Chamonix-Mont-Blanc Travel Forum

What is the best way to travel from Venice to Chamonix? Can it be done in one day? What is the best way to purchase tickets for train/bus travel?

You can fly from Venice to Geneva and in Geneva take a bus to Chamonix.

You can take the train from Venice to Chambery (or Aix-les-Bains). From either Chambéry or Aix to Chamonix, the train might be a bit difficult (changes) and the bus easier. You should Google about it.

You can find train times and details in English here:

http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/homepage_en.html

It is a long journey, and you may want to break it with an overnight stay somewhere (you will have to buy separate tickets for each segment if you do that).

Unfortunately you cannot buy online tickets for this particualr route via the Italian railway website linked above. If you wish to buy online in advance you may need to use an agency such as www.raileurope.com The price you pay for tickets by doing this will include a commission fee.

If you wish to fly then look at www.whichbudget.com which lists all European budget carriers and their routes. Booked well in advance (minimum 6-8 weeks before travel) budget tickets can be cheap, but be aware of strict baggage limits (20kg for most, 15kg for Ryanair) and strict check-in times. A couple of minutes late and you will miss your flight with no refund.

www.eurolines.com is the portal for European long-distance bus carriers. Its Italian page is

http://www.eurolines.it/

If you click France on the map on the http://www.eurolines.it/ page you will find routes and times. You will not be able to get to Chamonix itself, but may be able to get to a nearby town/city from which you can take a train (or bus). You can book tickets online through this site.

French train times and fares are best explored in French here:

http://www.voyages-sncf.com/billet-train/horaires

By train it is a long trip, it is however a quite interesting one, with a lot of good scenery and an ineresting mountain railway at the end. Basically the route is Venice - Milano - Simplon tunnel - Brig - Martigny - Chamonix.

See www.sbb.ch for schedules.

As to buying tickets you have several options. The best are:
- Buy your ticket at the station in Venice. They should at least be able to buy you a ticket as far as Brig, Martigny or Sion in Switzerland. To get the remainder you can either ask the first Swiss conductor that appears after you've entered Switzerland if you can buy this ticket from him (or her) or buy it during a layover (either in Brig, Sion or Marigny). For example, if you were to take the 8:32 Cisalpino service in Venice you would have a layover of about half an hour in Brig. Enough to buy your Martigny - Chamonix ticket there.

- Buy from the Swiss railways. See www.sbb.ch. You can just look up the timetable on their site, and then press the "buy" button. The site won't be able to give you a price immediately, but you can click a checkbox to ask for a quote first.

As for the train, the Venice - Milano - Simplon tunnel - Brig - Martigny - Chamonix route is possible but I feel the Venice – Milano – Chambéry would be faster with only one change in Milano (same station)

For example :
Venezia, 12 :50 – Milano centrale, 15 :25
Milano centrale, 16 :10 – Chambéry 20 :22
Price from 64 to 95.50 euros

Night in Chambéry, a nice city worth a visit.
As I said, train to Chamonix is not easy (2 changes !) though it is only 90 km as the crow flies !
For example :
Chambery, 05h35 - La Roche Sur Foron, 08h04
La Roche Sur Foron , 08h40 - St Gervais Les Bains Le Fayet, 09h25
St Gervais Les Bains Le Fayet, 09h32 - Chamonix Mont Blanc, 10 :11
I know there are busses but I cannot find them. It will be easier to enquire in Chambéry station (both train and bus : gare SNCF and Gare routière)


>> You will not be able to get to Chamonix itself, but may be able to get to a nearby town/city from which you can take a train (or bus)
Yes, it is possible. From Genève Cointrin airport, there are 3 shuttles per day and the travel is 2 hours. This would obviously be the best choice.

Actually from Geneva to Chamonix the best option would be to take the train, as there is a train every hour. However, if you add in everything you'll hardly be faster than going Venezia - Chamonix by train, so why not do it, and enjoy it. Nobody expects travel to be instantaneous.

As to going to Chambery first; I don't think that's a viable option. There is really only one practical departure a day that will bring you from Venezia to Chambery via the shortest route. There just aren't that many trains between Milano and Chambery. All other possible routings go via Switzerland and Geneva, so why not just go to Chamonix directly.
So just leave on the morning Cisalpino to Switzerland, and enjoy the trip would be my advise.

Another route is by going to Milan by train (average time 2 hrs and 20 minutes) and from there by bus to Chamonix, via Aosta and Mont-Blanc tunnell (average time 4 hrs and 20 minutes).
For the buses, see this webpage: http://www.regione.vda.it/trasporti/orariolinea_i.asp?codlinea=28

OMG !! Do not go to Geneva, or definitely not via Chambery as that adds time and distance for no reason at all and flying is so expensive now (and also a time waster with all the security checks, plus transfer cost from the airport to Chamonix is not cheap either and must be counted in the equation). It will be I think at least 3 times more expensive by air and take at least as long than trains.

The two BEST options (from someone who lives in Chamonix and has done this exact trip more than once and has always taken just 1 day to do it) are by train or by train and bus.

You can go in 8 hours from Venice to Chamonix via Martigny Switzerland. At http://www.sbb.ch put in 'from Venice' 'to Chamonix' via 'Martigny' and you will see a list of train schedules appear.

You can also decide to go via Courmayeur Italy but this involves a bus. You might want to do this if you want to see Courmayeur for example which is a very nice town with great food and beautiful views of the other side of Mt Blanc.

You go from Venice to Milan, then Milan to Chiavasso. At Chiavasso you change for a train which goes to Aosta. At Aosta you take the bus to Courmayeur (less than 1 hour) and from Courmayeur take a bus to Chamonix. You already have the links for the Italian trains from someone else (the fare is around 54 euros this year for this train journey in first class). The Bus line is called SAVDA. The Aosta to Chamonix line runs very often and is here: http://www.savda.it/Orari/ao_chamonix.htm and there are even further buses going only to Courmayeur http://www.savda.it/Orari/ao_courmayeur.htm

If you want to spend one night in this part of Italy, Courmayeur is beautiful and you could have breakfast and lunch in Italy and go to Chamonix on the bus in the afternoon ...

Jennifer, it is great that you came on line as you are the most qualified person to answer questions involving Chamonix!

Jennifer, did you know that the SAVDA buses, which you recommend from Aosta to Chamonix, have also a line coming all the way from Milan? They leave from Lampugnano station.

I flew from Venice To geneva and then can take a bus (alphybus.com) from geneva to Chamonix. Fly baboo... cheap, nice flight and only about 1 hr flight. See these sites for info on venice and chamonix region:

http://vanillabeancafe.blogspot.com/

http://uber-fit.blogspot.com/

Yes, I knew that the bus can be taken from Milan ... but I personally find train travel more comfortable - anything longer than an hour on a bus is not that great IMHO but on a train you can walk around, go to a food car etc. and normally it's faster. But if someone wants to take it all the way from there and prefers buses to trains, go ahead.

I agree, although my tolerance for buses is a bit higher (two hours in my case). I just wanted to point out all the possible options.