Catching the La Fouly – Champex Bus

Last Updated on May 10, 2026 by tourdumontblanchike

Did you know you can take the La Fouly Champex bus along stage 7 of the Tour du Mont Blanc?

The bus from La Fouly (or Ferret) to Champex Lac is super easy to catch and is a good way to cut out stage 7 from your Tour du Mont Blanc trek if you have limited time or if you only want to see the highlights.

The La Fouly to Champex bus is one of the most used transport services on the Tour du Mont Blanc. This post will detail where this bus fits into your TMB trek, why you might want to catch it, how to easily find the online timetable, where it departures from, where you need to change bus, how much it is and how to pay.

La Fouly to Champex Lac is stage 7 on the Tour du Mont Blanc trail. It’s well known that this stage is the most unspectacular of all the TMB stages. Of course that’s because the Tour du Mont Blanc is simply insanely beautiful. Dramatic landscape surrounds you for almost all of the 170 kilometres you’ll trek – at every turn 360 degrees of panoramic beauty, jagged peaks whip away your breath, glaciers frozen onto gigantic mountains memorise you.

Stage 7 is simply a lovely walk through the forest. It’s delightful in its own right – but it hold none of the grandeur of the lands which you have wandered through on your previous 6 days of trekking. This is the reason a large proportion of TMB trekkers prefer to cut stage 7 out of the their Tour du Mont Blanc itinerary – for many its a simple case of being restricted on vacation time, for others coming to the table late to book – La Fouly accommodation might be fully booked and so this is a way to blast through to Champex Lac.

Other trekkers who might be flagging after 6 days on the trail (many underestimate the mighty elevation gains & descents on the TMB) can choose to opt in for the bus to simply have a day off – and if you’re going to do it – this is definitely the right stage to do it on. No shame I tell my zoom clients.

If you’re curious about what you would miss out on if you skipped stage 7 of the Tour du Mont Blanc – have a read through my post described stage 7 in detail here.

The Champex bus sets off from Ferret, the hamlet before La Fouly and I recommend taking it from here unless you really want to see La Fouly – a 40 minute walk further.

I recommend taking the bus in the afternoon at the end of stage 6 rather than catching it from La Fouly the following morning.

The Swiss have an excellent transport website – www.sbb.ch. This is the best place to find the Ferret – La Fouly to Champex Lac bus timetable for the summer.

The La Fouly to Champex bus is one of the only timetables that you are able to see well in advance. It’s February as I write this – Chamonix Valley is white with snow – and still I can check the La Fouly to Champex bus timetable for this coming summer! This is because this service is also for locals – its not a TMB specific shuttle bus for trekkers.

When you type in Champex Lac into www.sbb.ch you’ll see there are lots of stops in Champex Lac. You don’t actually need to book your ticket via this website – you can but it will cost you a little more. You can pay for your ticket on the bus so you don’t need to decide at this point which bus stop you’ll get off at but just so you know:

Champex Lac Garage: this is the first stop in Champex Lac. It’s at the other end of the lake so if you fancy hopping off here to walk around the lake – thats a good call. You can also hop off here if you are staying at Hotel Splendide.

Champex Lac Au Vieux: this is the main stop in Champex Lac. It’s next to Restaurant Au Vieux (and hotel) as well as the one shop in Champex Lac (Epicerie) and the ATM.

Champex Plein Air: this stop is the next stop after Au Vieux. Its stops outside Pension Plein Air.

Champex (télésiège): this is the last stop on the route. Get off here and walk back 100m for Camping La Rocailles

The Ferret – La Fouly – Champex bus takes between 50 minutes to 1 hour. You need to change buses in Orsières but this is easy – I’ve detailed just how easy it is with instructions below. The 50 minutes to an hour includes this change.

Don’t worry the Ferret – La Fouly – Champex bus is pretty regular at the end of the day. You’ll be walking into Ferret at anytime between 14.30 and 17.00. The 2026 bus schedule is below:

Departs Ferret 14.07, 15.43, 17.13, 18.13 and 19.13.

Yes there’s always a change of bus required in Orsières but this is super easy.

You will have paid on the bus for your ticket all the way to Champex Lac so make sure you keep this ticket handy as you’ll need to show it again to the second bus driver when you change.

The bus will stop at Orsières train station. This is where you will need to get off the bus and don’t worry the driver will be quite vocal telling you to get off. Don’t worry the place to wait for the Champex Lac bus is literally 10-20 metres away. They’ve now painted a large yellow rectangle on the ground with CHAMPEX emblazoned next to it. It’s now impossible to miss where to get the Champex bus!

It won’t take long for your bus to arrive – 7-8 minutes max. Sometimes it will actually be the same bus you’re on that will be going up the hairpin bends to Champex – if this is the case the driver will let you know to stay on while he drives into the depot, waits and then drives out to the pick up point.

You can pay in card or cash on the Ferret – La Fouly – Champex Lac bus so don’t worry if you’ve run out of cash. There’s an ATM in Champex Lac (and La Fouly).

You should absolutely take the bus at the end of the day if you are planning on skipping stage 7. It would be tough to take the bus first thing and then trek stage 8. If you take it at the end of the day after trekking stage 6 – yes you might be tired but you can relax on the bus.

So thats it folks – I hope this has reassured you a little on how easy it is to take the Ferret or La Fouly to Champex bus. Below I’ve created a map showing stage 7 (by bus) then stages 8 and 9 with both variant trails on. My particular favourite is stage 9 variant via Refuge Les Grands.