Here is some general advice for planning your Chamonix climbing, walking, running or skiing trip.
Getting to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc – Plane, Train and Bus
Chamonix is located at the borders of Switzerland and Italy and is very easy to get to. Geneva is the closest airport and is well serviced by budget airlines such as easyjet.
Other airport options include Lyon in France or Milan in Italy. Both requiring much longer transfers to Chamonix of course.
There are regular train services from Geneva to Paris (and onto London) and elsewhere. And also coach options from most major cities including London. You can look at coach options here.
Geneva Airport to Chamonix transfers
From Geneva airport Chamonix is an hour and fifteen minutes by car. We would recommend getting an airport transfer bus as this is the most economical and quickest option.
You can of course hire a car at Geneva airport and the easiest option is to do that on the “Swiss side” so as to make sure you have a Swiss motorway toll sticker “Vignettes” so that you can use the motorway out of Geneva. Otherwise you’ve got to drive through to the city centre.
It’s also possible to take some connecting trains from Geneva aiport all the way to Chamonix. You would need to change a couple of times and it’s not as cheap as a transfer bus but it does work. The train station is located right next to the aiport departures terminal at the airport.
It is highly recomended you pre-book your airport transfer to Chamonix from the airport. It is possible to arrange something on arrival but it can be much slower and unreliable for late arriving flights.
Geneva to Chamonix airport transfer coaches.
There are two main options for an airport transfer. The cheapest is a service that drops you in the centre of Chamonix at the bus station which is close to the Aiguille du Midi. It is then up to you to get from there to your accommodation. So you will need to be sure of that walking distance!
Operators for this type of transfer include BlaBla Bus, Easybus and Flixbus (from Geneva centre).
Geneva to Chamonix door to door airport transfers.
There are many operators offering shared door to door transfers from the aiport to your accommodation in Chamonix. These aren’t much more expensive and can save you a lot of hassle if you’re not staying very central in Chamonix.
All of these require pre-booking online. There is a lot of competition which keeps the prices down!
We’d recommend Haute Transfers, Mountain Drops offs and ChamVan. There are plenty of others to choose from if need be.
Chamonix Accommodation
See our dedicated accommodation page for recommendations and links.
Equipment and gear rental
For mountaineering equipment, boot hire, avalanche gear and more see our equipment rental page and give us a shout with any questions.
Ski hire in Chamomix
Again, it is worth pre-booking any hire equipment in high season. Especially ski touring kit in the spring when the lightweight kit can be hard to find at the last minute.
There can be a lot of different ski setups to choose from but generally speaking the hire shops will help you pick the specific ski for your trip. Do give us a shout with any general questions on that.
We reccommend looking at Concept Pro and Sanglard. Both have good stock, good service and are easily accessible on foot or by car.
Buying Mountaineering Equipment in Chamonix
There are many, many gear shops in Chamonix! Most major brands are opening thier own boutique shops including Arcteryx, North Face, Salomon and more.
You can’t go woring with just having a wander around gear browsing. The main shop in the centre is Snells and we also like Ravenel. Go nuts.
