Your Guide To Chamonix – Stay, Nightlife, And Much More

LuxuryDecember 19, 2022

Chamonix is one of France’s oldest ski areas, located in southeastern France’s Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region’s Haute-Savoie department. Snuggled between the famous Aiguille du Midi and the Aiguilles Rouges, mountain enthusiasts and skiers are most likely to be drawn to the Chamonix commune.

Did you know the 1924 Winter Olympics – the first-ever Winter Olympics – were held here?

As of now, it hosts a population of about 10,000.

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If you’re looking for a nice getaway, here’s everything you need to know about Chamonix!

Stay

Pointe Isabelle (double rooms from $95 only) is a 72-room hotel, bar, and bistro in the heart of town. It is located on a corner and is ideal for apéro and people-watching.

Nightlife

Because Chamonix is a fast-paced mountain town with a lot of tourists, the nightlife is lively. However, if you have children, a good way to spend an evening is to take the cable car to Plan de l’Aiguille and watch the sunset from the Refuge du Plan de l’Aiguille, which is a 15-minute stroll from the chairlift. You can eat and sleep there as well, but in the summer, it’s nice to bring a bite to eat and camp there.

It’s bound to become your favorite refuge in the entire Mont Blanc range, and the mountains get pretty steep from there, so if you stay the night, you know you’ll be up and doing something fun the next morning.

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Food

Rue de Moulins’ Cool Cats is the place to go for an early dinner with friends and family – and it’s especially nice in the summer when you can sit outside. However, because it serves artisan hot dogs with extras such as jalapenos and cheese, as well as fast food such as nachos, it could also be useful when coming down the mountain in the winter. It’s on the same street as LeCapHorn, which is a great alternative, especially for sashimi, but a little more expensive.

Greenery

The entire Mont Blanc range is my garden, and there are spectacular views everywhere – among the finest is from Montroc, which is further up the valley. At Montenvers, you can see what’s left of France’s largest glacier, the Mer de Glace, which is rapidly melting. It’s sad to see the mountains so dry, grey, and smoky as a result of the rocks falling. But it’s even worse for children and future generations.

And guide-work is likely to become more difficult as they adjust to working more in the spring, which can be challenging because the landscape is quite unstable at that time.

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Neighborhood

Chamonix is remarkably multinational: the mountains bring people from around the world together. Chamonix, Les Houches, and Argentière are the three main towns in this section of the Arve valley. The hamlet of Les Bois lies between Chamonix and Argentière, and you can spot the 4,122-meter Aiguille Verte from there.

Another nearby hamlet is Les Praz, which hosts Le Petit Social, a nice bar for après ski or coffee.

La Buvette du Chapeau is a mountain cafe with traditional food (charcuterie, chanterelle omelet, cheese) and sweet treats such as faisselle (a local Fromage blanc) with blueberry jam, fruit tarts and is located on the other side of the river.