Self-guided Chamonix With Aiguille Du Midi Or Mer De Glace

Mountain views are out of this world and feels so surreal! Pleasant coach ride to and from Chamonix - easy to locate the stop for the pickup, it is directly in front of the shop where you collect your tickets for the day. We were provided a map for the day to help find our bearings once we were been dropped off. Would recommend the mountain train and once you step off, you are within the mountains and the view is breath taking. The village itself is cute and has plenty of shops, restaurants and bar - lots of choice to help you pass the day. We went picked up at 10.30 in Geneva, the coach trip is around 1.5 hours and you are picked up at 18.30, returning to Geneva between 19.30 to 19.45 but the time goes by quicker than you imagine!

My wife and I went on our own via cablecar up to top of Aiguille du Midi... It was an amazing few hours of looking down at all the mountains and watching off piste skiers as little specs below our vantage point... would not miss it...

Chamonix and Mont Blanc are beautiful, and I recommend seeing them. Unfortunately, we were never told that the gondola, the train, and much of the town was closed while we were visiting. We were dropped off at 11:30 a.m. and told the bus was leaving at 5:15 p.m., and then started wandering through a largely locked up town. The Office of Tourism in Chamonix was very helpful. We were able to walk 2 KM to Les Prez, and take its gondola up the ski slopes. We also ate at Josephine, which was phenomenal. Overall, it was beautiful, and many stores began to open in the afternoon. Just make sure to look at the time of year you go, and what will be open when you get there. Apparently, mid-November to mid-December is not the best time to visit.

Not worth the money. Bus driver not friendly and no option to book train. The trip is too long the cable car is too packed

Tour operator did not show up. Tried to ask for help and customer service was ineffective. Attempted to get money back and asked for refund and gave said no. Working with credit card company now. Just horrible waste of money and didn’t get anything that was promised. Had to buy another ticket to go up the gondola. Stay away from this tour and company. I wish I could give zero stars.

Loved it so much. Highly recommend. It is a must especially if you want to spend a day in a beautiful village and seethe Alpsj

The tour operator was uncoperative and viator response time is not good enough for emergencies. Sad!

The views and scenery from Chamonix & Aiguille du Midi is absolutely stunning and picturesque. Temp at Aiguille du Midi was around 3⁰C in July 2022 and needed a light jacket. Beautiful views and plenty of phot ops. However, the cable car ride (two for ascent and descent each) needs a lot to be desired. Absolutely uncomfortable for 40+ pax to be stuffed into one cable car. No regard to C19 precautions; more than half of pax unmasked ! Poor show. Toilets available at the top as well - a word of caution for men (pls sit and empty gently or else U may feel dizzy at that level of hypoxia; I'm a medical doctor!). The walk to Montenvers station for cog wheel train to Mer de Glace is atleast 15-20min (not 5min as per the info leaflet) with poor signage. We had to rely on Google maps. Also the visit to ice-caves at Mer de Glace needs walk down and up (550 steps each way) which is quite arduous for somebody out of shape. There is no info on the need to walk these steps either at Montenvers station nor in the info leaflet ! Most of our fellow pax were taken by surprise about this. We took under 20min to climb the 550 steps up. The ice views inside Mer de Glace pale in comparison to Jungfraujoch and are probably not worth the physical effort. If U haven't been to Jungfraujoch, then pls do it by all means. Lastly, be wary of the time factor. We had to scurry back in order to not miss the last train (5.30pm) only to find huge serpentine queues there. Overall, 4/5 rating. Mer de Glace was OK/average. Views from Aiguille du Midi well worth the money. Good Luck.

The views of Alps were gorgeous. The tour guide (Niel) was MIA - when we asked for his phone number (just in case) - “can’t do that as my phone is not working here” 🤬 Really? Everyone from the bus had a decent service there. We would have a better piece of mind regarding transportation if would we choose it ourselves.

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate for the cable car to Mont Blanc so we were taken to Brevent to ride the cable cars to view the glacier from there. The problem was that the local guide barely explained the situation and then gave vague instructions for getting up the mountain to another cable car, how to get to the train and a different meeting place to leave. We never saw her again all day. If you knew the area the places she pointed to on the map would be clear but we actually got lost. This is an independent tour, which is fine, but clearer information is needed up front about where to meet, going to the tour office (not the bus station), and better explanation of itinerary changes. That being said, the views were spectacular!

Although the trip says that my return for the bus ride back to Geneva is at 6:15, what it does not say is that if you take the 6:15 bus, you have to come back to a different bus stop (not the one you started from at Chamonix) all by yourself and fend for yourself during the entire ride back, since Neil would be gone at 5. Hence, in essence, if you don't want to get lost, you might as well come back by the 5:05 bus, which leaves very little time to explore the otherwise picturesque town of Chamonix. The guide, Neil, was never inclusive. He wasn't available during the forward journey and during the return journey, just catered to 2 people who were in the front row. He never made an effort to connect to people outside the region, and wasn't helpful for someone like me visiting the region for the first time to figure out the place. If anything, the locals at Chamonix were more helpful than Neil. Although they mention that they will make you travel in "a group of just 15 people for less waiting and more interaction", what actually happens is that you are crammed into the front of a public bus, with the rest of the bus filled with other people, and if you can't grab the front 2 seats, you'll not be able to hear anything that Neil says amidst the cackle of other people behind you in the bus. All told, I don't realize what they took all the money for. If you buy the tickets individually, it will be much cheaper, and the value added by KeyTours is zero anyway.

Although the trip says that my return for the bus ride back to Geneva is at 6:15, what it does not say is that if you take the 6:15 bus, you have to come back to a different bus stop (not the one you started from at Chamonix) all by yourself and fend for yourself during the entire ride back, since Neil would be gone at 5. Hence, in essence, if you don't want to get lost, you might as well come back by the 5:05 bus, which leaves very little time to explore the otherwise picturesque town of Chamonix. The guide, Neil, was never inclusive. He wasn't available during the forward journey and during the return journey, just catered to 2 people who were in the front row. He never made an effort to connect to people outside the region, and wasn't helpful for someone like me visiting the region for the first time to figure out the place. If anything, the locals at Chamonix were more helpful than Neil. Although they mention that they will make you travel in "a group of just 15 people for less waiting and more interaction", what actually happens is that you are crammed into the front of a public bus, with the rest of the bus filled with other people, and if you can't grab the front 2 seats, you'll not be able to hear anything that Neil says amidst the cackle of other people behind you in the bus. All told, I don't realize what they took all the money for. If you buy the tickets individually, it will be much cheaper, and the value added by KeyTours is zero anyway.

Great experience and amazing view. The service was excellent with friendly staff at each level. Our guide from Swiss Tour gave an excellent briefing before taking the cable car.

Wonderful trip and stunning views. My only complaint would be that it would have been helpful to know that you don’t need much time to see what you need to see. We very well could have taken the same train back down that we came up on instead of waiting a full hour for the next. We were starving and the little cafe is just that...small and serves snack. Given you arrive around lunch time, especially with young children, it would have been ideal to get back on our train to go back into Chamonix for a proper lunch. Just a heads up for others in similar situations: get out take your pics and hop back on the train!

I booked my trip weeks in advance but unfortunately the weather was foggy and rainy. I was able to do the red cogwheel train and it was a lovely experience despite the fog. The town of Chamonix is beautiful and the people extremely friendly. There was a slight break in the weather around 3:45pm but the ticket office decided to close when closing time is actually 4pm. Really!! I feel that tourist like myself should have been accommodated because we travelled from Geneva and in my case from The Bahamas to ascend Mont Blanc. My group was told to come back the next day. Impossible, when we came via bus and had to leave 6:30pm the latest. Nevertheless, I made the best of the day.

This was a great trip and Neil was a really helpful guide. The bus drivers were also very friendly too. I loved the cable car experience and have never seen a view like it.

Beautiful view along the way from Geneva. Very charming village surrounded by gorgeous mountains. Can do it by yourself as well.

Must visit!!!! Its amazing, so beautiful. Pictures dont tell the real story, you have to see it to believe it. We are enjoyed the experience and will be visiting again soon 😬👌

We enjoyed the scenery and the beautiful village. The cable ride was exciting. Being in a long queue to get a cable ride ticket was not fun at all

We did the half day tour from Geneva. Going up in the cable car can be a little scary for someone like me who is afraid of heights but once you get to the top it is AMAZING. We only had enough time to go up in the cable. car and take a few pictures then back down. Not a lot of time to explore the town or go to the glass box viewing are.The half day tour took us to the airport to drop off some people which I wasn’t aware of.

Paid for this tour in advance. Turned out to be a bad weather day for Mont Blanc. Windy, light snow and poor visibility. Decided to pay an extra 20 Swiss Francs for the mountain train after arriving at the tour office. Unlike the cable car up to the summit, the train was cancelled because of the weather. No refund.

We took this trip to explore the wonderful place, but unfortunately the weather was bad and they cancelled the cable ride and refund us the money. The cog wheel train ride was good, but could not see much on the top due to bad weather.

There’s not a lot of information given before the trip, like make sure you have warm clothes for the top of Mont Blanc, comfortable shoes because there’s a million stairs to get down to the glacier and back up. The little train ride is spectacular! Will be your best day ever!

The village is wonderful and a mountains are breathtaking. The cable cars were fun, too. The half day (10:30am-18:00pm!) trip was perfect, I am happy we participated in this tour.

This trip is worth it for the spectacular views which are amazing. The cable car journey was surprisingly smooth. Chamonix is pleasant also but didn't spend much time there.

This trip started at the Geneva bus station 10.30. A little more than 90 minuters later we arrived in Chamonix. There were no information during The bus ride. We got off close to the cable car and was shown in The right direction by a man called Neil. Since we had changed our voucher to cable car tickets at the Key tour office before we entered the bus we could go directly to the cable car entrance. This was pretty nice because a lot of people were standing in line to buy tickets. The ride up was surprisingly smoth but of course This is nothing to recommend for people that does not like heights. When we reached the end and got out and looked down we could hardly understand that we were not dreaming. The views were simply spectacular. Unbelivable. Bear in mind that this was a realy nice day with more or less only blue skies and no clouds. There were both a cafeteria and a restaurant at the top. We had a very good sandwich at The cafeteria. Of course it was expensive but still worth every euro. 17.10 The bus leaved Chamonix so we had time to also ser Chamonix briefly. At the bus back we got some tips what to do in Geneva.

<p>The trip up to Aiguille du Midi was not quite as we expected. You're crammed into the cable cars like sardines the same, if not worse, as being on the London underground. Not comfortable. You can't relax and enjoy the views. And if you're not keen on confined spaces you won't like it - you simply have no space to move. But the views at the top are - of course - fantastic. Having read the previous reviews we were looking forward to meeting the local host Neil. That was a bit disappointing too. He was both patronising, impatient and quite rude. I'd be amazed if any of the overseas visitors could follow anything he was saying - he didn't seem to take their needs into consideration. We're just glad we didn't book the guided tour as more than 10 minutes of being spoken to like that would have tipped me over the edge. One tip: the last train ride back is at 4.30, so make sure you leave time for that. I'd recommend leaving about 2 hours for the cable car trip.</p>

Be careful!!! Our main interest was the Cable Car as friends recommend us to do it. They sold us a package to Chamoneix with Cable Car and the Glaciar Train the day before the excursion. Our surprise was that the Cable Car was under maintenance since a few weeks, so they already knew it, and still sold this trip on the website. When we told them we won't like to go, they doesn't allow us to cancel the trip.

Nice ride on the gondola , great views, everything well organized. What is not good is the mass handling with 65 people in a gondola! You get squeezed nicely , and it's just too expensive for that. But the worst thing was the driver on the way back who panicked everyone by shouting loudly . Many assumed the gondola would crash. Absolutely inappropriate. The kids were crying. The driver should reconsider his job whether he should rather work in an amusement park (or better retire) Was a cheek and never again!

Compre un tour que se supone que es ida y vuelta y el conductor me iba a dejar tirado en chanomix y me toco pagarle en efectivo

Lousy, I paid for the tour back and forth and when I returned the driver would not let me get on because according to him the ticket was not valid and I had to pay him cash so he would not leave me lying in chamonix Pay almost $100 and the return bus is worth $60 if you buy it directly with the agency not by this means

I went to Chamonix with the intention of getting on the cable car and seeing the ice cave. It was raining and all that was closed however the place is beautiful, you can walk quietly, eat rich, shop downtown and tour the village for free in the free shutle. It is a tourist place so many people arrive and the best thing is that if you do not speak French, there is no problem because almost all people speak English or Spanish too. I only paid for the swisstour bus that picks you up at the airport and the rest I did on my own. Aguille du midi's 4D cinema on Mont Blanc is worth it.

We wanted to go to the top of the Alps and where else can you look at it as on the highest mountain in Europe. What a view we could enjoy over the highest mountains of the Alps. Beautiful sunny weather. Still wind. And if there hadn't been mountains in front of it, we might even have seen Paris. Beautiful beyond belief.

Very successful bus trip to Chamonix & Mont Blanc. Very well organized, on time, good guide and more than beautiful nature. Definitely value for money.