Chamonix
There are many great hikes and adventures from Chamonix. Download an app called All Trails for a great list and info on each. I also find this website very useful. You can search the routes by the level of effort required, ranging from “very easy” to “difficult”. It shows the gradient statistics of the trails too.
Seeing & Doing
- Studio Rusc is an art atelier and ceramic workshop
- Spend one crazy night in one of these
- Maison des Artistes and Quartz Bar for live jazz and wine apres ski.
- Bar Barracuda is a fun little place (bit like a pirate place with lots of rum choices)
- A bit out of town but MBC Chamonix Microbrewery is a good place to start your night
Restaurants & Buvettes to hike to:
- La Buvette du Chapeaux (nice walk to it from Chamonix)
- Chalet de la Floria
- Buvette des Motets
- Cremerie du Glacier
- La Cabane des Praz and Cap Horn for a chic dinner
- Le Monchu for a great fondu
- Refuge Montenvers for an adventurous lunch with a view of the glacier
- Plan Joran
- Use this site to find restaurants near you on the slopes
- Hibou Deli or Cool Kats for great snack lunches.
- La Spiga D’Oro, best Italian in town (fresh pasta, being so close to Italy)
Combleux
Restaurants & nearby:
- Le Signature
- Le Coin Savoyard
- Le Dandy
- Le Chalet des Grands Pres
- Auberge BonJournal – This atmospheric hut with several different rooms, roaring log fire and a terrace with stunning views sits on the ridge on the way to and back from La Giettaz. Lovely ambience and efficient and friendly staff. Good traditional dishes
Seeing & Doing
- There is a lovely bucolic hike, a boucle leaving from the baroque church of Combloux, and heading to the little chapel in the hamlet of Ormaret.
- Biotope water recreation area at Combloux – this favourite swimming spot situated at the heart of the village
- Do the boucle du patrimoine if you haven’t already
- Sur Les Traces des Graniteurs – on the trail of the old granite workers / 1h30 / this hike can also be done as a guided visit. Also visit Lorenzio’s granite production and learn about the métier des graniteurs, from the extraction of the granite, to the finished product
- Ferme Le Gaec Val Mont-Blanc – the Paget family farm, with cheese-making and tasting
Megeve & around
- Le Refuge du Calvaire – very accessible from the centre of town
- Le Chalet Sauvage
- Amore Hibou
- La Table du Trappeur – In the Chalet St Georges hotel in the centre of the village, La Table du Trappeur has a cosy ambience with wooden walls and ceilings. It serves good-value traditional French food
- Le Torrent – A lovely, good-value, rustic restaurant set in the main square and overlooking a stream (hence Le Torrent). Lots of hearty, traditional dishes on offer
- Flocons de Sel – With three Michelin stars, the Flocons de Sel obviously serves delicious food but the ambience is relaxed and not too formal. It is in the hotel of the same name.
- Chalet Le Forestier is the mountain outpost of the three-Michellin starred Flocons de Sel, this delightfully rustic hut serves food masterminded by the same chef Emmanuel Renault.
- Club de Jazz les Cinq Rue – great place for an after dinner cocktail, Les Cinq Rues is one of the oldest jazz clubs in France outside Paris, having opened just after the Second World War. Top musicians from all over the world play here in the cellar-like ambience.
- Chalet le Radaz is housed in a lovely old restored wooden building (floor, walls, ceiling, everything is wood) with a terrace. The budget option is to treat it as a snack bar and just have a sandwich or soup from a hatch and eat on the terrace. Or they do other table service dishes such as spaghetti bolognese and omelettes at reasonable prices.
- La Belle au Bois for canyoning
- Check out the little mini golf
Vercors
The Vercors is brilliant if you want something wilder, quieter, and more dramatic by road than the busier big-name Alpine resorts. The official tourism site is especially useful here for scenic drives, caves, villages, and heritage sites.
Seeing & Doing
Drive the Route de Combe Laval — one of the great cliff roads in France, cut into the rock between Saint-Jean-en-Royans and Col de la Machine.
Also do the Gorges de la Bourne road between Pont-en-Royans and Villard-de-Lans — another spectacular route, literally carved into the cliff.
Visit Pont-en-Royans, with its famous hanging houses over the river. It works very well as a photogenic stop en route through the area.
Go into the Grotte de Choranche, one of the region’s classic natural sights, especially good on a hot day or if the weather turns.
If you’re interested in the history of the Resistance, spend time around Vassieux-en-Vercors and the memorial sites / museum in the plateau area.
For hiking, look at the Hauts Plateaux du Vercors routes if you want the grand, open plateau feeling.
In winter, Herbouilly is a good pick for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing rather than alpine-resort energy.
Eating & Drinking
Auberge – Refuge de Roybon for a proper mountain stop with that refuge feel; in winter you reach it on foot, skis, or snowshoes.
Les Hauts Plateaux – a lovely terrace restaurant on the edge of the Hauts Plateaux reserve, perfect after a hike or round of golf in Corrençon-en-Vercors.
Auberge des Tracols – an idyllic spot with terrace dining and classic regional dishes like duck breast, ravioles, and homemade desserts.
La Bohème (Autrans-Méaudre) – countryside restaurant surrounded by farms with seasonal, organic-leaning cooking and a very relaxed rural atmosphere.