Resort information for Chamonix

Chamonix differs hugely from the typical high-altitude, purpose-built French resort, and is a long-established tourist town that spreads for miles along the valley in the shadow of Mont Blanc. The Chamonix valley cuts deeply through Europe’s highest mountains and glaciers. The views are stunning and the runs are everything really tough runs should be – not only steep, but high and long.

Once you get over the fact that the place is hopelessly disconnected and that some of the lifts are antiquated, you come to appreciate that Chamonix has a good variety of slopes, and that each of the different areas – there are 11 in total – is worth exploring. Practically all the slopes are above the tree line, and the snow reliability is good high up, but poor lower down. Chamonix is renowned as an extreme sports Mecca, with arguably some of the best off-piste skiing in the world. The main lifts from the valley at Chamonix and Argentiere produce queues at peak times.

The mountain restaurants here are surprisingly dull. Chamonix is a bustling town with scores of hotels and restaurants, visitors all year round and a lively Saturday market. The car-free centre of town is full of atmosphere, with cobbled streets and squares, beautiful old buildings, a fast-running river, pavement cafes crowded with shoppers and tourists sipping drinks and staring at the glaciers above. Chamonix’s shops deal in everything from high-tech equipment to tacky souvenirs, and it remains a town for mountain people rather than for poseurs. The top hotels all have excellent restaurants and there are many other good places. Many of the bars around the pedestrianised centre of Chamonix get crowded at sundown and there’s a lively variety of nightclubs and discos.