We Just Booked Europe’s Most Popular Hike — 11 Months in Advance
Plus our epic adventure across western Georgia is now live
As we shared in last month’s newsletter, our trip to Georgia didn’t go exactly as planned. With thunderstorms blowing in, we decided to forgo our planned hike through the mountains. Fortunately, showers and bolts of lightning couldn’t stop us from enjoying the highlights of western Georgia.
One of our favourite experiences was exploring the villages of the remote Svaneti region, which are famous for their medieval towers. These striking towers were both homes and fortresses for the families in the villages, and most of them — having been built a thousand years ago or so — are not exactly safe for visitors. Still, we were able to catch the views from one of the tallest towers in Mestia and check out the basement where people and their farm animals once lived side by side.
We’re also still talking about our overnight stay at Baia’s Wine where we enjoyed true Georgian hospitality with a huge spread of traditional dishes, more wine than we could drink in a month, and a simple room in the family home. This winery was once a small family operation that Baia, the 19-year-old daughter, turned into an internationally-recognized label (winning many awards as a young entrepreneur along the way). This is exactly the type of hidden gem that we love to find on our travels: a warm welcome, great food, and a memorable backstory.
If you’re ready for a somewhat wild ride through Georgia’s western mountains, the video capturing our whole journey is now live and ready for viewing.
Our Second Chance at the Tour du Mont Blanc
The Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) is one of Europe’s most beautiful, challenging, and popular hikes. It’s a 170-km, multi-day hike that circles Mont Blanc, passing through France, Italy and Switzerland. It also happens to be one of the most difficult hikes in the world to book.
This is our second go at the TMB. The first time round, we were able to squeeze just a week of vacation from our jobs. We flew in and out of Geneva, and I remember it being so expensive that Gillian and I could only afford to share a single bowl of pasta and a single glass of wine for dinner. With limited time available, we did barely half the hike, celebrated with pizza in the Italian town of Courmayeur, and returned to our start point in Chamonix via a cable car across the Mont Blanc glacier. I vowed to come back one day and give the TMB the full 11 days of hiking that it deserves.
However, in the intervening 15 years or so, the TMB has soared in popularity, along with the other iconic hikes in Europe. We attempted to book it last year and even purchased our flights. However, we quickly discovered that 8 months in advance was already far too late to book any lodgings along the trail. Even a bunk in a 20-person dorm room in the most basic mountain refuges were long booked up.
This year, we weren’t taking any chances. A full 11 months in advance — the point at which most lodges and hotels open their books for the next season — we sat down with Google Maps, booking platforms, “best of TMB” blogs, and locked down our itinerary. We were not alone. Apparently, the official Mon Tour de Mont Blanc booking platform was so flooded with traffic on opening day that it promptly crashed — but not before we managed to snag the bookings we needed, including much sought-after private rooms in high-demand refuges.
The question you might be asking yourself is whether the TMB is really worth all this trouble. Beyond the stress of committing ourselves so far in advance, we’ll be facing wildly expensive mountain refuges with cramped dorms, line ups for showers, basic meals, and the occasional bed bug infestation.
We’re hoping that the physical challenge and the views will more than make up for the limited comforts. Almost every step of the way will be a panorama of alpine beauty; all the snow-capped peaks and glaciers that you’d hope for in an epic hike. As for whether it’s worth it, just check back in with us a year from now.
See you on the road,
Stephanie & Gillian
11 days? It will be a breeze! We did it in 9, with some challeging variants such as Fenêtre d'Arpette (which I do not recommend to Gillian, I cried up there). And we booked less than 6 months in advance. How? We stayed only in a couple of mountain huts, the rest was hotels and even airbnbs. That did involve a few short transfers (usually bus, sometimes cable car and we hitchhiked a couple of times) but we were very comfortable. For example we did 4 nights in Les Houches close to Chamonix and we took a bus most days to get to where we left off the day before, and sometimes a cable car. It worked great. And we had excellent weather (in August), but be prepared for everything because we had icy rain with close to zero tempretures on the last day and my husband almost went into hypothermia. But generally it's a beautiful tour! My favourite bit was from Courmayeur to Refugio Elena on the Italian side. Such incredible views!
We are 10 days out from moving our base from the US to Spsin where we will start our world travel. Thank you for your inspiration.