk with hikers Joe and Annie who undertook this well-known European trail in August of 2025.

Podcast Overview

In this episode we talk with hikers Joe and Annie about one of Europe’s best known trails, the Tour Du Mont Blanc:

Podcast Introduction (time index 00:01:34)

- To help provide a bit of context, give us a bit of background on your hiking experience.(time index 00:02:19)
  - Key hikes
  - What sort of hiking do you like to do?

- Now onto the Tour du Mont Blanc, how did you decide to do this trail? (time index 00:03:42)
  - Always planned? Matter of convenience? Bucket list?

- First up give us a bit of an overview to this well-known track.
  - Distance (170km)
  - Trail tread
    - Typical trail
  - Elevation changes across the trail
    - Were there any steep sections or was it a similar gradient throughout your trip?
  - Typical temperatures?
  - Vegetation
    - What’s the vegetation profile like on this trail?
      - Was this walk just open grassland or are you going through forested areas as well?

- - Did you find any major difference, landscape wise when changing countries? (time index 00:12:05)

- - Was this a ‘carry everything’ sort of trip or did you forward some gear to overnight locations (time index 00:13:07)

- - What was your accommodation on this trip and what was the food situation? (time index 00:17:06)
    - Mainly hotels
    - Refugios on 1 night
    - Most nights dinner was included, buffet breakfast included, packed lunch on most days as an option
    - Water easy to access along the trail

- How many days did this trip take? (time index 00:21:38)
  - 10 days but could have done it quicker or slower
- Did you need to be able to speak the local language or was English well understood? (time index 00:23:49)

- What gear did you need to bring on your walk? (time index 00:24:44)
  - Hiking gear
  - Personal gear
  - Any group gear (if applicable)

- What did your typical day on this hike look like? (time index 00:26:47)
  - Take us through from the start of the day to the end of the day
    - Get up
    - Walk
    - Average distances
  - Breaks
  - Camp at the end of the day
  - Meals are good quality and plenty of it

- How did you go getting to the start and from the start and end points? (time index 00:33:17)

- Trip price? (time index 00:35:21)

- From a logistics perspective, how did you find this walk? (time index 00:01:32)
  - Did you do a package or was the organisation on all you?
  - How easy was it to get to Chamonix from Australia and was this difficult?

- What was the people interaction like on this trip? (time index 00:038:29)
  - Other hikers
  - Locals

- Was there any animal life on this trail or was it all ‘farm life’? (time index 00:42:41)
  - Animals, birds etc

- What were the highlights for you? (time index 00:44:37)
  - Talk about the key ones

- What, if any, were the negatives with this trip? (time index 00:46:58)

- How did you find Switzerland/ Europe as a tourist destination? (time index 00:49:43)

- After doing this walk who would you say it is suitable for? (time index 00:50:14)
  - Fitness
  - Experience
  - Age etc
- Was the trail signposted? (time index 00:51:151)

One final question

- What’s your next great hiking adventure? (time index 00:52:51)

Tim Final thoughts (time index 00:54:46)

Close (time index 01:07:03)

Resources

Macs Adventures
- Joe and Annie used Macs Adventures for this trip

All images in this post have been provided by Joe an Annie from their 2025 trip

Tour du Mont Blanc on the trail

Joe and Annie at the start of the Tour du Mont Blanc trail

Joe on the trail

Annie on the trail

Refugio on the Tour du Mont Blanc

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