Chamonix

Chamonix is a bustling, vibrant and cosmopolitan town that straddles the River Arve in a valley dominated by Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest peak at 14,400’ on one side and the Aiguilles Rouges massif (7,500’) on the other. The looming mountains dominate and determine the whole life of the town, filled with restaurants, hotels, skiing and outdoor sport shops and charming villas.

Chamonix is a year round resort. A serious ski capital in the winter with some of the most challenging slopes on offer, it is also a delightful alpine resort in the summer for discovering Alpine panoramas that are often near mind blowingly beautiful.

The most exhilarating excursions are to be had using the various ski lifts and mountain railways that criss cross the mountains. The most famous is to take a cable car up to the exposed 10,000’ high granite pinnacle known as the Aiguille du Midi, one of the longest - and scariest - cable car ascents in the world, which, in a dramatic feat of engineering, climbs in extremely steep stages to the top. Definitely not for the faint hearted, but wondrous views across the mountain peaks are afforded in a 360° panorama. And once up there, try the ‘Step into the Void’ experience, an all glass box suspended 3,000’ above empty space into which you step…..

More genteel but offering equally beautiful vistas is the Montenvers rack railway, a train service built in 1897 that winds its way up to the Mer de Glace, at 7km long the largest glacier in the Alps lying 5,000’ up on the flank of Mont Blanc.