Tour du Mont Blanc 2027: Everything That Changes

The Tour du Mont Blanc has long been the big European trek you could start on a whim, pack on your back, improvising your nights as you went. That era is ending. On 16 September 2026, French stakeholders across the massif unanimously approved the main principles of a charter that will require a booking every night, as the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc Valley community of communes announced in a press release (in French). Signature is planned before the end of 2026, to be operational by spring 2027.

Here is what has been decided, what is still being drafted, and what it means for your trip.

What does the Mont Blanc charter actually decide?

The main principles of the charter were approved unanimously by the French stakeholders meeting on 16 September: municipalities, state services, refuge, gîte and campsite wardens, guides, mountain leaders and transport companies. Six measures follow.

• A cap on carrying capacity. The number of thru-hikers will be limited by the number of existing beds across refuges, hotels, campsites and bivouac areas.
• A confirmed booking for every night. You will need a booking for each evening.
• A ban on wild camping, replaced by managed areas with limited capacity, toilets and water points, and a fee per pitch.
• Regulated luggage transfer, limited to trekking packs and set hours.
• A stronger role for mountain leaders from local companies.
• A label for the operators and sites that commit to the charter.

One word matters here: this is a charter, not yet a published decree. The text is due to be finalised in mid-October and signed by local authorities and partners before the end of 2026; its legal form, penalties and the way checks will work are not yet known. Be sceptical of articles presenting every detail as settled.

Which part of the Tour du Mont Blanc is affected?

The charter is French and covers seven communes: Vallorcine, Chamonix, Les Houches, Saint-Gervais, Les Contamines-Montjoie, Beaufort and Bourg-Saint-Maurice. In other words the entire French crossing of the circuit, not just the Chamonix valley.

The work is led by the Pays du Mont-Blanc and Chamonix-Mont-Blanc Valley communities of communes.

The Italian and Swiss sections are not covered by this text. They already have their own rules. In the Aosta Valley, regional law no. 8 of 24 June 2002 bans any night in a tent, except mountaineering bivouacs above 2,500 m8,202 ft. In Switzerland there is no single rule: according to the Swiss Alpine Club, bans depend on protected areas and many communes add their own rules. On coordination, the mayors of Courmayeur, Chamonix, Orsières and Saint-Gervais met on 28 September 2026 and are due to meet again at the end of October, according to the Comune di Courmayeur press release, with no timetable announced. The full picture is in our article will Italy and Switzerland require bookings too?.

In practice, anyone walking the full 170 km106 mi circuit will pass through at least one strict regime, whether they split it over 7 days or 10 days. On direction, nothing changes: the classic start is Les Houches, and our piece on which direction to walk the TMB covers both options.

Is wild camping really disappearing?

On the French section, yes, in principle. The charter replaces wild camping with areas fitted out by the communes, with a set capacity, a fee per pitch and a booking required every night.

Two prefectoral decrees dated 4 June 2026, DDT-2026-0472 for the Aiguilles Rouges and DDT-2026-0474 for Contamines-Montjoie, already govern camping in the nature reserves along the route, and capacity there is counted tent by tent.

In the Contamines-Montjoie reserve, decree DDT-2026-0474 bans camping below 2,500 m8,202 ft from 15 June to 15 September. Inside the reserve, only two areas stay open in that window, between 19h and 9h and on mandatory booking: Pont de la Rollaz, 40 tents, and La Balme, 50 tents.

In the Aiguilles Rouges, Carlaveyron and Vallon de Bérard reserves, camping was booking-only from 1 June to 30 September 2026, with 30 tents at Lacs des Chéserys, 25 at Lac du Brévent, 15 at Ruines d’Arlevé and 15 at Combe du lac Cornu. The French state services in Haute-Savoie publish the detail reserve by reserve, and booking goes through reserve-bivouac74.fr. Camping is also not permitted anywhere in the Vallée des Glaciers.

One detail that matters for what comes next: decree DDT-2026-0474 for Contamines-Montjoie only runs to 31 December 2026, and decree DDT-2026-0472 covers 1 June to 30 September 2026. No text for 2027 has been published yet.

The full sector-by-sector detail is in our guide to TMB camping regulations.

What 2027 adds is scope: booking will no longer apply to a handful of nature reserves but to every night on the French stretch, campsites and bivouac areas included.

Who will check reservations on the trail?

A green brigade will be tasked with checking that hikers hold bookings in the accommodation, behave properly and respect the site and the environment. How it will be staffed, what powers it will have and what penalties apply are not yet known.

In the nature reserves, bivouac bookings already go through a platform run by Asters, the Haute-Savoie conservatory of natural areas. What the charter adds is a check on hikers’ bookings along the whole French route.

Why is the massif tightening the rules now?

Because traffic is now measured. Between May and October 2025, a study run by the Amis de l’Ultra-Trail Mont-Blanc association established the first objective count across the whole route: roughly 75,000 hikers over the season, with days reaching 1,000 passages. That frequentation survey is published by Espace Mont-Blanc, which brings together stakeholders from the three countries, and is now a shared reference for local authorities. French officials put the figure at 90,000 trekkers, nearly 50% more than before Covid.

For the officials, the consequences are negative, even disastrous, for property, the environment and safety.

Capping numbers through bed capacity is the simplest lever available, because it relies on a resource that is already counted.

If avoiding crowds is your priority, steer clear of 14 July to 15 August: the route is very busy and some refuges are full, La Chamoniarde warns. Our article on the best time to hike the TMB sets out the trade-offs between weather, snow cover and traffic.

Will luggage transfer be restricted?

This is the least discussed point and one of the most concrete. The measure has two parts. First, only trekking packs may be carried: no more large suitcases moved from refuge to refuge. Second, these transfers will run at set hours.

The officials say they want to preserve a rich mountain experience rather than the mere consumption of a route (translated from French). Having a trekking pack forwarded between stages therefore remains possible. What disappears is the wheeled suitcase.

For an independent hiker, that can still mean fewer time slots and fewer operators. On an organised trip, the logistics are arranged upstream by the operator, working with carriers already built into the system.

How do you hike in 2027 without hitting the booking wall?

Bookings for summer 2027 at refuges and gîtes belonging to the Tour du Mont Blanc Wardens’ Association open on 15 October 2026. The charter adds a further constraint: finding a bed is no longer enough, you need one for every night, with no gap in the chain.

Two options if you would rather not manage that chain of bookings yourself.

• Self-guided TMB: you walk alone or with your own party, at your own pace. Nights are booked in advance and bags are moved from stage to stage.
• Guided TMB: a mountain leader takes the group, adapts the route to the weather and handles the unexpected.