Courmayeur

Courmayeur is a classic Italian winter resort located at an altitude of 1,225 meters, at the foot of the highest mountain in Europe, Mont Blanc. The place is very picturesque, 14 peaks above 4,000 meters are visible from the town. There's a ski capital of the world - French Chamonix - on the other side of the mountains, where even in summer it's hard to find a parking place. And there are not many tourists in summer in Courmayeur, the streets were almost empty.

There's an alpine botanical garden in the town and also many flowers on the streets.


Unusual tile on the roofs


We liked the machine in the center of Courmayeur. Here you can see the price and availability at any hotel in the area, as well as call and book a room.


We lived here in this hotel. A cozy, classic hotel that's not in the downtown, but we had a car, so it was ok for us. In the hotel we had a small terrace where we left some clothes to dry overnight. In the morning we found that some small animal scattered them and shit in the middle :)




To understand why we came to Courmayeur, you need to look at the next picture. Italy to the left, France to the right. There's a cableway Funivie Monte Bianco (information) from the Italian side to mount Hellbrunner (3,466 m). Then another cable car Panoramic Mont-Blanc (see the status here) goes from the top to mount Aiguille du Midi (3,842 m). But, as it turned out, Panoramic Mont-Blanc doesn't work in summer, so we had to drive through the tunnel to Chamonix and go from there by cable car to Aiguille du Midi.


More photos of Courmayeur












Current state of lifts in Courmayeur (at the same website, look for info for skiers - prices, weather, webcams etc.)

Getting there: There's a great highway from Turin. Note that the motorways in Italy are paid, and this one is the most expensive by costs per kilometer. The nearest Italian airport is in Turin (150 km). The distance from the Geneva airport is 100 km. The nearest railway station is Pre Saint Didier, then go 10 minutes by bus to Courmayeur (schedule). There are also buses from the city of Aosta (schedule), the region's capital. The schedule of all buses in the region is here. There are direct buses from Milan (schedule) and Turin (schedule). From the Turin airport there's a direct bus of the Sadem company.