Getting Oriented

While all sports and activities that you can enjoy in the surroundings of Entréves are well introduced in our website section dedicated to sports and other activities (see “Courmayeur” page on our website) this section only wants to give you a summary of what you can do and see during your stay.

Summary

• Take a walk in Entrèves
• Get on the SkyWay
• Explore the Val Ferret
• Explore the Val Veny
• What Entrèves offers to Skiers
• Visit Courmayeur
• Try a pro indoor climbing-wall and enjoy ice skeating in Dolonne
• Ride a mountain bike in Val Ferret
• Enjoy rafting on the Dora Baltea
• Play golf in Val Ferret
• Relax at the thermal spas of Pré Saint Didier
• Enjoy our Finnish sauna, at the Hotel Aigle 
• Take a scenic flight on helicopter over the Mont Blanc
• Visit Chamonix
• Browse our library or play chess, cards, board games with your friends and family in our hotel lobby

take A walk in Entrèves

Let’s start with a walk in our village! A walk among the alleys and old houses of Entrèves is definitely a beutiful experience. The most ancient homes date back to the 13th C and walking on the old cobble stone paving and between sone-built houses make one feel like being back in time. Where the walls of old houses and barns and stables leave room for the view to open you will remain breathless at the sudden appearance of her majesty, the Mont Blanc, with its soaring peaks over the three-thousand meters high, and the Mont Blanc itself reaching the height of 4810 mts. Entreves offers a number of restaurants and inns where one can enjoy good food in a welcoming atmosphere often with a spectacular view. The plain of Entrèves is a wide meadow, generally covered in snow in the Winter, which the locals call the “Tor” of Entrèves. It is used for walk and picnics, like a public garden, and for walking with the dogs. One characteristic of the Tor of Entrèves is of allowing a beautiful and wide view over the central and Eastern part of the massif of the Mont Blanc, with the sight streaching towards North-East and embracing the Mont Chetif, the Aiguille Noire, the Dames Anglaises, the Mont Blanc and all the peaks among which Punta Helbronner, the Giant’s Tooth and the Grandes Jorasses. Read more about the Entrèves.

get on the SkyWay

The SkyWay is a modern cable car that reaches Punta Helbronner where a modern station is built at the altitude of 3462 mts,  offering a stunning gorgeus view on the Alps! The stations of Punta Helbronner and the intermediate station of The Pavillon (2173 mts) offer amenities and facilities such as a restaurant and bar, a cinema, a museum dedicated to the christals of the Mont Blanc, and access to the old Rifugio Torino, and is connected (in the Summer) with the “Aiguille du Midì” (France) by another cable car that crosses the Mont Blanc over the “Mere de Glace” glacier! At both The Pavillon and Punta Helbronner are often hosted events (check the dedicated website for a calendar of the events). Read more about the SkyWay.

Explore the Val Ferret

The Val Ferret is one of the two valleys that can be explored from Entrèves. In the Summer it provides a great site for trekking excursions with its Alpine pastures and paths (like the famouse “Balcony” trek – part of the Tour of the Mont Blanc itinerary), a nine-holes golf course and access to many refuges and huts turned into restaurants. In the Winter season the Val Ferret is a popular site for cross country skiing and snowshoeing. The Val Ferret get the sun, on sunny days, in any season, and from the bottom of the valley one can enjoy a beautiful view on the Grandes Jorasse, the North-Weast part of the Mont Blanc massif. This area is also popular among mountain climbers, being the starting point of many mountaineering routes to the peaks of the Grandes Jorasses and site of many alpine bivouacs among which the modern Gervasutti. Read more about the Val Ferret.

Explore the Val Veny

The other valley that runs at the feet of the massif of the Mont Blanc is the Val Veny, towards the border with France. The access of the Val Veny is by road in the Summer (open to cars and public buses) and only by foot, cross-country skiers and by motorsled in the Winter months, when the regular road is closed and a path can be taken from Entrèves (by the take-off platform of the helicopter). At the beginning, the path climbs with a few hairpin curves the mountain following and crossing the Dora di Ferret, the stream that originates from the glaciers over the valley, until it levels near the locality Purtud. From there the path follows the bottom of the narrow valley in plain, among larch trees and the beautiful views of the mountains until the valley becomes a narrow gorge where the morrain left by the Miage Glacier invades the valley. After the gorge the valley opens again under Mont Fortin and the path directs toward the higher part of the valley towards the Col de la Seigne and the border with France. Read more about the Val Veny.

what can Entrèves offer to skiers?

The ski area of Entrèves-Courmayeur is very extensive and includes the localities of Val Veny, Plan Checrouit, Col Checrouit, Arp, Youla (also starting point of off-piste skiing that ends in La Zerotta in Val Veny), Aretu, Pra Neyron, Pre de Pascal and Maison Vieille – a ski-area that offers all levels of ski-traks, from blue to red and black (levels), a snowpark, retaurants and huts. The ski area can be reached by three different cable cars:
VAL VENY : departing from Piazzale Funivie Val Veny (that can be reached by car or within ten minutes walking from our hotel) and arriving at Pre de Pascal;
DOLONNE : departing from Dolonne (Courmayeur) and arriving at Plan Checrouit (also location for boarding on three other cable cars directed at higher altitudes: Pra Neyron, Maison Vieille, Checrouit);
COURMAYEUR : departing from Courmayeur (Strada delle Volpi) also directed to Plan Checrouit.

NOTE: Only very expert skiers can ski from Punta Helbronner (reacheble by the SkyWay cable-car from) from where off-piste skiing can be practiced towards The Pavillon and onward to Entrèves. Caution! These itineraries are not indicated, nor controlled, nor partolled nor protected, and are exposed to risk of avalances, therefore great experience and knowledge of the mountain and snow conditions, and awareness of the connected risks, is necessary.

The nearby and very popular ski-area of La Thuile can also be considered in our neighborhood being only 30 minutes drive away from Entrèves. The ski-area of La Thuile is connected via the Col du Petit Saint Bernard to the French ski-area of La Rosiere. Read more about winter sports in Courmayeur.

Visit Courmayeur

CHALLENGE YOURSELF AT A ‘pro’ indoor climbing-wall, and and enjoy Ice-skeating in Dolonne

The great indoor climbing wall inside the Courmayeur Sport Center, in Dolonne, is a great option for sharping your skills, and learning the first steps for climbing. The artificial wall, among the most complete in Italy, offer climbing lines of every kind and level, from 4 to 8b, and is run by the Alpine Guides of Courmayeur who also offer climbing courses for beginners. This sport center also includes a ice-skeating field, tennis, gym, ping-pong, 5-players soccert field and a playroom.

Ride a mountain bike in Val Ferret

With the Aiguille des Glaciers, the Giant’s Tooth, the Grandes Jorasses, the massif of the Mont Blanc does not give itself easily. It’s not always visible. You have to look for the right angle, from Courmayeur and the valleys (Veny and Ferret) that act as a tray, to contemplate its summit. When it appears, quiet and gigantic, as if from Val Ferret, it seems to welcome the spirit of trekkers and mountain cyclists on mountain bikes, permeable and quiet.

VAL VENY

From the starting point in Courmayeur there is a single asphalt road, a narrow ribbon and immediately uphill, which climbs towards Val Vény along the Dora di Vény, a tributary of the Dora Baltea. In Portud, already at 1500 meters, you take the easy dirt road on the slopes of Mount Noir de Peutérey, in the woods, practically parallel to the asphalt ribbon. From the hamlet of La Visaille you could continue to Lake Combal artificially created by a dam. The difference in altitude is minimal to get to Freiney (1,589 m), the valley is narrow and covered with woods, the stream visible only in the first part. this ride is definitely for everyone.

Val Ferret

On the other hand, the mountain bike ride in the wide and scenic Val Ferret is more challenging, a fitting example of what is called an alpine landscape. In July and August, the road leading to the valley is closed at the hamlet of La Palud. You can continue by bike or shuttle. From Planpincieux. with the Mont Blanc massif clearly visible, left behind, and the Dora di Ferret river appearing and disappearing, in flood due to the melting of the ice and very clear in the springs, the landscape opens up and becomes rounded. The arboreal vegetation, larches, alders and birches, remains low, leaving space, towards the Col del Grand Ferret, for peaks of bare granite rock streaked with snow. A spectacle. The road is all unpaved, with hairpin bends and stretches of sand and gravel, it is the daring climb up to the Elena Refuge, at 2,062 meters, in the Graian Alps.

If you don’t have your own bike, you can rent an electric mountain bike at our hotel. At Hotel Aigle we also offer an indoor room to store your bikes safely. Read more about cycling and mountain bike in Courmayeur.

Enjoy rafting on the Dora Baltea

From May to September, the Dora Baltea is the most beautiful and water-rich river in Europe.

Its glacial nature and not pluvial like most Alpine rivers, means that with the heat of the spring and summer months, due to the melting of the snowfields and glaciers of Mont Blanc that are exposed to the south, it has an average flow rate of 60 cubic meters of water per second with peaks of 80/100 cubic meters in the months of June and July. In these periods you can navigate, for sure, all 17km with rapids from II° to IV° + degree, the experience we call Integrale Top and enthusiasts who know it, do not miss the appointment to experience the river in its moment of maximum splendor. For your rafting/canoeing experience on the Dora Baltea we recommend Rafting.it, they have more than 40 years of history and experience to put at your service!

Play golf in val ferret

The golf course, created in 1935 by Peter Gannon and Henry Cotton, offers breathtaking views of the Mont Blanc and Grandes Jorasses massifs. The nine-hole course with double starts (PAR 70; men 5,508 m – women 4,791 m) is purely flat and winds along the banks of the Dora river, crossing it with two spectacular PAR 3s. Here below a description of the nine holes:

HOLE 1 / PAR 4 : Rather delicate hole with the river on the left and the out of bounds on the right. A narrow, undulating fairway, crossed by a road in front of the avantgreen, welcomes the first shot. Small, long green with steep slopes;

HOLE 2 / PAR 3 : The hole crosses the river with very different starts between hole 2 and hole 11; Out of bounds along the entire perimeter. From the top, the 2, with woods on the left; From below, the 11th climb. Wide, sloping green, well protected by four bunkers. Crosswinds frequent;

HOLE 3 / PAR 3 : Not a very long but delicate downhill hole due to the almost constant presence of the wind, sometimes for and sometimes against. Out of bounds along the entire perimeter of the green defended by four bunkers;

HOLE 4 / PAR 5 : Flat hole with tee starting from above in the middle of the woods. Out of bounds and side water on the left, forest with water hazards on the right.sizzling hot free games The undulating and narrow fairway widens as it approaches the green, which is not very wide and poorly defended;

HOLE 5 / PAR 5 : Dog-leg to the left with dense woodland and side water hazards on either side. A ditch crosses the hole and affects the finish area of the second shot. Undulating avantgreen with small green defended by two bunkers;

HOLE 6 / PAR 4 : Tactically interesting with a top-down start that needs a precision tee-shot so as not to fall into the central lake at the hole. Second compo to a green surrounded by tall conifers;

HOLE 7 – PAR 4 : Flat hole with out of bounds on the right and water hazard on the left. Very undulating green and defended by bunkers and very tall tree;

HOLE 8 / PAR 3 : With the Dora river in front and frequent side wind, the first shot is treacherous to reach the short avantgreen or the wide and undulating green, poorly defended by the bunker;

HOLE 9 / PAR 4 : Spectacular hole with breathtaking views of the mountains with wide fairways that need a shot on the left of the rock that divides, together with a stream, the hole into two parts. The second shot from before the water must be played on the right of a wide green with only one bunker.

The Golf Club Courmayeur offers a unique experience for both professionals and novice players. We look forward to welcoming you! Read more about the Golf Club Courmayeur.

Relax at the thermal spas of Pré Saint Didier

The famous Terme of Pré-Saint-Didier are located a short distance from the beginning of the La Thuile valley, about 6 km from Courmayeur. The sources of mineral waters have been known since Roman times for their healing properties. Records of a first hut built to provide schelter and minimum comfort to the people bathing in these therapeutical waters dates back to the 15th Century. Today the spa is housed in the recently restored nineteenth-century building. Inside, spaces have been created with whirlpools, saunas, steam baths, mud baths. These include special treatments, such as invigorating waterfalls, relaxation pools, chromotherapy rooms and panoramic relaxation rooms. Outside there is a garden with outdoor thermal pools and saunas from where you can enjoy a wonderful panoramic view of the Mont Blanc massif. Read more about wellness and body-care in Courmayeur.

Enjoy our Finnish sauna, at the Hotel Aigle

Our brand new Finnish Sauna includes a private and panoramic relax-room which is heated by a large stove where you can relax sipping a herbal tea. It is also provided with a large private bathroom, a shower. The Sauna can host up to 4 people and is avalialble for you any time in the afternoon. Read more about our Sauna.

take a Scenic Helicopter Flight over the Mont Blanc

Helicopter tours of the Mont Blanc depart from Entrèves from Piazzale Funivie Val Veny. You can choose from three different flight-routes, from the Tour Freney (10 minutes), to the Gian’s Tooth Flight (15 minutes) to the Grand Tour! (20 minutes). For more information and prices check their website at Heli-Guides.

Visit Chamonix

The Hotel Aigle is located near the Italian entrance to the tunnel of Mont Blanc that connects Italy with France (Courmayeur with Chamonix). So, a visit in Courmayeur-Entrèves can be the opportunity to see Chamonix and other localities on the French side of the Mont Blanc massif. Only 12 kms drive through the tunnel will lead you to the valley of Chamonix. Here below a summary of what to see in Chamonix and surroundings.

The name Chamonix is a derivation of Chamouni, a Roman name meaning ‘campus munitus’ (‘fortified field’ or ‘as sheltered by the mountain’).

Today Chamonix is a picturesque town nestled in the French Alps, offering not just stunning natural beauty but also a charming ambiance with various attractions to explore. Here are some highlights of what to see in the town of Chamonix:

1. Church of St. Michel: A beautiful church in the heart of Chamonix, known for its architecture and historical significance. It’s worth a visit to admire its design and perhaps attend a service if you’re interested.

2. Alpine Museum: Learn about the history, development, and culture of Chamonix and mountaineering in the Alps. The museum exhibits artifacts, equipment, and information about the region’s rich mountaineering heritage.

3. Crystal Museum: Explore the world of crystals, minerals, and geology in this fascinating museum. Discover the local crystals and minerals found in the Mont Blanc massif.

4. Town Center and Pedestrian Streets: Wander through the bustling streets of Chamonix filled with shops, cafes, restaurants, and boutiques. Place Balmat and Place du Mont Blanc are central squares where you can relax and enjoy the atmosphere.

5. Montenvers Railway: Take the historic Montenvers Railway to reach the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice). The train ride itself offers fantastic views, and once you arrive, you can explore the glacier and its ice caves.

6. Savoy Region Architecture: Chamonix features charming Savoyard architecture with wooden chalets and buildings that give the town its distinct character. Take a stroll through the streets to appreciate the traditional Alpine style.

7. Guided Tours: Consider joining guided walking tours of the town to get insights into its history, architecture, and local stories from knowledgeable guides.

8. Aiguille du Midi Cable Car Station: While not directly in the town, the Aiguille du Midi cable car station is a hub for adventure seekers and offers breathtaking panoramic views of Mont Blanc and the surrounding peaks.

9. Events and Festivals: Depending on the time of your visit, Chamonix hosts various events and festivals celebrating sports, culture, music, and more. Check local calendars for ongoing events during your stay.

10. Spas and Relaxation: Treat yourself to some relaxation at the town’s spas and wellness centers, offering various treatments and facilities to unwind after a day of exploration.

Enjoy your time in Chamonix, exploring both its natural wonders and the cultural richness of the town itself.

Browse our library or play chess, cards, board games with your friends and family in our hotel lobby

In our hotel lobby, with comfortable sofas surrounding a fireplace that is lit every afternoon, you can enjoy anything you wish from our cafeteria while playing chess, cards, board-games or browsing our photo-books dedicated to the Alps and mountaineering. A good selection of photo-books and narrative is at your disposal for your relaxation and for learning more about our region and its natural and cultural characteristics. A great selection of mystery books il also available for those lovers of this type of literature. Our hotel lobby is a great place to spend your evenings, enjoying a drink, or a tea, coffee, a cup of hot chocolate and our home-made cookies.