The Practical Stuff:

Lets get straight to it, there is a ton to cover and I don't want to start out by boring you with all the personal deets. So.... I'm gonna start with the hard practical info!

The Tour du Mont Blanc:

In short, it's a multi-day hike covering around 170km and 10,000meters of elevation, normally taking between 9-14 days. Starting in either Chamonix, France or Courmayeur, Italy. Taking you through mountain passes and a number of villages, you end up trekking through Italy, France, and Switzerland. The scenery is just... so spectacular. You get glaciers, cliffs, wildlife, rivers, ... I could go on and on...

The biggest draw of this trek is how accessible it is. You don't have to carry your own food, hell, you don't even need to carry your bag. There's fresh groceries nearly everyday. If you want, you get to sleep in these cute mountain cabins (Rifugios) with your own bed and 3 course dinner.
If you can't bear the thought of the next stage, surprise, there are busses!

Its basically hiking in luxury.

or.. you can skip basically all of the luxury and camp the whole time, like we did!

Which brings me to...

The Laws:

The legality of setting up a campsite on this trek is all over the place, and quite complicated, let me try to explain:

France:
In France you'll find the laws quite lax. As long as you're not a disturbance and make an effort to be out of the way, you should find little to no issue when setting up a tent between sunset and sunrise.

Italy:
A bit more on the strict side, Italy has varying laws dependent on the region you're in. On the TMB the rules typically limit you to camping above 2500m and above the tree line. Some have had success camping near refuges when asking for permission, though we didn’t try that route.

Switzerland:
Strictly forbidden and enforced.
You'll unfortunately want to stick to campsites for this leg of the journey. The risk is all on you.

A Few Wise Words:

Mountainous weather can be unpredictable and dangerous. So please:

• Always watch the weather
• Never risk a path in conditions you're unprepared for.
• Always share your plans and where you're going to be with someone you're close to.
  

Getting There:

Most likely you're coming from far away, so in most cases you're going to want to fly into Geneva like we did.
Once you do that, its pretty simple to get to Chamonix. Flix bus will get you there the cheapest and easiest way. They've got departures in the evening and early in the morning and the ride is around 2-3 hours.
From there, only one step is left. The official start of the TMB in Les Houches. While you could start in Chamonix, Les Houches has a cute little starting area that I recommend making to. Getting there is simple, you can take the #1 bus from the stop close to where the Flix bus drops you off, and the ticket is only 1.50€ !

Now that all the most useful info is out of the way...

Our Plan:

Day 1: Arrival Day

We arrived in Geneva really late, too late to catch the Flix bus to Chamonix, so we had to book a hotel. We opted to get one that was super convenient.. mainly because the rest of our trip would be filled with inconveniences.
So we stayed at Montbrillant.
So expensive just so so expensive.. nice, don't get me wrong, but just so expensive.

We did have time to wander the city a bit, checkout the beautiful lakefront and the view of.. maybe Mont Blanc? IDK, it was gorgeous though.

To recoup some of our lost costs we ate that a nearby Syrian restaurant, Saj Eat. Honestly really amazing. 5/5 highly recommend. I think you get get anything off the menu and be happy.

Early to bed early to rise or whatever. We had a bus to catch at 7:30 the next morning.

Day 2: Les Houches - Les Contamines

Distance: 16km
Elevation: 1000m

This was a good opportunity to top up on supplies for the next few days. The cheapest option we found was the Spar grocery store near to where the Flix bus arrives.

We Prioritized foods that last and are light. This means dry, calorie dense foods.

• Hard cheese
• Nuts
• Bread
• Cured Meats
• Chocolate
  

Are all great options and, in this part of the world, taste amazing.

Next we need to get to the official start of the TMB in Les Houches by taking one of the public buses on route 1. This is very cheap, something like 1.50€ and leaves every 15 min from a stop right next to where the Flix bus dropped us off.

You don't have to do this, many people start and end in Chamonix.


...anyway...


Arriving in Les Houches allowed us to grab a TMB official map (much cheaper here at the visitors center the the other stores in Chamonix!) and get our bearings. At the start of the trail near the visitors center, we used one of the many public water fountains to fill up on around 2 liters of water to get us started.


The path on day one followed the first variant, Col de Tricot, into Les Contamines. We took cable car up to skip the first portion of the trail, having read it was boring and worth skipping.
This was certainly the busiest route of the whole trip, this was probably due to the proximity to Chamonix and us hitting the trail so late.

The opportunity for a sit down lunch this day is at Refuge de Miage. All I can recommend here is what most refuges offer if you're looking to keep eating affordable: sandwiches.


Don't forget to top up on water from the local public water source as you leave (I'll leave this reminder out of the rest of the days, as you'll come across many of these water fountains)

Les Contamines is a small village providing places to stop for dinner and stores to top up your supplies.


We chose to reflect on the day over a charcuterie board and a beer before we continued on to camp.

That night we set up camp at Camping le Pontet
Price: 19€

It. was. packed.


We may have gotten lucky without a reservation, I'm not sure, but there couldn't have been more than 3 spots left when we set up our tent.
The space is small and crowded for those staying one night, but you will get the luxury of showers and toilets, not always a given on the rest of this trip so make use of these amenities when you can.

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I should talk about Alternates or "Variants" as they're called

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These are optional routes you can take along the main TMB that typically follow mountain passes (Cols). These routes are normally more challenging, but reward you with amazing views. I recommend taking them whenever you feel you can afford the energy spent.

Day 3: Les Contamines to Refuge Mottets via Col de fours

To be continued...