⛰ FAMILY HIKING with small children is not always a simple task!

Well, perhaps it is for some families . . . perhaps your children were born hikers! But for many of us, getting our children to 🏔 LOVE hiking in the mountains is not a given. Both of my sons had periods around the age of 18 months when they decided that the backpack was no longer where they wanted to be sitting and they became EXCELLENT hill & mountain walkers . . . and I allowed myself to believe that the future of family hiking would be a sunny one, with 🐐 little mountain goats clambering beside us . . . But, alas, both boys started to protest about hiking around the age of three! And, honestly, when I hear the refrains of ” I’m too tired “, ” it’s too far “, “carry me” (actually, it was 🥕 “carrot me ” from the little one!), ” my legs are tired “, I remember that I myself at their age was a reluctant hiker. And I’d really prefer to not use my dad’s technique of, ” OK, we’ll leave you sitting here on this log; just DO keep a look-out for BEARS! ” (at one stage we lived in the USA, so I guess this was an actual possibility!).

Hopefully you will find some useful advice in the following article; the tips have been compiled from what we have learned over the last 10 years of some successful – and some slightly less successful – hiking trips en famille!

And for some 🏔 more ideas for family walks (mostly tried & tested!) – with small children, older children, grandparents, extended family and friends, see the following MBFF articles :

• 25 of MBFF’s recommended family hikes au Pays du Mont-Blanc;
• 3 FAMILY STROLLS & HIKES in the Parc Thermal (Le Fayet);
• 10 FOREST STROLLS & WOODLAND WALKS au Pays du Mont-Blanc;
• WATERFALLS & GORGES au Pays du Mont-Blanc;
• 10 ideas for autumn family hikes & strolls au Pays du Mont-Blanc;
• 10 more ideas for autumn family hikes & strolls beyond the Pays du Mont-Blanc;
• 10 family strolls & easy hikes around LAC d’ANNECY;

Check also HIKING & STROLLING in the TOPICS section on the website.

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Colour code for listings:

🗻 Pays du Mont-Blanc

🗻 Chamonix Valley (Chamonix, Argentière, Les Houches, Servoz) & Vallorcine

🗻 Passy & environs

🗻 Sallanches, Combloux, Cordon & Domancy

🗻 Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, Le Fayet, Bionnassay, Saint Nicolas de Véroce & environs

🗻 Megève, Praz-sur-Arly & environs

🗻 Les Contamines & environs

🇫🇷 Further France 

🇨🇭 Switzerland 

🇮🇹 Italy

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Length of hike / timings 

Do ⏰ try to be realistic when you choose your family hike. Hiking with a baby or toddler who is happy to sit or 💤 snooze in a backpack is one thing; having two small children HIKING by your side is quite another! If your child starts to get fidgety in the backpack after about ⏰ an hour, try to keep your hike to that length. Equally, if your little hiker starts to get really whiny after ⏰ a couple of hours, try to keep the hike short.

Remember that 🚗 the car is often a great place 💤 to NAP after a hike (unless you’re driving, of course; and in that case, it’s actually an exceedingly bad place to nap! 😉 ).

With an 11 year old and a 8 year old, we find that our current walking limit is about 4h to 5h, with stops for rummaging and snacks included in this time.

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Get the kids involved in the hike planning

Children often 📝 LOVE to be involved in the planning of an activity that is generating excitement. Get them to 🍏 help pack the picnic or get them to 🎒 help get the hiking bag packed.

Perhaps have ✅ a checklist that a keen young reader can be in charge of!

• ✅ binoculars;
• ✅ waterproofs;
• ✅ suncream;
• ✅ sunhats;
• ✅ sunglasses;
• ✅ water;
• ✅ lunch;
• ✅ ✅ ✅ bonbons;

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Share your passions . . . get the kids excited about the hike!

I feel very privileged, as my work has taken me to some fascinating and beautiful parts of 🌎 the world, and I know that my children love to hear the tales of ⛺️ wild camping, sheltering from crazy snow and hale storms, ❄️ snow on mountain passes, 🌧hiking in the rain and flooded campsites, 🐪 a sandstorm in the desert, 🌅 amazing sunsets, 🦒 a competition spitting African savannah animal poo (dry!) and 🦙🦓 the amazing wildlife spotted . . .

. . . and although we are unlikely to meet any 🦓 zebras or rhinos on our alpine hike, there is still plenty of 🦌 local fauna and 🌷 flora to be found: marmottes, chamois, bouquetins, lizards, 🦋 butterflies, 🦅 birds of prey (even perhaps the incredible gypaète-barbu), 🐮 cows with bells, donkeys, 🐑 sheep, 🐏 goats and even 🐕 the odd dog!

If you love 🗺 map-reading or 🦅 bird-spotting, then pass on this passion to your little ones! Show them 🗺 the map, show them the route you are taking, show them how 🧭 a compass works, show them your binoculars, show them 📚 the relevant books . . . you are never too young to learn how to hold a map the correct way or to learn about mountain safety!

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Dressing the part

My boys absolutely love 🥾 LOOKING the part of a hiker. So they are now each responsible for their very own 🎒 mini backpack with water bottle and snacks. They also LOVE to have poles, and they have carved their own from branches found on hikes! The 🧭 compasses are to come (and I do not yet dare provide them with safety whistles!). Comfortable, breathable clothing and 🥾 good walking boots that protect little ankles are also recommended!

Now that my boys are a bit older, this year they found wooden branches which they whittled into their new walking poles!

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Be prepared !

Hiking requires preparation, and hiking en famille with small children requires even more preparation!

📝 checklist:

• ✅ check the méteo before setting out!
• ✅ pack your emergency equipment (including a charged telephone for emergencies, a head torch and an emergency blanket);
• ✅ pack First Aid Kit (plasters, antiseptic, etc . . .);
• ✅ remember nappies and wet-wipes;
• ✅ pack sun hats, sunglasses, suncream;
• ✅ pack rain protection and warmer clothes;
• ✅ have sufficient water;
• ✅ pack compasses;
• ✅ pack maps;
• ✅ make sure buggy wheels are not flat!
• ✅ and, if you have a baby backpack, make sure there is a SHADE attachment, to protect your little one from the burning sun; it can be hot up there!
• ✅ toilet stops – let’s not beat around the bush; we all get caught out sometimes! Explain to your children about NOT having wee or poo stops near rivers (and please bury waste . . . sticks are handy for this!);

Have a look at these posters – La Charte du Randonneur and  Activités en Montagne l’Eté – the pictures give some helpful reminders!

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Food & drink stops

🥖🧀 Food stops are a very important part of a hike (for us!). So whether that means 🍏 packing the perfect picnic, choosing the 🌲 perfect shady picnic spot with a view, choosing 🏔 a mountain refuge to stop for lunch or a snack, make this FUN . . .

[ NB – if you are planning to stop at a refuge on a busy hiking day, then do check opening hours and think about booking to avoid disappointment, as they do tend to fill up quickly! ]

. . . a refuge with a sandpit . . .

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Pacing, rewards & focal points

Pacing your hike with small children is very important. Small children will probably need points to aim for (🍏 a picnic stop, snack stop, 🧀 lunch at a refuge or a stop at an alpage to taste the local produce, a 💦 waterfall, a stream to wade in, 🐜 insects to admire . . .) and they will need several little breaks . . . try to make these fun to keep the enthusiasm from waning!

There might be 💦 natural beauty spots along the way (💦 waterfalls, 💦 streams, 🧗‍♀️ big boulders, 🌲 ancient trees); otherwise you may need to be creative and have little activities at hand.

A 🚠 télécabine ride to start or end the hike can be a great and exciting focal point (and also saves little legs from a long ascent or descent, or both!).

🍦 INCENTIVES might also take the form of medals at the end of the hike or 🍬🍫 indulgent snacks Haribo along the way! (I have fond memories of family hikes in the Alps when I was a child; my dad used to make all of the children medals out of egg boxes and string, which we were awarded after the completion of a hike!).

Praz-sur-Arly has ⭐️ « Les Etoiles Randos de Praz-sur-Arly », an initiative encouraging children to hike, with ⭐️ stars awarded upon completion of each hike!

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LandArt, artwork & foraging & collecting

It can be fun to 🎨 produce artwork after a hike or stroll through the woods, with bits and pieces collected or rummaged along the way . . . 🌷 flower pressing, 🍁 leaf collections for pressing, a mobile made from twigs and branches . . . or perhaps you could produce some LandArt along the way (it’s all the rage!) – an ephemeral moment, but a pleasure to produce and a happy discovery for the next hiker (and you can always immortalise your creation by taking a photo!). 

We also have the added advantage 🏔 au Pays du Mont-Blanc to have some wonderful myrtilles to collect during the season; these are wonderful to use in baking creations once home.

[ ⇒ for more ideas for LANDART & CREATIVE IDEAS inspired during or after your family outing, see separate MBFF article here ]

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Hiking with animals

Perhaps your family has a dog? If so, 🐶 your canine friend just instrinsically becomes a part of your family hike and can be a very encouraging feature: stick throwing, etc . . . !

[ note: please be aware of advice when passing patous (chien de protection des troupeaux) dogs, escpecially if you are with your own dog! Dogs should be on leashes in certain areas, and are not permitted in certain nature reserves ]

For those of us that aren’t (yet!) dog owners, there are other animal options to bring spice to your family hikes!

I was chatting to a friend a few summers back, and she recommended a wonderful idea for encouraging youngsters to hike and promised me that it had worked wonders with her slightly reluctant young walkers: walking with donkeys! In Les Contamines-Montjoie is a company called Les Anes et Les Mômes, and the idea is to lead a donkey on a walk . . . and, if necessary, to let the children take turns on the donkey’s back. This company has different lengthed options (even some over-nighters!) and we opted for the shortest hike (15€ for 1h30). The boys absolutely loved the experience (though they did, inevitably, squabble about whose turn it was on the donkey’s back), and it was definitely a great incentive to keep Big Brother walking and to give Daddy a rest from Little Brother shoulder duty! Our donkey’s name was Ernest, and he became a firm friend! The boys still talk of him fondly.

There are also other animal initiatives, like 🐺 canirando (walking with huskies and other dogs) – my elder son did this during these last spring holidays with 3D Nordic and LOVED it! Companies offering canirando au Pays du Mont-Blanc:

• 🐺 3D Nordic (Praz-sur-Arly / Flumet) – you can also visit their kennels in Flumet;
• 🐺 Huskydalen (Chamonix);
• 🐺 Les Granges de Heidi (Passy, Cordon);
• 🐺 Au Mont du Villard du Nord (Megève);
• 🐺 Voyageurs d’Hiver (Les Contamines-Montjoie);

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Hiking with friends

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Walking as part of a group or with friends can encourage little ones (or the reverse – it could just be an added stress factor!) and make the hike more fun! You could also join your local CAF (Club Alpin Français) or another organisation offering family hikes. Over the summer, there are plenty of guided hikes (many free) offered by our local tourist offices.

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Identifying TREES, LEAVES & ANIMALS

If you have older children, perhaps you’ll want to take this opportunity to learn to recognise 🌳 local trees and 🌿 plants and 🍄 mushrooms? For tree spotting, you’ll need to learn to recognise both 🌳 the tree and 🍂 its leaf (and berries, pine-cone, etc . . .) look at 🌳 tree and 🍂 leaf (if necessary, I could always give you Grandpa’s phone number; he does love to chat about trees – but you’ll need a good hour!).

[ ⇒ for more ideas for 🐾 animal tracking & recognising animal prints, see separate MBFF article here ]

[ ➡️ link to identifying trees with the Woodland Trust here or Pegs and Pitches here ]

🌳 identfying broad-leaves (English names):

🌲 identifying pines (conifères):

Themed hikes 

🏔 Au Pays du Mont-Blanc (and beyond), there are some special themed (and short) trails aimed at families and children. For a full list, see here (autonomous) or here (guided or seasonal).

Here are some suggestions for ones suitable for familes:

• 🧭 Chamonix Valley orienteering parcours – see section below for more details;
• 💦 Gorges de la Diosaz – go for a gorge walk from June until September!
• 🌲 Cordons’s « Forest Discovery Trail » – more information here in MBFF article;

• Combloux’s « 100% bio » loop around the Plan d’Eau Biotope – 30mins / possible with cross-country buggies;
• Combloux’s «  Le Sentier des Graniteurs » – on the trail of the old granite workers / duration: 1h30 / highly recommended! / this hike can also be done as a guided visit;

• 🌲 Sallanches’ « Le Sapin Président » – forest discovery trail (1 hour return trip), leading to the Sapin Président, a 271 year old pine tree with huge dimensions / not possible with a buggy;
• Saint-Gervais-les-Bains’ Parcours Orientation: « A la découverte de Saint-Gervais » and the « Boucle des Maisons Fortes » – 1 hour / both available for free from Tourist Office in Saint-Gervais;
• Saint-Gervais-les-Bains: « Charlotte la Marmotte au Bettex » – we tried this one last winter, and you can do it with a buggy;

• Megève’s Le Sentier Nature du Calvaire – a nature parcours for families to learn about the surrounding countryside: traditional and farm architecture, geology, forest secrets, animals, ski history / for 6+ years / about 1 hour from centre of town / 1,8km / more information here;

• Explor Games^© Megève:  « À la recherche de la déesse perdue » – this game is for older children and the adventure takes place around the Secteur du Calvaire and the Creux Saint-Jean (forest path!) / the game teaches you about biodiversity and history of Megève /you download the adventure game via a FREE app / more information here;

• Praz-sur-Arly’s « Le Sentier des Contrebandiers » – for older children / follow in the foosteps of Fanfouétomas / solve the puzzles along the way, with a view all along of Mont-Blanc, le Val d’Arly and Les Aravis / a parcours ludique all about the contrebandiers (smugglers) who duped the douaniers between 1860 and 1923 / the parcours leaves from the top of the télésiège du Crêt du Midi, at 1700m and takes about 2 hours to complete! / check opening times of chairlift!

• Praz-sur-Arly’s « Balade ludique en famille »,” sur les routes du petit patrimoine ” / learn the hidden secrets of the village, with this treasure hunt!
• Sentier Découverte in Les Contamines-Montjoie – a lovely annotated walk along the river, connecting the centre of town with Notre Dame de la Gorge;

• 🇨🇭 Col de la Forclaz (Switzerland) – the 💦 Bisse du Trient (irrigation channel from 1895 bringing water from the glacier du Trient to the Col de la Forclaz) family walk / we discovered this family walk one summer, thanks to CosmoJazz . . . we no longer have children in buggies, but we did see people arriving with all terrain buggies (we also saw people arriving with children on push bikes, which I would most vociferously not recommend, as there is a steep fall down one side of the path!) / the easy path follows the course of the 💦 Bisse du Trient, with a parcours ludique along the way / you can do this hike with an all-terrain pushchair, but the path is quite bumpy in parts and so a baby backpack would probably be more comfortable / and at the end of the walk you are rewarded with a view of the Trient glacier, 💦 a waterfall and a café, ☕️ La Buvette du Glacier (where you are permitted to picnic in the shade as long as you buy refreshments) / NB – if small children are walking, it is imperative to hold their hand at all times, there is a steep fall! / Aller-retour walk: 6,5km / see MBFF article for more details;

• Sentier des Arpelières (Les Saisies) – an absolutely stunning annotated hike throught the peat bogs / particularly stunning colours in autumn! / a MBFF article to come soon! / see here for more details;

• 🇫🇷 Doussard: La Réserve Naturelle du Bout du Lac – Doussard, at the bottom of the Lac d’Annecy, has a lovely buggy-friendly walk / see here for more details;

• see also website Randos en Famille website or FB page for some tried & tested walks for babies in baby-carriers, backpacks  and buggies (Annecy area, Pays du Mont-Blanc, nearby Switzerland and beyond): for example, Saint-Jorioz roselières (reed bed) walk;
• see here (Savoie-Mont-Blanc Tourisme) for some more themed trail ideas further afield;

You could also make up your own theme, of course: 🎨 LandArt, 🍁 autumn leaves, 🦅 gypaètes-barbus, 💦 muddy puddles . . .

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Orienteering, géocaching & treasure hunts (offered by Tourist Offices) 

The Tourist Offices in the Pays du Mont-Blanc are excellent resource centres (and often overlooked, when we live in-situ!) when it comes to finding suitable family hikes. They have some free 🗺 maps and leaflets and sometimes 🧭 orienteering, geo-caching and treasure hunts options for family hikes.

The Chamonix Valley has developed 🧭 6 orienteering routes (the Bois du Bouchet (Chamonix); Lac des Chavants (Les Houches); Servoz; le Château de Saint-Michel (Servoz); Vallorcine-Le Buet; Argentière la Moraine) for you to enjoy, many of them in the SHADE of forests (perfect for a hot day!). 🧭 Orienteering is a sport in which one follows a very precise route from a given map. As it is a fun activity for the whole family, it can be a great pretext to get everyone outdoors and enjoying nature, and to develop navigational skills at the same time. To do orienteering, you will need to learn or understand the concept of 🗺 reading a map (to align it with the terrain, to understand a “legend”, to understand a map’s scale, and to pinpoint landmarks). The Chamonix Valley orienteering routes are made up of balises (grey posts), planted in points on the terrain where they stand out, and which are outlined on the map; you need to stamp these au fur et à mesure. The routes are available for FREE from the Chamonix Valley tourist offices, or you can print them out from here, from the Chamonix Tourist Office website.

[ ⇒ for more information about jeux de pistes and parcours d’orientations au Pays du Mont-Blanc, see separate article here ]

Have you tried géocaching? The ideas is that you use the GPS on your phone (once you’ve uploaded the app), to find hidden “treasures”! There are plenty 🗻 au Pays du Mont-Blanc!

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Scavenger hunts

Why not turn your hike (or part of your hike) into a scavenger hunt? You could prepare ✅ a tick-list for your children, suited to their age (and depending on time of year, and what you are likely to find!):

• 🌹 flora: 🍁 leaf; 🌳 oak tree; 🌲 spruce tree; bark; pine cone and pine needles; acorn; 🌰 chestnut; 🍄 mushroom; 🌿 grass . . .
• 🦌 fauna: 🐿 squirrel; 🐌 snail; 🐜 ant; 🐦 bird; 🦅 birds of prey; 🕷 spider & 🕸 spider web; 🦎 lizard, butterly . . .
• 🐮 farm animals (if you know you’ll pass them): 🐄 cows, 🐐 goats, 🐑 sheep, geese, 🦆 ducks, 🐓 chickens . . .
• 🚦 urban zones: a stone; 🚦 a traffic light; bench; 🍬 sweet-wrapper (!), dog poo (!) . . .

You can be as general or specific as you please, depending on the age of your children, and older kids could even make up their own lists.

✅ different types of tick-lists:

🔤 an ALPHABET scavenger hunt – an autumn-themed alphabet, in French or English, or both . . .

A – acorn, ant, anthill;

B – berry, bird, bench;

C – chestnut, car;

🎨 a colour ticklist – my younger son and I do this when we are in the car 🌈 ” I spy, with my little eye, something that is GREEN “:

💙 BLUE –

💚 GREEN –

❤️ RED –

🍄 descriptive scavenger hunts – see website Little Green Explorers for some lists to print, or think up your own:

📷 a PHOTO HUNT tick-list – let each person use 📷 a camera (or share, if you don’t have enough!). Give your group a list of items to photograph (help younger children with this). We did this on an autumn walk along the Sentier des Arpelières in Crest-Voland, when my boys were less than enthusiastic to get going and ” marvel at the autumn colours “! This activity really helped.

[ ⇒ for more ideas for NATURE GAMES to do on your family outing, see separate MBFF article here ]

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Parks, lakes & gorge strolls

When the children are small, it can be easy and rewarding to stroll in 🌳 a park or by 💦 a lake or 💦 a gorge (some FREE; some with an entrance to pay), where there are sometimes amenities for families (baby-changing facilities, playground, restaurant, etc . . .) and parcours ludiques already in place. Au Pays du Mont-Blanc, we have several options:

• 🦌 Parc Animalier de Merlet (Les Houches) – from spring until autumn / entrance to pay / see here for more details;
• 💦 Gorges de la Diosaz (Servoz) – from spring until autumn / entrance to pay / see here for more details;
• 🌷 Jardin des Cimes (Plateau d’Assy, Passy) – from spring until autumn / entrance to pay / see here for more details;
• 💦 Lac de Passy – FREE / possible to hike all year round / lots of new amenities as of summer 2018 / see here for more details;
• 💦 Lacs des Ilettes (Sallanches) – FREE / possible to hike all year round / lots of amenities / see here for more details;
• 🌳 Parc Thermal (Le Fayet) – FREE / lots of amenities: playground, hiking trails, open-air museum & sculptures, fish pond, Le Petit Train, accrobranches / see here for more details;
• Parc de Loisirs du Pontet (Les Contamines-Montjoie) – activities in leisure park from springtime until autumn (in winter, it becomes the Parc Nordique) / FREE to enter park and to use playground, but activities have a charge / summer photo exhibition / see here for more details / sentier découverte available;

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Books & guides for hiking with children 

Our local Tourist Offices here 🏔 au Pays du Mont-Blanc have an excellent selection of 🗺 guides, books and maps specifically aimed at hikes for families and young children. We regularly use one of the four 🗺 « Sentiers de Randonnées Pédestres au Pays du Mont-Blanc, which come as booklets with a map (6€), and have a great selection of walks for families and very good instructions. We also have Guide de Randonnée Pedestre’s « 60 Promenades en Famille au Pays du Mont Blanc » (édition 2015); this excellent guidebook (10€) has a selection of sixty hikes selected by mountain guides and those responsible for the maintenance of mountain paths – it is divided into green (very easy and for young children; never longer than 2h30), blue (medium difficulty) and red (difficult) walks.

I also happened across a wonderful little book for hiking with children au Pays du Mont-Blanc called 📚 « Les Sentiers d’Émilie au Pays du Mont-Blanc » by Jean-Pierre Hervet (RANDO Editions; 2008). There are 25 hikes listed in this edition; some of those listed are still a little long for our family at the moment, but we certainly hope to try them out in due time . . . Also recommended is « Le P’tit Crapahut » range of books (« Saint-Gervais, Megève, Sallanches » and « Chamonix »).

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Storybooks & nature books FOR children

Tanya from the excellent website Swiss Family Fun  has an article titled « Hiking and Nature Books for Kids »; here she has compiled a list of nature books and stories that can be used to prepare children and get them excited about hiking and exploring the big outdoors!  Thank you, Tanya!

I do often find myself chanting through the forest, 🐻 ” We’re going on a bear hunt; we’re going to find a big one ” (from the well known children’s picture book, « We’re Going on a Bear Hunt », by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury)!

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Manage your expectations

Not every hike en famille will end up being a resounding success . . . there will be tantrums, there will be tears, there will be falls and scrapes, there will be refrains of ” Carry me “, ” I can’t walk any further! ” . . . the important thing is to manage your expectations and to perhaps build up slowly to the longer hikes . . . and don’t lose your passion along the way!

And – remember – sometimes your hike ends up like this photo below: with both children being carried by the beast of burden!  So, if you are on your own with your kids, and know that you can’t manage this amount of weight on your back and shoulders, then keep the walk short!

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🥾 Bonne Balade! 🥾