Les Houches & Chamonix to Courmayeur, Italian Alps

From Les Houches to Courmayeur

From Les Houches you take the free city bus to the Chamonix Sud station ( which is also where you will connect to go to most areas around), then a bus that crosses you over through the Mont Blanc Tunnel to Courmayeur. There are many companies, but we took the earliest departure, which was 8:30am.

We took the 8:02am bus from St Antoine-Les Houches, and arrived tat Chamonix Sud before 8:20am. The bus was arriving. We got in line and got situated fairly quickly, however, the boarding process took a very long time. We left past 9am. To add to this, that day there were strikes AND there is lots of traffic in the tunnel. We arrived at Courmayeur a little after 11am. I believe we had a particularly bad day, but when we returned we still did not make it to the resort anywhere in the 20 minutes everyone claims it takes.

If you purchase your ticket through SAVDA it’s only 22 Euro per roundtrip (if you return the same day) as opposed to the 15 Euro each way for TAM. Flexibus also has a cheaper fare, but we had a really bad experience riding with them. Beware when you arrive at the Chamonix Sud station though, as sometimes the TAM bus will operate the SAVDA route and nobody will notify you. We almost lost our bus waiting for a bus that read SAVDA.

The bus will stop once before you’re meant to get off. Don’t get off on the first stop, but remember it as it is where you must go to get the returning bus.  If you get off in the first stop, you will have to walk around town for about 10 minutes ( in my case with all your gear), while the second gets you straight to the lift.

Once you arrive, walk upstairs and you’re at the entrance. You can purchase a day ticket for 35 Euro plus a refundable 5 Euro for the day card. You must return it to the resort before leaving. * If you stay partying and don’t go down until past closing, you can still give it to another resort employee in the bars or restaurants to get your refund. 

The walk from the resort to the bus station is short and downhill. Right next to the stop there is a cafe serving great sandwiches. The journey back is generally shorter, unless your bus gets stopped by immigration crossing the border and they decide to scan every passport.

TIP: I suggest you bring a picture of your passport on your phone, that way you don’t have to carry your actual passport with you. They’re generally not super picky. We had our IDs and pictures of our passports on our phones and were fine.

The last bus back with SAVDA is at 5:30pm.

Italian resorts are awesome. Aside from great runs and very friendly staff, they have amazing apres ski parties. They even play music on the lifts! To top it all off, we went on their opening day, and there were fireworks! It was amazing!

What’s your favorite resort?